New York school districts are at risk of losing quite a chunk of change if they don't adopt a teacher evaluation system, our latest research shows. $1.7 billion worth of change to be exact.

According to Telling the Truth: The urgent need for a genuine teacher evaluation system in New York State, our new policy primer that provides background on the state's teacher evaluation systems, New York's six largest cities alone face a potential loss of more than $750 thousand in the next two years: 

In 2010, the legislature passed a historic law calling for the overhaul of teacher evaluation systems across New York State. That law required school districts and teachers unions to collaborate on the creation of meaningful evaluations, which included clear measures of student learning. Nearly two years later, implementation of these evaluations remains stalled. Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent proposal that school districts and unions meet this obligation in order to receive additional state aid for public schools is a much-needed inducement to realize this vision.

Denying reality will not cut it anymore. We need to start telling the truth to our teachers, our school leaders and ourselves about teacher performance. If we are not able to implement an effective teacher evaluation system this year, we face the loss of nearly 1.7 billion dollars in federal aid and state aid combined. In our six largest cities alone, we face the loss of $756,416,778 in the 2011–2012 and 2012–2013 school years.

But perhaps the costliest risk of all is our risk of losing the opportunity to give teachers the professional feedback they need and to make sure that every child in every classroom across the state is taught by an effective teacher.

Download the report here.