This superintendent saw the scores on the Common Core tests and hit the ceiling. He was not shy in contacting his legislators and parents to tell them that he smelled a rat. The state commissioner predicted a 30-37% fall in scores last fall, and lo and behold, there was a 30-37% fall in scores.
Superintendent Joseph V. Rella of the Comsewogue School District in Long Island joins the honor roll today, for his courage, his clear thinking, and his willingness to stand up to the bullies in Albany.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Dr. Rella will be speaking this Saturday at the “Students, Not Scores” rally. Details here… http://thepjsta.org/2013/08/10/lets-have-a-rally/
Ms. Ravitch, we would be honored to have you speak at our rally this Saturday with Dr. Rella! I can’t seem to find a direct email for you, but I am the organizer of the event and we would love to speak with you more about the event. Please email me if you are interested!
Ms. Ravitch, Dr.Rella and I would be very happy to have you speak at the Rally this Saturday. Please email me with your availability.
Beth Ziff-Dimino, President Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association
Beth, I wish I could join you but I am committed to family events.
Have a wonderful time with your family. We’ll miss you at the rally, but we know that you will continue to support our efforts. I respect you and truly appreciate your constant unwavering support of teachers, children and public education.
I am going to make this rally. I love the letters that Dr. Rella wrote. I would post the rally info on the Facebook BAT page. I wish we had a way to Skpe speakers.
I wish we could see every super. across the country fight back against the fools in power. It makes no sense that this just keeps going on.
An amazing and very brave letter from a voice of reason during this period of lunacy, flawed thinking and what is most obviously: cruelty to children and educators and, the unfair and unsubstantiated attack on our nation’s public schools. The day of reckoning is coming!
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), US civil rights leader
Bravo Dr. Rella! You speak for many superintendents.. May more find your courage.
Diane:
Dr. Rella’s justifiable outrage may or may not convince the SED to back up and reassess where they are. However, without looking at the details of these test results and the form and nature of the scripts then I am afraid many of the decision makers will be unmoved. That is why I was strongly supportive of Peter’s demand for access to the actual item analysis. The same logic holds for the scripts – which on the face of it seems to me to be an awful idea for many demonstrably effective teachers. Can you or someone point me to a source of these scripts and the material they are supposed to cover?
Based on what I saw in the handful of Math sample items that are available with what are I assume actual distributions of answers, folks may be surprised at the actual answers to some of the questions. It is an empirical question and one that can be easily answered if you do the item analysis. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that Dr. Rella’s is confronted by actual raw scores for children in his district that undercut is argument.
Dr Rella- brilliant letter. Thank you for having the courage to tell it like it is. We need more educational leaders like you; willing to stand on principle for what’s right for kids.
I would like to share a correspondence I had with Dr. Rella. I believe it speaks volumes. He is exactly the person we need to lead this charge. His response put years in my eyes. He is all that I strive to be.
“Good Morning Kevin:
First, I want to thank you for your kind and supportive words on Lace to the Top. Last Wednesday, as the first news stories were hitting the airwaves about the release of the test scores, I wanted to get something out to our community to help them deal with the anticipated avalanche of negative rhetoric in the media as well as the inevitable “spin” from State Ed. – laced with magical thinking. I wrote the letters to our State legislators and to our parents, finished them up on Thursday, posted them on the website, and went home.
Yesterday started out quietly and then all hell broke loose! Quite frankly, the response has been overwhelming. It was never my intention to communicate my thoughts urbi et orbi (to the city and to the world). It was supped to be just the urbi – Comsewogue. Apparently, my remarks are resonating with a lot of people – from all over the place – as far away as Jakarta, Indonesia. Some of the emails and phone calls I’ve received have brought me to tears. I never fully realized the depth of the angst that families and colleagues were experiencing.
I read through the comments on your site yesterday and I want to thank everyone for their support. I would be proud to receive and wear the green laces as reminder of the work we have to do on behalf of our students. I would ask one favor. In everything I do, I am never alone. My wife and best friend for over 40 years, Jackie, is always with me. We’re a team! Would it be possible to get a pair for her as well. If not, we’ll proudly wear one each! Thanks, again and I look forward to seeing you soon.
Joe”
Thank you for sharing this wonderful story, Diane!
Beyond Long Island, all of New York is inspired by Dr. Rella! His indignation at the manipulation of student data by the NYSED was a shot heard around NY state regarding the dismantling of public education by its own leadership.
BTW, educators, there is nothing to fear in taking a stand for what is right for our students and schools. We were hired with a public trust to always ask: what is best for the kids? When the SED lodges expensive, time-consuming and illogical accountability systems on schools that create unhealthy learning environments, we must not violate the public trust placed in us to protect children.
Hey! I’m the one in Jakarta, Indonesia that he mentions.
As discussed, the rally with Dr. Rella at Comsewogue High School is tomorrow August 17th. A website has been set up where you can communicate with Dr. Rella regarding any post rally events/thoughts/ideas. The link is: http://www.studentsnotscores.com/
How come NYSUT has been so quiet about the test scores? So sad.