What is the best way to determine whether teachers are effective? Who will decide on an evaluation system? How will “good” teachers be rewarded and what will happen to those who are not up to snuff?

These are some of the questions Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Michael Bloomberg sought to answer in recent speeches. For some, however, politicians’ promises to institute teacher evaluations and to reward those who are effective with higher salaries have only yielded more question marks, concerns and skepticism.
In last week’s budget speech, Mr. Cuomo said the State Education Department and teachers unions have 30 days to agree on a teacher evaluation system or he will propose one. School districts will be given one year to implement the system and those that don’t will forfeit their share of a 4 percent education spending increase.
In his State of the City address, Mayor Michael Bloomberg also focused on education, saying he would increase the salaries of teachers who are rated “highly effective” for two years by $20,000 and would help others pay back their college loans.

Many, including principals, a teacher and parents who spoke to The Press said educators should be evaluated but agreed that focusing solely on test scores — as Mr. Bloomberg’s administration has proposed — is not the way to do it. Parent involvement and student demographics, they said, are important factors that should also be taken into account. The question is, how? While many could say what evaluations should not be — test-score based and given only by the principal — none could offer a definitive solution for how best to determine teacher effectiveness.

Merit pay for effective teachers was less controversial, as most agreed that teachers are underpaid. But again, determining who should get a pay increase is difficult to determine.

A common belief held by those interviewed was that a teacher’s class plays a large role in how effective he or she is.