N.Y. Freezes Districts' SIG Aid

New York state has suspended federal School Improvement Grant money to all 10 of its school districts that were receiving the funds, saying that the school systems have not complied with a requirement that they revise their processes for evaluating teachers and principals.

The districts—Albany, Buffalo, Greenburgh 11 (in Westchester County), New York City, the Roosevelt district in Long Island, Poughkeepsie, Rochester, Schenectady, Syracuse, and Yonkers—have 30 days to appeal the decision , which was made at the start of the new year. The grants ranged from nearly $1 million for Greenburgh 11, a 230-student district in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., that enrolls students with multiple disabilities, to roughly $60 million for New York City, which has about 1 million students.

The sticking point for the districts appears to be figuring out a way to incorporate student test scores into teacher and principal evaluations. The districts signed agreements saying they would revise their teacher- and principal-rating systems to take into...