Buffalo teachers, parents picket Regent’s home in protest over state standards, tests

From The Buffalo News:

BTF, parents picket Regent’s home in protest over state standards, tests

Bennett is focus of protest over state standards, tests

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/schools/btf-parents-picket-regents-home-in-protest-over-state-standards-tests-20131209

By Denise Jewell Gee | News Staff Reporter | @DeniseJewellGee | Google+ , Mary Pasciak | News Education Reporter | @MaryPasciak | Google+ December 9, 2013

Link for video of protest: http://bcove.me/2y9zapsa

About two dozen teachers and parents marched outside the Town of Tonawanda home of Regent Robert M. Bennett on Monday to show their displeasure with the way the state has implemented new learning standards and tests designed to measure them.

The Buffalo Teachers Federation protest lasted only 35 minutes, but the teachers hoped to send a strong message by choosing to picket on the sidewalk outside the home of a state education official.

“What I want is for Mr. Bennett, and all of the Board of Regents, to be aware that teachers and parents alike are not happy with the implementation, are not happy with the amount of testing,” said Joanie Cavanaugh, a teacher at Hutchinson-Central Technical High School who was among the protesters.

The residential location was an unusual one during a national “Day of Action” that featured rallies and news conferences organized by teachers unions, educators and community groups across the state. The events also included a panel discussion on education in West Seneca. The BTF picketing of Bennett’s house appeared to be the only event in the state that was staged at the home of a public official.

“This is not just about teacher evaluations. This is about what we’re doing to our kids,” BTF President Phil Rumore said, pointing to the Common Core standards being pushed by State Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. “The Regents are the ones who have allowed Commissioner King to take these steps that are detrimental to our students.”

Bennett, who has represented Western New York on the state’s Board of Regents since 1995 and is now chancellor emeritus, said he was disturbed by the tactic of picketing his home.

“It’s disappointing, to say the least,” Bennett said before the protest. “A phone call would have sufficed. If Phil wanted to talk to me or yell at me, he could have just picked up the phone.”

Bennett was not at the house during the protest. The pickets walked quietly on the sidewalk, carrying signs that read, “Our students are not a test score.” They ended the event by chanting, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Emeritus Bennett has got to go.”

Seven years ago, the BTF joined other unions in the city in picketing the homes of members of Buffalo’s state-appointed financial control board. But Monday’s protest was the first time in Rumore’s more than 30 years as BTF president that the union picketed the home of an education official.

New York State United Teachers is calling for increased funding for public schools, a de-emphasis of standardized testing and a three-year moratorium on high-stakes consequences tied to those tests.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo last year tied school districts’ increases in state aid to their implementation of teacher evaluations, with 20 percent of teacher ratings based on student performance on state tests. Districts had the option of using state tests, locally developed or selected tests, or methods other than tests to measure teacher effectiveness for another 20 percent of each teacher’s rating.

NYSUT spokesman Carl Korn said he was not aware of the BTF’s plans to picket Bennett’s house.

The Buffalo District Parent Coordinating Council said while it shares the BTF’s concerns with how Common Core standards have been implemented and “excessive use of assessments,” it does not support protesting outside “anyone’s private residence.”

“For the sake of our children,” a statement from the group read, “it is imperative that we work TOGETHER to get this right!

Educators in West Seneca took a different approach to mark the day. Panelists in an education forum in the West Seneca Central School District touched on a wide range of issues – including high-stakes testing and the creation of a new statewide system for student information that uses a nonprofit education group, inBloom, to process and store data.

“The point was to make it clear that those who have expressed their opposition to high-stakes testing and to inBloom do not represent a vocal minority,” said West Seneca Superintendent Mark J. Crawford. “There are lots of people who are concerned, and the concern, I think, is increasing throughout the state.”

New York is one of 45 states to adopt Common Core, which establishes learning standards that are intended to better prepare students for college and the workforce. The pace at which New York State has implemented Common Core has been widely criticized by parents and teachers.

New York, along with Kentucky, was the first state to implement tests aligned with Common Core. Last year, students in third through eighth grades took state tests based on the Common Core. This year, high school tests will start to be aligned with the Common Core.

Many teachers and local school officials across the state have complained that the state did not provide schools with adequate support to implement the upgraded instructional standards.

