Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell, responding to a press inquiry this week, said she does not believe the state should withhold funding to schools that fail that fail to submit their teacher and administrator evaluation plans to the state by the end of August.
"I have always felt it should be delinked. We pushed for it in the Assembly during our budget talks and it was delinked in our one-house budget, but we were unable to persuade the governor and the state Senate to make that change during the budget negotiation process," she said.
Assemblywoman Russell pointed out the Board of Regents previously had issued a waiver extending the deadline to the end of August and suggested that could be another option on the table if there continue to be issues. She said it is her understanding 200 of the approximately 700 districts in the state have already submitted APPR plans to the state.
"The Board of Regents has some ability to work in this area as they have in the past," she noted.
Assemblywoman Russell said there is always the chance legislation seeking to delink state aid from the APPR plan could resurface later this year if a number of districts are unable to finalize their plans before the deadline. She said she would be willing to fight for any schools in her Assembly District that face that problem.
"This issue can be brought up again. I want that link gone because our children shouldn't be punished by being forced to attend schools without appropriate funding if their school leaders are having a problem meeting the deadline," she stressed.
While Assemblywoman Russell said she is concerned by the link between state aid and APPR, she said she is equally concerned by links between standardized test scores and teacher evaluations.
"I was pleased to see the Board of Regents' decision Monday to launch an inquiry into the validity of the state testing system and the role those test results play in teacher evaluations. The members of the Board of Regents that have been elected in the past two years, including Bev Ouderkirk from the 116th Assembly District, clearly understand the concerns being waged by parents around the state who have opted their students out of the standardized tests again this year.
"The Board of Regents has also changed the testing company being utilized for those standardized exams in recognition of flaws in the former company's product," Assemblywoman Russell noted.
"It is my belief the focus in the coming weeks and months should be on making sure test scores have a small, if any, role in teacher evaluations," she said. "It is clear the value of our students and our teachers is far greater than a test score. A test score is simply one small tool in evaluating the effectiveness of a teacher in a classroom."