An open letter from a principal

I came across this letter this morning to the NYS legislature and found it well worth sharing.

The quote that, in my mind, best sums up the letter:

"I did not then, nor do I now, understand why you would want to be in the business of evaluating teachers. Teachers are employed not by the State of New York, but by their locally elected school boards. I do not believe that our legislature has created systems to evaluate police officers, school superintendents, firefighters, the custodians who work in government offices, SUNY professors, or the men and women who take tolls on our bridges and tunnels. I suspect that you would recoil at the thought of legislating how every public servant is rated. And so you should. The good people of New York did not elect you for that purpose."

Click for the full post: My letter to the NYS legislature on APPR

Ultimately, in my mind, education should be a local matter, each individual student learns differently, and you cannot create a cookie cutter standard that attempts to shove all education into the same box.  State and Federal guidelines are all well and good, they have a place, but they should be limited.  The further you remove control of education from local districts and parents, the more each individual student suffers.

Kids are not numbers, they are not statistics in a database, they are individual people, as are the teachers who teach them.  Allow each local school district to address its own individual needs and stop meddling.