Crawford said speakers at the West Seneca event did not oppose the Common Core standards but raised concerns about the way they have been implemented.

“There are a lot of things that myself and others feel are useful and desirable in the Common Core,” Crawford said. “The problem has been that it was not completely developed, and it wasn’t given to teachers completely, and then our students are tested on material they haven’t had.”

The West Seneca event was not planned in connection with the BTF protest.

While Rumore complained that schools are “testing our kids to death,” Bennett said the amount of state-required testing has remained relatively constant for many years.

“The fact is, the state tests have not increased at all in 10 years,” Bennett said.

“That’s a mischaracterization,” Rumore said. “The state has made it a requirement for teacher evaluations that students be tested. I know it’s a local option, but they’re the ones that have been pushing this testing from the beginning.”

Rumore said his greater concern, more than the amount of testing, is what he referred to as the “premature implementation of Common Core.”

Bennett said the Common Core is designed to make students competitive. The state establishes learning standards; each district decides what curriculum to use.

“The Common Core are learning standards and not a curriculum,” Bennett said. “They were developed in 2008 and 2009 by a national council. They’re not new.”

email: mpasciak@buffnews.com and djgee@buffnews.com

Related story, Buffalo News, December 12, 2013:

King rejects argument that Common Core standards are too difficult

‘It’s the right thing for students,’ state education chief says, rejecting the argument that controversial new standards are too difficult

Why is NYSED's John King an Urbanphobe?

New York State Education Department commissioner John King has apparently and scheduled twelve more public meetings on the Common Core State [sic, more like Gates] Standards.

But already there is bad news that he is omitted big city locales-- New York City, Buffalo, Yonkers.

Why is he avoiding big cities? Did the Poughkeepsie experience give him too much of a scare? Why his reservation? The pollution? The traffic?

Or is it that the Buffalo parents are fighting mayoral control (See "Why a mayoral takeover of Buffalo schools is so unpopular"), the Buffalo teachers fighting a terminations tie-in coming from the evaluations (see older post, "Buffalo Teachers (BTF) President Rumore: CCSS, Evaluations Driving Down Teacher Morale"), while on the other hand commissioner King is trying for a state takeover of the district?

Another post this summer:

And in Buffalo, the Teachers Federation has talked lawsuit to protect APPR side agreements with their school district not to link evaluations to teacher termination. (See Buffalo Teachers Fed.'s Evaluations Suit - MOU Too Embarrassing for Mulgrew to Let NYC Teachers See) And yet, here in New York City, United Federation of Teachers (UFT) president Michael Mulgrew agreed to a plan with a quota to terminate seven percent of teachers yearly, even before John King imposed the plan on the city. Contrast that with "Buff. Teachers Fed. Motion Slams APPR Toxic Stew of SLOs, LMAs, Overwork." Other countries? Linking students tests scores to teacher evaluation, advancement or punishment is RARE. See my post from late June, "International Studies of Teacher Evaluation: Student Tests Seldom Cited, Portfolios Carry More Weight." And statistics show, time and again, between districts of different levels of poverty in the United States, and between the United States and other countries, that student test scores rise and fall with levels of income.

Or is he avoiding New York City because he's afraid that liberal parents along with Movement of Rank and File Educators (UFT) members might chafe at his characterization of Common Core skeptics as Tea Partiers?

When these new town hall fora happen watch King and his handlers cherry pick the questions and otherwise control the audience by forcing them to submit their comments ahead of time.

Minneapolis union consider test opt out campaign; CT Gov. rethinks tests; while NYS intensifies test push, & UFT OKs High-Stakes Tests

Minneapolis Teachers Ponder Opt-out campaign, St. Paul teachers ask to pull out of tests entirely - Conn. Gov. advocates loosening link between test scores and teacher evaluations - UFT? It endorses test-based evaluations as fair

The St. Paul Pioneer Press (Minnesota) reported June 30, 2013 that the Minneapolis teachers' union has considered starting a public campaign advocating that parents opt their children out of high-stakes tests.

