Family Life

09.12.12 | Sarah Harnisch

New York school districts might miss a self-imposed deadline to have teacher and principal evaluation plans in place. Each state was ordered by the federal government to set up a system where teacher's jobs were based, at least in part, on student's test scores. New York designed its program, and all 715 districts are supposed to have their plans in place by January 17th. The trouble is, most districts are submitting their plans now-- which is pretty late in the review and approval process. The state says it's going to have to hire more help to try to get through all the plans by the deadline. If schools don't have their plans in place by January, they risk losing millions of dollars in state aid.

In a related story, changes could be on the horizon for the mandatory high school exam in New York state. It's a test high school students have to take and pass to graduate.  State education officials are pondering a proposal to split the global history and geography exam into two parts, and only require passage on one of the tests for graduation.  The exam currently has the lowest passing rate of any of the five tests.