Peter DeWitt, principal of an elementary school in upstate New York, tries here to understand the contradictory messages sent out by Merryl Tisch, chancellor of the NY Board of Regents.
On one hand, she says that teachers should no longer teach to the test, but with the advent of Common Core, there is more testing than ever.
She says that testing is less important than ever as kids sit for hours of it.
The state plans to increase the stakes attached to the testing, but teachers should not teach to the test.
She says the Common Core will introduce a new era of critical thinking, which insults the teachers who have been doing exactly that for years.
Tisch will be honored by Teachers College, Columbia University, on May 21.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The planned protest against Tisch at Columbia’s graduation is poor form. Why should students & families have their day ruined because a group (growing group) are against Tisch’s policies.
Have some decency & class & stop encouraging ruining graduation. Protesters will make a scene, not a difference.
Never, ever challenge those who are above you in social standing, it’s bad form! Always have effin decency and class! Gag me with a ten day old sock.
Is that what your opposition to Tisch is about? Social standing? More poor form, Duane Swacker, on your part.
de nada.
They had their day ruined as soon as TC announced they would be honoring Tisch. At least put the blame in the right place.
Politics intruded into this ceremony when it was decided to give Tisch an award, and it’s disingenuous to suggest that it is the protesters who are politicizing it.
Giving an award to a faux educator who has overseen the imposition of a failed, dishonest testing regime upon children and teachers in NY State demonstrates either TC’s political cravenness and venality – it’s leader, after all, is on the board of Pearson – or utter cluelessness. Either way, they need a wake up call.
Michael Fiorillo: ya has dado en el blanco [you have hit the target, i.e., you have hit the nail on the head].
If people are compliant and silent, then the event will be used by default to endorse Ms. Tisch’s policies and actions. It will be used to endorse the choice of commencement speaker made by the President of TC (who is on the board of Pearson), not unintentionally sending the message that Pearson has a decisive role in TC and that Pearson is a godsend for education and educators.
Bad form is what passes for the behavior of the ‘lower class of people’ on UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS.
Taking responsibility for a “better education for all” by protesting at an inappropriately politicized and corporatized event is an obligation of citizenship and the duty of moral people.
Bad form? Responsibility? It is not just for the present that people will be making a decision.
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today” [Abraham Lincoln]
🙂
She. Has. No. Clue.
No clue or no conscience?
Both.
Protest at a public ritual elevates the event to its proper significance rather than letting it fold back blandly into supporting business as usual. Commencement is an experience filled with deep feelings to mark the passage from school to work, from preparation to occupation. TC’s President, on the board at Pearson, made a unilateral decision to honor a destructive figure like Mrs. Tisch. Those organizing opposition to Mrs.Tisch are doing TC faculty, students, and families a blessing which far exceeds the temporary embarrassment of unauthorized dissent. Billionaire Mrs. Tisch has earned the criticism leveled against her. She has pushed education policy undermining public schooling in NYS, with an obsession for testing. At graduation, protestors will elevate public discourse so that Commencement itself offers grads eyewitness experience to the dreadful moment we are in and to the deep consequences of our chosen profession. TC and its admired grads hold special prestige in American life and education; this place and its grads count unlike any other school of education; many grads will work at public sites affected by the treacherous corporate rampage now damaging public schools and the public sector; the children of America and their families will become the graduates’ responsibility; democracy and equality in school and society will prosper or weaken depending on the choices these and other graduates make. Their best choices will emerge from thoughtful regard for the social context and consequence of our labor as educators. Thus, a protest at TC’s commencement in a time of grave social injustice, is entirely appropriate as a capstone to the best education future educators can acquire.
The question is
Does she care?
Possibly not. Then what is achieved other than ruining graduation for others who have little interest in Pearson or CCSS. This is not just a teachers college graduation. There are other divisions of the college & families celebrating a milestone.
Everyone should care about Pearson and CCSS, teacher or not.
Mrs. Tisch is not the prime target of a potential protest. TC Pres. Fuhrman is, b/c she issued the inappropriate and insulting invitation. Another target or audience for such a protest is the graduating class. A further audience is the assembled crowd, and finally, the news media. Mrs. Tisch will be the last person to change her mind, just as the other billionaires like Gates, Bloomberg, Broad, etc., will also be the last ones to change course, doing so only if opposition get bigger and bigger. A Commencement protest by itself produces three things elite authorities dislike and discourage—visible dissent, unauthorized public discourse, and a platform for wider spread of opposition ideas.
I didn’t mean to insinuate she doesn’t care about Pearson or CCSS. I’m saying the protest may not bother her. My goodness, I don’t like CCSS but I wouldn’t ruin a graduation.
FERPA, COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS & DATA SHARING
Click to access FERPA-ccsss.pdf
Don’t know who has seen this letter from President Fuhrman:
http://www.tc.columbia.edu/news.htm?articleID=9052
Excerpt from Pres. Fuhrman’s letter regarding her affiliation with Pearson, from which she has made no offer to resign. “Pearson Board Position: I realize that my affiliation with the board of Pearson is disturbing to various members of the TC community. I also appreciate – and agree with – concerns about the overuse of and emphasis on testing in education policy and reform. However, I believe strongly that the best way to represent those views is to be fully engaged in – and, I would hope, influence – the discussion of the role of the private sector in public education. Participating in conversations across the education and corporate sectors is important to me, just as cross-sector conversations between researchers and policymakers have characterized my long career that attracted TC’s attention when I was appointed your president.
The TC Board of Trustees has fully reviewed my Pearson board service, which began before my tenure as TC president, and, in fact, ends in less than one year. The board believes it’s beneficial for private sector entities that are involved in education to have an educator’s point of view about policy, research, and practice represented at the highest levels of the company.”
If you’re an associate of Pearson, then your Pearson’s bitch. End of story.
What nonsense! No, she hasn’t a clue! She sounds like President Obama and Arne Duncan, who are both known for making speeches in which they said that “teachers should not be teaching to the tests” while espousing the Common Core and RTTT which are, of course, the prolonging of testing. All of this makes me think of Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason’s bus driver character in one of TVs first {and best!} sitcoms, The Honeymooners. This is for you youngsters out there!). Ralph would bloviate and wail and rant about something and, when finding himself to be in the wrong (frequently), at a loss for words, he’d say, “Homina…homina…homina…” (because the words wouldn’t come out–this was stammering).
That’s what I hear coming out of Tisch’s mouth. And Arne’s. And Obama’s.
Students take control over their Common Core and iEP’s
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