In contract negotiations, the teachers unions in St. Paul and Minneapolis have called on their districts to scale back standardized tests. The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and a statewide parent advocacy group have separately weighed campaigns to enlist parents to opt out of them. A small number of parent such as Lamm are already letting their children sit out the exams.
The Pioneer Press began its front page and page 9 coverage, spotlighting Minneapolis parent, Sarah Lamm. We see early on the effect of union and parent groups' work:

Sarah Lamm had a "revelation" this spring, courtesy of teachers and other parents at Clara Barton Open School in Minneapolis She could opt her children out of the state's standardized tests.
Lamm followed a high-profile test boycott in Seattle, read up on research and asked her kids for their take on testing. She then let her school know her children would skip the test next year.
. . .
As contract negotiations ramp up in St. Paul, the teachers union has called on the district to pull out of the MCAs [Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments]-- an unprecedented proposal the district said will get it in hot water with the state. The St. Paul Federation of Teachers also is asking the district to give educators more leeway in designing their own assessments.
Mary Cathryn Ricker, the federation's president, says the pressure to perform on the MCAs has spawned more testing and narrower, more scripted curricula.

The pushback got attention earlier in the spring:
Will Minnesota Say Goodbye to Standardized Tests? The requirements for getting a diploma may change in Minnesota.

“You need some testing and accountability,” Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton said. “But send third graders home thinking they’ve failed life because they failed some test—it’s just the wrong way to get kids to want to learn.”
Dayton told local reporters this week that he has been in talks with the state’s education commissioner “to figure out how we can reduce this excess of testing.”

* * *
In Connecticut, state officials faced growing opposition from school teachers, parents and others who view linking students' standardized test scores to teacher evaluations as unfair. In the last 48 hours Governor Dan Malloy, mindful of the need to retain popular support for the 2014 election announced that he would reduce the number of standardized tests and he would allow the state's schools the option to not use student test scores to evaluate teachers. For detailed coverage, read Johanna Summers in "The Day," "Malloy would spare students a standardized test double-whammy."
* * *
This all stands in contrast to business as usual in New York City. Note that Minneapolis area teachers' consideration of a union-wide campaign to promote opt-out among parents stands in stark contrast to UFT president Michael Mulgrew's failure to side with the test resistance movement or the anti-Common Core movement. (Note that amidst Common Core-based tests and June's release of test scores all that Mulgrew could say was that teachers needed a better Common Core curriculum. Never mind that the tests prompted numbers of students to leave classrooms with fits of nausea.)

And in Buffalo, the Teachers Federation has talked lawsuit to protect APPR side agreements with their school district not to link evaluations to teacher termination. (See Buffalo Teachers Fed.'s Evaluations Suit - MOU Too Embarrassing for Mulgrew to Let NYC Teachers See) And yet, here in New York City, United Federation of Teachers (UFT) president Michael Mulgrew agreed to a plan with a quota to terminate seven percent of teachers yearly, even before John King imposed the plan on the city. Contrast that with "Buff. Teachers Fed. Motion Slams APPR Toxic Stew of SLOs, LMAs, Overwork." Other countries? Linking students tests scores to teacher evaluation, advancement or punishment is RARE. See my post from late June, "International Studies of Teacher Evaluation: Student Tests Seldom Cited, Portfolios Carry More Weight." And statistics show, time and again, between districts of different levels of poverty in the United States, and between the United States and other countries, that student test scores rise and fall with levels of income.

Buffalo Teachers (BTF) President Rumore: CCSS, Evaluations Driving Down Teacher Morale

Mike Desmond, WBFO public radio, June 3, 2013:
Union president says teacher morale at a low point
(WIVB-TV story on parents' anxiety over high-stakes tests in Buffalo area, including discussion of opt out activity in Western New York area.)

Morale among teachers in Buffalo is worse than usual, according to union president Phil Rumore, because of this spring's evaluations of students and teachers.

The head of the Buffalo Teachers Federation has long complained about constant testing of students and how test results are used in evaluation of teachers. Now, he says neither principals nor teachers have received all of the training they were supposed to receive on how to evaluate students.

Rumore says students are now being tested on material they haven't seen.

"Teachers are being asked to be evaluated on things they have no control over. Kids are being tested and re-tested. Now, you have the Common Core standards where there's only two states in the nation, New York and Tennessee, that are actually going to try and test kids on the Common Core standards before the curriculum has been put into place and the teachers have been trained," Rumore says.

