The Board of Regents has approved new teacher evaluation regulations that address some of the concerns expressed by the UFT and other public school advocates.

Following months of outreach to the state board by UFT members and others across the state, the Regents on June 16 adopted regulations for the new teacher evaluation system that place some limits on the impact of state tests, ensure greater local control and provide an avenue for some districts to delay implementation.

“While this evaluation system still has many features that don’t benefit children or help schools, the Board of Regents did make many of the changes educators called for,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said.

As part of this year’s state budget process, Gov. Andrew Cuomo had pushed for an overhaul of the state teacher evaluation law. The 17-member board has been divided on the state-mandated changes. Seven Regents, including three former school district superintendents — Kathleen Cashin, Judith Chin and Betty Rosa — raised alarms about the proposed excessive and questionable use of standardized student tests to evaluate teachers and the burden that would be placed on school districts by a rushed timeline for implementation.

Ultimately, in mid-June, the board approved regulations that included three important provisions:

On the use of state tests and other assessments to measure student performance: The new matrix-style evaluation process will be based on a combination of measures, including classroom observations and student performance.

Within one of those measures, student performance, the Board of Regents voted that local districts can choose to use a different assessment that would count for 50 percent of this measure, with state tests making up the other 50 percent. The State Education Department had originally recommended that growth on state tests account for 80 percent of the student performance portion. But the UFT successfully advocated to bring that percentage down if districts choose to include other assessments.

On the role of an independent evaluator: The state budget law also mandated that independent evaluators have a part in the classroom observations rating. The Regents placed limits on this, deciding that no more than 20 percent of the observations component can be based on an independent evaluator’s assessment.

On waivers for the implementation timeline: The state budget law set a Nov. 15 deadline for districts to win state approval of their new evaluation plans or face a possible loss of state aid. The Regents decided that districts can apply for waivers to push back the deadline by four months to March 15, 2016; in cases where waivers are granted, implementation will be postponed until the 2016–17 school year.