The United Federation of Teachers, NYSUT's affiliate in New York City schools, is urging members to volunteer to participate in a national research study on teacher effectiveness.

The two-year study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, comes at a time when policymakers are calling for changes in the way teachers are evaluated.

The union's participation in the independent study underscores its long insistence that teaching involves a lot more than test scores.

"It's about being proactive," UFT President Michael Mulgrew said of the union's push to recruit volunteers. "It's about protecting our profession by researching and validating the multidimensional work that goes on inside classrooms."

New York City will be one of six urban school systems involved in the research, which will include 3,700 teachers nationwide. One thousand volunteers are being sought in New York City.

Participation is voluntary. Eligible to participate are fourth- through eighth-grade math and ELA teachers on the elementary and middle level, and high school Living Environment, English 9 and algebra teachers.

Teachers who volunteer must allow the independent researchers to capture their lessons on video four times each year. The videos will be confidential, but the teachers themselves will have access to them.

Participants also will provide supporting material for each of those lessons; administer student assessments and surveys; complete a survey about their instructional environment and working conditions; and have their content knowledge assessed in year two.

Researchers estimate teacher participation will require about 12 hours of work per year, for which they will each be paid $1,500 at the end of the project.