Background on Teacher Data Reports
From the 2007-08 through 2009-10 school years, the Department of Education provided Teacher Data Reports to English and math teachers in grades 4 through 8. These reports showed how much progress individual teachers helped students make in reading and math over the course of a year. Several media outlets filed Freedom of Information Law requests for these documents, and the state’s courts have ruled that the DOE is obligated to release them. The DOE is making that data available on February 24, 2012 but does not believe that newspapers should print individual teachers’ scores and names. See below for more information.