PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. -
After New York State instituted a school evaluation system, some people are concerned about college students.
"They're still embracing that love of teaching and that they want to change the world but the evaluation system makes them nervous," said SUNY Plattsburgh Associate Professor Denise Simard.
The evaluation was put in place to help remove bad teachers and reward good ones.
But it's caused some teachers to tell college students to stay out of their classroom.
That's because they're worried about college students negatively impacting their own evaluations.
Plattsburgh City School Superintendent James Short says that hasn't happened in his district, but he's heard from others.
"I think people need time to wait this through to really find out if it's a true concern of theirs or not," said Short.
To help minimize those problems SUNY Plattsburgh made changes to its education program.
"We've had to rewrite our curriculum," said Simard.
That includes moving some students that used to help in the classroom, to an after school program.
Although they're not getting the same experience, SUNY professors say this allows their students to be more hands on.
"Often for our early field experiences a lot of times they were seen as observers or guests in a classroom," said Simard.
SUNY leaders say they're adapting, but the number of prospective teaching degree students is decreasing.
A combination they say of a weak economy and an unknown of what kind of impact these new evaluations, and new teaching methods will have on the future.
Plattsburgh city school leaders say by moving those teachers from inside their classrooms to after school it's helped them too.
They say nearly 200 students can get extra help, for no additional cost.
