Judge rules New York City can disclose names in teacher rankings; union plans to appeal

01-11-2011

By Sharon Otterman/New York Times

A Manhattan judge ruled Monday that the city may release performance rankings of thousands of teachers to the public, denying a request by the teachers union to keep the teachers’ names confidential. But the public is unlikely to see the rankings soon. The union, the United Federation of Teachers, said Monday that it would appeal the ruling, and lawyers for the city said the rankings would be withheld pending the outcome. The rankings, known as Teacher Data Reports, grade more than 12,000 of the city’s 80,000 public school teachers based on how much progress their students made on standardized tests. They were developed four years ago as a pilot program to improve instruction; this year they have become a factor in tenure decisions. Several news organizations, including The New York Times, have requested access to the data. Because the rankings are based on limited snapshots of student work, many education experts caution against making them the sole or primary measure of teachers. In practice, the rankings of many teachers in the city have varied widely from year to year, and their performance generally falls within a broad range. (more…)

Also: Los Angeles Times, Education Week

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Judge rules New York City can disclose names in teacher rankings; union plans to appeal

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