Rensselaer, NY, Mar 05, 2012 — A new poll finds that half of New Yorkers believe the recent agreement on a new teacher evaluation system in every school district will improve education. The poll was taken by the Siena Research Institute.

At the insistence of Governor Andrew Cuomo, the State Education Department and the teachers' unions agreed on the new evaluation system.

The Siena Poll finds that while 50% of New Yorkers think the evaluations will improve education, 38% say it will have no effect, and 3% say it will make things worse.

A majority of those surveyed also said the agreement is fair to teachers.

The poll finds that Cuomo, himself, continues to have strong favorability and job performance ratings, although both are down slightly this month.

The Siena Institute telephone more than 800 New Yorkers in the last month of February for the poll. It has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.4%.