Teachers Praised By Cuomo Say His Strategy Won't Work

A Syracuse area 'Teacher of the Year' who has been praised by Governor Cuomo, is among a group of 'elite' teachers who have written a letter asking him to reconsider his approach towards teachers and education in New York.

Jeff Peneston, a high school science teacher at Liverpool High School, told WIBX's First News with Keeler in the Morning on Tuesday that the Governor's plan to evaluate teachers is flawed.

"When we're looking at schools that are low performing what we're often looking at is schools where many of the kids, many of the families don't see a value in school or don't come to school. Even if you have someone the Governor considers the 'Best of the Best' - if you had a school filled with teachers who were highly effective, that doesn't mean you can force a child to come to school," said Peneston.

From the Open Letter to the Governor: 'Your other proposals are also unlikely to succeed. Merit pay, charter schools and increased scrutiny of teachers won't work because they fundamentally misdiagnose the problem. It's not that teachers or schools are horrible. Rather, the problem is that students with an achievement gap also have an income gap, a health-care gap, a housing gap, a family gap and a safety gap, just to name a few. If we truly want to improve educational outcomes, these are the real issues that must be addressed.' - Portion of an Open Letter to Governor Cuomo

Click here to read the complete letter to Governor Cuomo here.

During his recent State of the State Address, Cuomo was aggressive calling the teacher's evaluation system inaccurate by specifically referring to the results as 'baloney.'

He cited the high percentage of teachers who are effective versus the lower number of students who pass the state exams. Cuomo's plan will hold valuable state funding hostage unless legislators put his strategy into place. The initiative would significantly change the way teachers are evaluated, placing 50 percent of their score on how well their students perform on the state tests.

Peneston said this won't work.

"When you look at schools that are underperforming, the cause is obvious to anyone close to it. It's related to the complexity of where those schools are coming from for the hours of the day when they're not in school," he said. "It doesn't help to solve the problem by looking for someone to blame."

Listen below to the interview with Jeff Peneston from Tuesday, February 10, 2015.

Segment 1