State Education Commissioner John King recently told school board members from across the state he expects scores on tests students just completed to be 30 percent lower than last year's tests. That's the result of Common Core tests being used when students weren't prepared.

Rumore says there is also the issue of kindergarten, first grade, and second grade students being given "bubble tests." He says parents are starting to fight back.

"Some of the parents are starting to say 'I'm seeing my children come home with stomach aches. They don't like school anymore.' The parents are starting to beginning up and see what we see in schools that this testing is insane and it's ruining the joy of teaching and the joy of learning, and it's really sad," Rumore added.

Rumore says one teacher came to him crying recently regarding the stress both teachers and children are under, telling him "I can't take it anymore."

Buffalo Teachers Fed.'s Evaluations Suit - MOU Too Embarrassing for Mulgrew to Let NYC Teachers See

BUFFALO TEACHERS FEDERATION SUIT OVER PUNITIVE EVALUATIONS - CONTRAST TO UFT ENDORSEMENT OF PUNITIVE SYSTEM - EMBARRASSING TO MULGREW WHO'S IGNORED ALBANY RALLY
Just two days from now, New York City teachers probably will have a New York State-imposed evaluation system. But another red-letter day looms: the Buffalo Teachers Federation (BTF) by all indications plans to file a notice of claim June 1 for a lawsuit to fight their evaluation system.
This is a hugely significant suit, as the BTF is aggressively fighting a flawed evaluation system, over termination use of evaluations. Whereas, the New York City teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), has promoted evaluation plans which carry terminations. Michael Mulgrew, the latter union's president casts a value-added plus Danielson Framework evaluation structure --plus a termination tie-in-- as a fair reform. (The latter union's givebacks in the last three years amount to a de facto contract.)
At the heart of the Buffalo Teacher Federation's fight are evaluations and the punitive use of them, toward 3020a terminations of teachers. The union did not trust the application of the evaluations. It secured a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Buffalo School District, pledging that they would not be used in a punitive manner to render negative evaluations. The New York State Education Department, State Education Commissioner John King, and Governor Andrew Cuomo are claiming that the agreement is illegal. The BTF is standing by their guns. State officials claim that the agreement was not submitted for approval as part of the districts' official teacher-evaluation procedure, according to Buffalo News reporter Sandra Tan. Buffalo's evaluation fight has gained national attention at the Education Week blog. In a parallel case of Los Angeles, Diane Ravitch in her blog last October cited the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) as a "Hero of Public Education," recognizing that value added modeling of teachers is "inaccurate, invalid and unstable." In similar fashion as the BTF would do this spring, the UTLA refused to sign off on the district's request for Race to the Top funds because doing so would subject members to value-added assessment.
"WE'RE GOING TO FIGHT TO MAKE SURE THAT THEY DON'T USE OUR KIDS AS PAWNS IN ORDER FOR US TO GET THIS MONEY" --BTF president Philip Rumore
Excerpts from Sandra Tan's "BTF going to court to enforce teacher-evaluation agreement" in "The Buffalo News," May 9, 2013:

The BTF Executive Committee unanimously approved the resolution to take legal action against the district by June 1 and file additional grievances for “non-adherence” to a pact the district made with the union in January. The agreement stated that the district would not use two years of teacher evaluations as grounds for termination.
“We will leave no stone unturned to make sure these evaluations, which everybody now realizes were flawed, aren’t being held against our teachers,” said BTF President Philip Rumore.
. . . .
Legal action by the teachers union could threaten the status of more than $30 million in state aid this year, in addition to more than $10 million in various other government funding this year and tens of millions in future years.
Rumore said the BTF will work with the New York State United Teachers union to legally challenge any effort by the state to withhold funds from the Buffalo Public Schools.
“We’re going to fight to make sure that they don’t use our kids as pawns in order for us to get this money,” he said.
Finally, the BTF may still consider rescinding, by vote of all Buffalo teachers, its approval of the teacher evaluations for the last two school years.

CARROT AND STICK or SHADES OF DANIELSON THINGS TO COME?
The use of the evaluations plan has already confirmed Buffalo teachers' suspicions, with virtually blanket ineffective ratings in certain schools.

