Robert Pondiscio writes movingly about a school that was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy.
PS 333 was a Core Knowledge school, exemplary in many respects.
It was unprotected from the ferocity of the storm surge.
It had 578 students before the storm. It has 30 or so now, and they have been relocated to a school more than an hour and a half away.
The principal is distraught, while the city administration pretends that what matters most is to get back to the routines of preparing for the next test:
With the loss of instructional time, the lack of continuity, and the disruption wrought by Sandy, [principal Angela] Logan fears it will be a lost school year for many of her children, most of whom can ill afford it. “How do you hold them accountable to sit there and learn when [the children are thinking] ‘I don’t have a house. When I go back home it’s freezing cold?’ Those kids are going to suffer,” she says. Even after the all-clear is given and the school safe to occupy, there’s no way to know how many students will return. Some, perhaps most of the low-income families served by Logan’s school, will simply melt into the neighborhoods to which they’ve moved. The scale of the dislocation is immense: P.S. 333 is one of 11 schools in the Rockaways put out of commission by Sandy, and the smallest of them. “No one’s talking about that right now. What’s the reality for the kids that were on that Peninsula?” She doesn’t know.
Logan is openly frustrated with city officials trying to give the impression that things are getting back to normal in New York City’s schools. “You want to make it look good, but you’re not thinking about these kids,” she says. That said, New York City is relocating more schools than Oklahoma City or Portland, Oregon has in total.
NYS needs to suspend APPR immediately. Those of us on LI and in NYC have far more important things to worry about. We have students that need us more now than ever. last things we should have to be concerned about are testing, common core, and our flawed evaluation system. Common sense trumps junk science any day.
I really hated using trump in that last comment. A word forever tainted.
I am in complete sympathy with all of those who have lost so much in Hurricane Sandy. This hits particularly close to my heart because my nephew was stranded in a hospital with his patients in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Then as now, it is the people who stepped up to help NOT the government. The children in my school collected items for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Quite honestly it was magical. We had an explosion of donations. People brought things in that they collected in their neighborhood. Items were arriving by the pick up truck load. It was over-whelming. Even the children from needy homes brought in contributions. Buses of athletes that were in Elma , New York had the cargo areas completely filled to the brim and coaches will help distribute the food, clothing, blankets, etc. It was the right thing to do.
I suggest, that ALL of the children join hands and go on strike — refuse to take the tests because it is not fair . Wouldn’t that be a newsworthy lesson??
Marge
I agree Marge. It’s time for parents to stand up and say Enough! It is only when they stand together and refuse to participate in the madness that those in charge will pay attention. They see the damage being done. They are the only ones who can stop it.
I hope that they learn from the horrible mistakes made in New Orleans. The schools there have been taken over by greedy charter school operators who rake in big bucks as administrators while the charter schools continue to fail, close, reopen under another name, skim better students, and abandon difficult to teach students, all with the blessing of state and local government. The personal stories of teacher’s and students, who must function under deplorably under-staffed and under-resourced conditions, go untold by the silent press/media. KIPP is a success only because they skim the best students and refuse to educate ALL students, especially those who are the most difficult to reach. Dont follow in their footsteps. Do your homework and get parents on your side. They are the only hope to help us stand together and save public education.
Bridget — thank you for your reply. Many of the parents in my school have signed petitions Opting their child out of testing. They do not approve of their child’s test scores being stored in a state or National warehouse– without their consent. They are considered that sanctions would be imposed
against our school. I am the principal. I support their rights to Opt Out.
Marge
Good luck. Here in Louisiana our luck hasn’t been so good. I hope you are able to find success where others haven’t. Keep up the good fight.