Lawyers for both NYSUT and the State Education Department presented oral arguments in state Supreme Court Aug. 12, with the union urging the court to overturn problematic portions of the teacher evaluation regulations that will start being phased in this fall.
The union is charging that the Board of Regents and the Commissioner have violated state law and exceeded their authority by ignoring the very law they helped negotiate. Specifically, the Regents regulations would allow school districts to double the weight for state standardized assessments or allow the use of student results on a single test to count for up to 40 percent of a teacher's annual evaluation. The law clearly states that 20 percent is to be based on student growth on state assessments.
The union is not trying to thwart implementation of the evaluation system, but is challenging specific elements of the regs that are inconsistent with law.