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Teachers Head Back To The Classroom After Evaluations Are Released

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Teachers are returning to the classroom today after their own report cards were released.

The teachers union challenged the release of the reports.

18,000 teachers were ranked on a scale of 1-100. The list was released Friday after a year and a half long court battle.

"I think what people miss is the courts have ordered us to release the data," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Parents were eager to see how their kids' teachers stacked up.

"I just want to see exactly where she is at the ranking," said parent Yolanda Arthur.

While parents are taking a close look at the numbers, many teachers are angry. They say the information is misleading and sometimes flat out wrong.

"I want them to understand this is not a representation of the teacher in the classroom for their child," said teacher Marie Kalloon.

The scores largely reflect how teachers performed in one area: Helping kids do well on standardized tests. But the ratings have high margins of error and are nearly two years out of date. They are based on tests that the state acknowledged became too predictable and too easy to pass over time.

"It's just one indicator and it's really meant to be combined with other measures of teacher performance," said Sean Corcoran, Educational Economics Professor at NYU.

That's the same point teachers throughout the New York City school system are stressing.

Click below to check out the rankings. 

2010 Teacher Rankings (Excel spreadsheet)

2009 Teacher Rankings (Excel spreadsheet)

2008 Teacher Rankings (Excel spreadsheet)

How to read the rankings, part 1 (.pdf)

How to read the rankings, part 2 (.pdf)

What do you make of the rankings? Are you glad they have been released? Sound off in our comments section below. 

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