General information on public school teacher rankings should be open to the public. There is no credible reason to hide how many teachers are exemplary, proficient, developing or below standard in any district.
These numbers, which are collected with teacher evaluations, can be shared without identifying the individual teacher.
Yet when a New Milford Board of Education member asked the Superintendent of Schools for the rankings, he was refused on the grounds that evaluations are private and exempt from Freedom of Information laws. (Unlike, we might add, superintendents’ evaluations.)
We commend the board member, John Spatola, for taking the matter to the state Freedom of Information Commission instead of just giving up. The commission has scheduled a hearing for Nov. 30. This is fairly new territory as the state Department of Education [Read More]