Assemblywoman Kimberly Jean-Pierre (D-Babylon) announced that she helped pass legislation decoupling teacher evaluations from standardized testing and returning control to local school districts (A.10475).

“Encouraging teachers to have students memorize material for a test isn’t fair to the student or to the teacher,” Jean-Pierre said. “Cookie-cutter methods may work elsewhere, but they certainly don’t work in the classroom. Teachers and schools know what works for their students, and we need to let them teach.”

The legislation lifts the mandate that teacher evaluations are to be based heavily on their students’ performance on state-created or administered assessments, including the English Language Arts (ELA) and math tests for grades 3 through 8. The mandate was put on hold in December 2015 for four years, and the Assembly legislation does away with it entirely, allowing local school districts to adopt an evaluation system that’s better suited to the needs of their students and community.

The legislation would also make permanent a provision to prohibit ELA and math state assessments recorded in grades 3 through 8 from being included on a student’s permanent record.