ALBANY, N.Y. Sept. 16, 2015 — New York State United Teachers today released the following statement after the Board of Regents voted on emergency regulations governing the state’s teacher/principal evaluation system.

“The changes adopted today are a necessary step toward fixing a broken system that over-weights standardized testing, diminishes teaching and learning, and uses ‘junk science’ to sort and rank teachers.

“More changes are still needed — as many Regents and state legislators recognize. It is also clear that new State Education Commissioner Elia is listening to parents and educators and proposing commonsense — albeit stopgap — fixes.

“NYSUT will be forging forward — with parents, educators, the Regents and lawmakers — to develop an evaluation system that is fair and meaningful, and which stresses teaching and learning and not testing.”

New York State United Teachers is a statewide union with more than 600,000 members in education, human services and health care. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, the

National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.