Why teacher rating isn’t the answer

Just one colorful example of how this grand idea of rating all the teachers may not be good for the schools:

A Bronx principal told her assistant principals to give specific teachers unsatisfactory ratings – before even conducting observations of their work, investigators found.

City officials released records yesterday showing they had substantiated the disturbing charges against Iris Blige of Fordham High School for the Arts.

She was fined $7,500 as part of settling the disciplinary actions, but she was allowed to keep her job.

Blige directed her assistant principals to get rid of certain teachers before any observations of their work were completed, the investigators found.

She also targeted about a dozen teachers for “unsatisfactory” ratings, investigators alleged.

“[Blige] is extremely unscrupulous in the way she does her job,” said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.

Blige did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment late yesterday.

Four assistant principals interviewed by investigators said they had ignored Blige’s instructions. One said he was given his own unsatisfactory rating as a result.

This is a post from 2009:

The principal of Fordham HS for the Arts (Iris Blige, pictured at right) had a “hit list” of teachers – especially UFT chapter leaders – that she wanted removed from the school even if it meant using trumped-up charges, three Department of Education officials told the New York Teacher.

The Department of Education’s Office of Special Investigations is probing Principal Iris Blige’s allegedly false allegations against teachers.

According to staffers and students at the school, Blige belittles teachers and is prone to screaming attacks and general all-around bullying of staff and students. Her reign of terror has resulted in an astounding 70.5 percent turnover rate for teachers between September 2007 and September 2008.

[…] Another former AP, Osvaldo Mancebo, told the New York Teacher that Blige had a list of teachers who she wanted to rate Unsatisfactory even before any observations took place.

Another DOE official, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals from Blige, said charges against one chapter leader were invented by Blige because she wanted to show teachers in the school what could happen to them if they “crossed” her.

“She treated chapter leaders like garbage,” the official said. “She was paranoid. I heard her say many times that she would destroy the union.”