In 2011-12, Buffalo was one of a handful of districts across the state receiving federal school-improvement grants.
To qualify for the money, the district had to have a state-approved teacher-evaluation plan in place at the six schools receiving the grants: Martin Luther King Jr. Multicultural Institute; International School 45; and Bennett, Riverside, South Park and Burgard high schools.
That means the 400 or so teachers at those six schools were evaluated last year. They got their evaluations about two months ago, and many reportedly were rated “ineffective.”
. . . .
Much of the resolution highlights what the union considers to be significant flaws in the teacher-evaluation formula.
In one Buffalo school, it states, 11 teachers were rated “effective” on all 22 classroom indicators but still wound up with a composite score of “ineffective.”
In other cases, where two teachers worked with the same set of students, one received 20 evaluation points, while the other teacher received zero.

BTF RESOLUTION STRONGLY ASSERTS THAT NO NYS DISTRICT WOULD CONCEDE TO UNTESTED EVALUATION SYSTEM WITH PUNISHMENT CONNECTION; BUT MULGREW AND UFT DID
“Buffalo teachers and teachers across New York State would not have entered into agreements utilizing untested, untried evaluation systems without assurances that due to its untested procedures, it would not be used against them,” the BTF executive committee statement said.
For months now, off the major media grid, people have written and talked about a seven percent quota of teachers that the UFT has agreed will be lined up for unsatisfactory "U" ratings in end of year evaluations by the New York City Department of Education, setting them in line for 3020a hearings to be stripped of their state teaching license.
NYC Educator has eloquently written earlier this week on this issue, in "Lucky 7." (NYC Educator has written an equally important, informative piece on how easily VAM evaluations have been used to terminate teachers or deny them tenure.) This is concession, along with the NYC DoE-UFT agreement on another quota, 13 percent, the figure for the cases that the UFT will agree take to an independent arbitrator. These concessions stand in bold contrast to the BTF which secured an MOU precisely against the use of evaluations for terminations. Note further the qualifier in Tan's article --the state does not require termination hearings for two successive ineffective ratings: "The state law allows districts – but does not explicitly require them – to pursue termination for any teacher who gets rated “ineffective” two years in a row. It also states that schools “shall” use the evaluations in employment decisions, including terminations." [Emphasis mine.]
The UFT already has conceded this point.

WHILE THE BTF RESISTED, THE UFT WENT ALONG WITH ALL THE KEY POINTS
As is apparent from reportage going back over a year, the BTF has had friction over this issue for a while. This suit is the culmination. On the other hand, the UFT, under Mulgrew's leadership, has always went along, not grudgingly, but enthusiastically, along with the Danielson Frameworks, along with value-added modeling based on student high-stakes test scores. Never in Mulgrew's statements about Bloomberg or the city did you ever hear Mulgrew make a principled statement against VAM, test-based evaluations. It is a big mistake when people swoon over his sneers against NYC mayor Bloomberg. Judge Mulgrew by his actions, collaborating with the reformers on the key points.

IMPLICIT SILENCES IN MULGREW'S LETTER ON IMPENDING EVALUATIONS
Note Mulgrew's letter (reprinted at the end of this post) on the impending Cuomo/King-imposed evaluation scheme. Never in his statement does he say anything re repeat ineffective/unsatisfactory ratings and the termination tie-in. He has caved in on yet another critical point.

TOO EMBARRASSING TO ACTUALLY FIGHT CUOMO?
If Mulgrew confronts Cuomo, he risks the contradiction of his UFT --which supports Cuomo and other Democrats through Committee on Political Education (COPE) contributions-- confronting allied Democrats. The Insurgent Teacher blog, in "Buffalo school officials and BTF going back to court," (May 11, 2013) argues that Cuomo is too beholden to wealthy benefactors. The IT blog points out:

Sadly, the equity firms, banks, and hedge fund investors were the largest donors to politicians including Gov. Andrew Cuomo who sought out Democrats for Education Reform for support and donations. In return these politicians including the NYS Board of Regents coalesced to revamp education law and to install state education commissioners sympathetic to their reform agenda.
And it was to weaken the unions especially teachers and rid the system of tenure by copying a system of employee evaluations developed in the private sector, where the vast majority are at-will employees.

