City teachers are used to giving grades, not getting them. But after a judge’s ruling yesterday, their rankings could become public.
A Manhattan judge ruled that the Department of Education can release the names and job ratings of 12,000 public school teachers, a move that had been challenged by the city’s United Federation of Teachers.
“We intend to appeal as soon as possible,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement.
The Education Department referred calls to the city’s Law Department, where senior counsel Jesse Levine said, “The court has affirmed the city’s belief that the public has a right to this information.” He said they’d wait for the appellate decision.
Teachers don’t have to panic today — the data won’t be released until the appeal is decided, which could take months.
Since October, when the city said it planned to release the rankings in response to news group’s Freedom of Information Law requests, the union’s argued that the data are inaccurate.
The reports, Mulgrew said, “will only serve to mislead parents looking for real information.”
