2:21 pm Jun. 22, 2012
This week's teacher evaluation disclosure compromise in Albany didn't give Mayor Michael Bloomberg what he wanted, and this morning he said that there was little value in one of the compromise's key elements: giving parents access to the scores of their children's teachers.
"It's nice to know the rating of your teacher, but what do you do with it?" he asked, during his regular Friday morning appearance on the John Gambling Show.
"The real answer, is you're already in the middle of the school year, and you can't move your child then," he continued. "So it's of no real use."
This week, Albany passed legislation limiting parental access to the evaluations of school teachers.
Per the compromise, parents would only be able to access the evaluations of their children's teachers.
The public, however, will only be able to see evaluation data once the teachers' names have been removed.
The teacher's union fought to keep evaluation data private, while the mayor wanted full disclosure.
He did not seem pleased with the end result.
"There's no provision in this to let you find out the ratings for the teachers…in whose class your child might be put," said the mayor. "So, that's the biggest flaw here."
Nevertheless, he said he would have schools call parents in students in grades four through eighth and let them know that teacher evaluations were available.
"We will tell you that you are entitled to this information and if you want it, just say yes or no," said the mayor. "Ask us right now. And then, we will send it to you."