TOO EMBARRASSING AND RISKY TO PUT RANK AND FILE UFT MEMBERS NEAR BTF MEMBERS JUNE 8?

The May NSYUT newspaper, as this blog noted two weeks ago, has struck a far more critical tone re the high-stakes testing mania and how it is affecting our profession; and the same paper drummed up support for attending a June 8 rally at Albany's Empire State Plaza, near the legislature and the NYSED building. (See these links, here and here, for social media connections.) Given the critical (lest we say militant) stances that the BTF is taking --in contrast to the UFT's collaboration (forget about capitulation)-- Mulgrew and the UFT would definitely not want rank and file UFT members anywhere near their Buffalo sisters and brothers. People might start asking questions about evaluation system, their unions' stance, Merryl Tisch's role in evaluations, and too much more. Too uncomfortable as the UFT grooms Tisch-supported Bill Thompson for mayor, and here.
# # #
What Mulgrew has to say, as his friend, Andrew Cuomo's evaluation imposition looms [Again, note his skirting of the termination tie-in question, the whole issue at stake in the BTF's lawsuit]:

Dear colleagues,
Late on Saturday, June 1, State Education Commissioner John King is expected to release an evaluation plan for K-12 teachers in New York City. It will be done through a binding arbitration process and take effect in September.
The mayor and the DOE will no doubt try to spin Commissioner King’s decision to their advantage. The UFT staff will be working through Sunday to get accurate information about the new system out to you by Monday morning in a form that is both clear and concise.
The process to create a new evaluation system has been long and contentious. The final decision came to rest with the commissioner because the city Department of Education proved incapable of negotiating in good faith with us.
The UFT and the DOE each submitted lengthy proposals to the State Education Department on May 8. Arbitration hearings are taking place in Albany today and tomorrow. Commissioner King will consider the proposals and decide on the final evaluation system on June 1.
We have the opportunity to use our collective-bargaining rights to modify aspects of the evaluation plan during future contract negotiations. Practically speaking, since we are in fact-finding now, if any changes were negotiated, they would not take effect until the 2014-15 school year.
Because the commissioner’s plan must be in accordance with the 2010 state law on teacher evaluation that this union supported and helped shape, we expect it to be fair, professional and focused on teacher development to the benefit of our students. The new evaluation system as set out in state law is designed first and foremost to help teachers improve their skills throughout their careers. Teachers who are struggling will get support tailored to their individual needs.
We have our work cut out for us in September, given this DOE’s terrible track record of translating policy to practice compounded with the fact that they will probably be gone come Jan. 1. We have started working on a professional development plan and we will use our rights to make sure that the new system is implemented fairly. It is a big help that we already have an appeals process for New York City teachers nailed down that will give our members stronger due process rights than they have ever had. I hope this email clarifies where we are and what we can expect. Working together, we will make this transition. You can count on your union to continue to fight to get you the support you deserve. Thank you for all that you do for our city’s schoolchildren.
Sincerely,
Michael Mulgrew

POSTSCRIPT: As Ravitch said in the above-cited post, the UTLA is a hero union for its stance on value-added modeling.

Because it has remained true to principle, because it insists on evidence-based evaluation, because it insists on honest accounting for the public’s dollars, UTLA is a hero of public education and joins the honor roll.

The Buffalo Teachers Federation is taking a parallel stance in refusing to allow teacher evaluations be used in teacher terminations. The UFT should act on principle and follow these other big city unions' leads.

Buff. Teachers Fed. Motion Slams APPR Toxic Stew of SLOs, LMAs, Overwork

President Barack Obama and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo set forth the highly questionable Race to the Top which distorts the teaching craft, distorts evaluation of the teaching craft, drives high stakes testing and spurs the growth of charter schools.

Refreshingly, one New York State big city, Buffalo, has a teachers union and president that have exercised critical thinking and have stood up to the madness that has strong-armed unions into rescinding their dignity and their time. The deskilling evaluative protocols appeared flawed early on. The BTF has asked questions and challenged. Finally, this month, they are making a more forward action to break from the chains of APPR mandates. The BTF is calling this action their "APPR offensive."

