Hauppauge Principals Join Peers in Opposing New Educator Evaluations

Five Hauppauge school district principals joined 400 across Long Island in challenging the State Education Department and criticizing new standards given for evaluating educators.

The new rules went into effect in September as New York State worked to win federal money under the Race to the Top program, which the White House said is designed to promote  "innovation, reform, and excellence in America’s public schools."

The regulations create an Annual Professional Performance Review that assesses teachers and principals on a scale of 0-100, with 20 to 40 percent of their score coming from students’ test performance.

“The district welcomes any initiative to maximize student achievement. In fact, for the past five years, we have been redesigning and refining the tools we use to evaluate the instruction staff,” said James Stucchio, Hauppauge’s assistant superintendent for business and operations.

“We do have concerns about the new APPR legislation and the additional mandates it places upon the district. Most importantly, the requirement to collectively bargain the entire process and the financial burden the new regulations will create for the district in this time of declining revenue and a property tax cap,” Stucchio added.

His concerns are similar to many expressed by Long Island principals on their new website, which includes an open letter that lists several objections to the APPR system, arguing that tax dollars are being diverted from schools to testing companies, trainers and outside vendors. In addition, they argue that emphasis on evaluations will damage children as schools put too much focus on test results, and that educational experts say there is no evidence that such a system improves students’ education.

Hauppauge Public School’s contract with its teachers union expired in June and has yet to be settled, due in part to the new APPR regulations.

“We all agree evaluation is a necessary part of anyone’s job performance. That is something we certainly support,” said Mary Ann Fletcher, principal of Hauppauge Middle School. “However, we have concerns about the new program’s implementation.”

Fletcher said all teachers at Hauppauge schools have a yearly review, although the process differs slightly for new teachers versus tenured staff. 

Student test scores are sometimes incorporated into the district’s review, but it already poses a logistical issue. The results for the state grade 3-8 assessments were not received until August, too late to be incorporated in teacher’s annual evaluations that are written up in June, according to Fletcher.

“That’s the kind of thing from a logistical stand point hat hasn’t been attended to at this point in the process. It’s a piece of where we have real concern,” Fletcher said.

The open letter by Long Island’s principals, written by Dr. Sean Feeney of The Wheatley School in East Williston and president of the Nassau County High School Principals Association, argues as one of its many objections that the staff needed to turn over these evaluations more rapidly would be costly.

Hauppauge School District has received $14,000 as a result of participating in New York State’s Race to the Top program, according to Superintendent Patricia Sullivan-Kriss at a recent board meeting.

Fletcher said she is also concerned that Hauppauge’s self-selection policy that allows students to choose their own courses, sometimes challenging themselves by selecting an honors or AP course instead of regular without need for teacher approval, could come under pressure.

The principals’ letter contends teachers might avoid taking on students with disabilities, language barriers, health or emotional issues that could affect test cores - influencing the teacher’s APPR review.

“I can’t imagine this happening in our district, but I think given this level of scrutiny and pressure it would be human nature,” Fletcher said. “Some people might say, ‘I don’t know if I want that child in my class for a host of reasons.’ That’s not a situation we want to find ourselves in.”

A complete list of the principals' objections can be read in a copy of the open letter on their website, and is also attached to this story.