The state’s new education commissioner, in her first address since beginning the job just over one week ago, told the rural schools association, meeting in Cooperstown, that she intends to be more inclusive to teachers in New York.
Mary Ellen Elia, a Western New York native and former teacher who most recently oversaw a large school district in Florida becomes education commissioner at a time when teachers are angry over new evaluations that rely more heavily on standardized tests. Some parents are so disillusioned over the new Common Core standards and the related exams that their children have to take that one fifth of students boycotted the tests last spring..
Elia says her style will be “collaborative”. She said afterward that she will work with the teachers and their union and seek their input designing the tests, which will be administered by a new company, Questar, after the state severed it’s ties with another company, Pearson, after criticism about the process .
“I’m going to work very hard to have teachers be part of the agenda to support students,” Elia said. “That will go a long way for teachers to feel like they have a voice in what’s happening.”
Elia also says schools may be granted waivers to delay new teacher evaluations for another year, if they demonstrate that they are working with their teachers unions towards designing new reviews. The Board of Regents gave schools an out to begin the new evaluations in 2016, after Governor Cuomo, in the state budget , successfully sought new teacher reviews to begin this fall.
“If they show that there is good progress being made, or that there’s strong attempt to make progress, then they’ll be in a strong position to access a waiver,” Elia said.
Governor Cuomo has said he hopes the waivers are granted as exceptions, and not the rule.
David Little, executive director of the Rural Schools Association, says the one year waiver option eases some of the pressure.
“The waivers help with an incredibly doctrinaire law that didn’t recognize the realities of the situation,” said Little.
But he says the law is fundamentally flawed.
“The real solution is to change the law, not to have everybody exempted from the law and then have you be over a barrel with the union in order to get it done on time,” Little said.
Little says he hopes that under the new education commissioner, the adults will stop “bickering” and get back to figuring out what’s best for the kids.