The union president, Philip Rumore, is recognizing ill-minded features that more New York State teacher unions should reject, and his recognition of these serious flaws should be emulated by other NYS teacher unions. This statement inherently is challenging the state-mandated legislated dictates that stem from Race to the Top compliance. (The 22 classroom performance in the classroom evaluation could well pertain to the Danielson Frameworks indicators. The DF is now being widely adopted across the United States.)
(APPR means "Annual Professional Performance Review;" SLO stands for "Student Learning Objectives;" LMA stands for "Local Measure of Achievement.")
We are watching to see how this case progresses.

The APPR resolution, as publicized, May 10, 2013

WHEREAS: As a result of an untested, untried evaluation system (APPR), Buffalo teachers, as well as teachers across New York State, received APPR composite ratings that not only put teachers’ job security in jeopardy but reflected negatively on teachers’ true performance and,

WHEREAS: In one Buffalo school, for example, as in many similar cases across New York State, eleven (11) teachers were rated as “Effective” on all twenty-two (22) “indicators” on their classroom evaluation; however, their overall “composite score” was “Ineffective”, and one teacher was rated “Effective” on twenty (20) of the twenty two (22) “indicators” and “Highly Effective” on the two (2) remaining classroom observation indicators but received an “Ineffective” rating. In some cases, the State forwarded zero (0) points out of twenty (20) for teachers where there were two (2) teachers working with the same students so that only one received the twenty (20) points and,

WHEREAS: Buffalo teachers and the school district, as with many school districts across New York State, in anticipation of the probability of such invalid results from the new, untested and untried evaluation system (APPR), entered into agreements (MOUs) that protected teachers from the inappropriate negative consequences of said APPRs and,

WHEREAS: Buffalo teachers and teachers across New York State would not have entered into agreements utilizing untested, untried evaluation systems without assurances that due to its untested procedures, it would not be used against them and,

WHEREAS: there has been
· the late approval of and lack of guidance on contradictory positions taken by NYSED in relation to the APPR,
· lack of sufficient training by the District on the APPR process,
· impossible timelines, e.g. teachers “trained” in May for submissions due at the end of May, “training” in May on Artifacts due at the end of May,
· confusing and contradictory statements by District administrators,
· insufficient time provided to complete APPRs, SLOs and LMAs during the work day,
· little or no training on SLOs, LMAs and Artifacts,
· pre-tests given in October, November, etc., instead of September,
· post-tests having no correlation with pre-tests,
· some post-tests given after the completion of first semester courses,
· teachers being evaluated, and observed without an agreement between BTF and District, on what they will be evaluated,
· requiring the use of PGS without training,
· expecting teachers (some not affected by 3012-c) to turnkey train other teachers in their buildings.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the BTF, in concert with NYSUT/AFT/NEA will:
· Pursue legal action to ensure that as per our signed MOU, no teacher is adversely impacted by their 2011-2012 or 2012-2013 APPRs or any process or procedure associated with it, specifically including but not limited to, the service of a notice of claim as necessary for the commencement of legal action under New York State Education Law as soon as feasible but in any event, no later than June 1, 2013 and, additionally, the filing of grievance(s) pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement, in addition, if necessary to the following grievances already filed relating to:
o non-adherence to January 15, 2013 MOU,
o non-validated and untimely pre and post tests – also no training during the work day for teachers on them,
o inaccurate APPR scores (2011-2012) based upon flawed system – administrators inadequately trained,
o SLOs/LMAs/Artifacts – little or no timely training, insufficient and untimely data, insufficient and inappropriate timing for completion, etc.,
o contradictory APPR directions to teachers,
o insufficient time during the workday to complete the tasks that the District is demanding of teachers,
o teachers are being evaluated without BTF, District and Professional Council Agreement.
· Pursue all legal actions to prevent the loss of funding resulting from the APPR process and/or procedures,
· If necessary, the BTF in consultation with NYSUT/AFT/NEA will consider rescinding, by vote of all Buffalo teachers, its approval of the 2011-2012, 2012-2013 APPRs, and
· Take any and all other actions to achieve the above objectives.

RECOMMENDED BY: Philip Rumore, President, BTF
MOVED: Edith LeWin, Vice President, BTF
SECOND: Barbara Bielecki, Treasurer, BTF