Subject:
Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR): Please Pass S.6880
Message:
Dear Legislator,
As a constituent and someone who cares deeply about public education, I strongly urge you to pass S.6880 to restore local control of the Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) process by allowing school districts to either keep their current APPR system or allow them to collectively bargain a new system.
In the three school years since the beginning of the pandemic, the APPR process has been paused. During this time, students and educators were forced to adjust abruptly to remote learning. They then returned to the classroom where they have been forced to confront issues such as learning loss, increased anxiety and other lingering health and mental health challenges that were brought on by the pandemic.
During the 2021-22 school year, only 153 school districts out of over 700 conducted their collectively bargained APPR process. The current APPR statute is cumbersome and expensive and has taken up precious time and resources from administrators, supervisors and classroom educators, and all agree that changes must be made.
The current APPR system stems from the federal "Race to the Top" educational program that was enacted in 2009 and is no longer required by federal law.
In fact, when the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was enacted in 2015, after receiving input from administrators, educators and their constituencies, bipartisan consensus was reached very early on in bill negotiations that the federal government should not be involved in educator evaluation. Currently, New York state is performing a task that is not required to receive federal educational funding.
Accordingly, I urge you to pass S.6880 to pause the APPR process for the current school year and restore local control by allowing school districts to either keep the APPR system that is currently in place or allow them to collectively bargain a new system that will provide accountability, allow them to make tenure decisions and provide feedback to educators.
Thank you for your consideration of this very important matter. I respectfully ask that you raise this issue with your conference, and I would greatly appreciate a response to this email.
Sincerely,
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