Dive Brief:

• The first year of New York's highly controversial teacher evaluation system saw 91.5% of teachers rated "effective" or "highly effective."
• Only 1% were graded "ineffective" and 4% were determined to be "developing."
• So far, the state has released only broad results that don't include New York City, and while specific results won't be available until later this year, state Education Commissioner John King praised the results as showing that the state's teachers are "rising to the challenge of teaching the Common Core."

Dive Insight:

These evaluation scores are good news for the state of New York, which had some hiccups with low scores on its new Common Core student assessments when only 31% of elementary and middle schoolers tested proficient in math and reading. How much the evaluation results change when New York City is accounted for (as well as when viewed on a district-by-district basis) remains to be seen. The controversial system determines 60% of a teacher's rating through in-class observation, with 20% based on students' performance on tests for grades 4-8 and the rest being decided by districts and unions.