Commissioner John King made the mistake of treating parents with disrespect. He doesn’t listen. He cannot lead. He was hired to serve the public. He can’t and he won’t.
A statement just released by parent groups in New York:
New York State Allies for Public Education Calls for the Resignation of NYS Commissioner of Education John King
Billed as an opportunity to “gather information, ask questions and share concerns with NYS Commissioner of Education John King”, the NYS PTA sponsored Town Hall Meeting on the Common Core and privacy issues was anything but. After speaking uninterrupted for 1 hour and 40 minutes, Commissioner King allowed parents 20 minutes to speak. During this time, parents expressed concerns and attempted to share stories regarding the impact that the CC has already had on their children. Commissioner King repeatedly interrupted parents and refused to answer parent questions or address their concerns. Commissioner King subsequently cancelled all future scheduled town hall meetings, called concerned parents “special interests groups” and stated that the forum was “co-opted by special interests whose stated goal is to ‘dominate’ the questions and manipulate the forum,” King went on to state that “Essentially, dialogue has been denied.”
When a public official such as Commissioner King refuses to participate in the democratic process and refuses to hear the concerns of parents while simultaneously carrying out educational policies that affect thousands of children, he is no longer fit to carry out the duties of the NYS Commissioner of Education. Commissioner King, we would argue that it is because of you that “dialogue has been denied.”
According to award-winning Principal Carol Burris of South Side High School in New York, last week’s Town Hall meeting in Poughkeepsie, NY highlighted the fact that “The New York State Education Department has lost its moral authority.” Burris states. “One might imagine that if John King had first been a principal of a New York City public school, or the superintendent of a district, he would have become skilled in dealing with emotional and boisterous groups….. Leaders must listen deeply, learn and respond. They must be willing to consider alternative courses, and even in loud crowds, hear truth.”
Anthony Cody, nationally recognized educator, public speaker and writer for Education Week says, “Speaking truth to power, as these parents did, is an intoxicating thing. It delivers to both speaker and witnesses a shiver, an awakening to the fact that we do not need to suffer in silence, or allow our children to suffer without objection. Those in power may cancel future hearings, but these parents’ voices are ringing out, like a bell that cannot be un-rung.”
We would say to Commissioner King that in this age of apathy, you should be proud to represent a state where parents have taken the time to inform themselves about the current education reforms and have taken the time from their busy schedules to engage with public officials such as yourself. Aren’t these parents the kind of critically thinking, involved citizens that our public schools hope to create? We would argue that a competent leader does not run away from concerned parents, or call them a “special interest group.” Commissioner King, you are a disgrace to the field of education. It is not surprising that in NYS, your lack of teaching experience would not allow you to be granted tenure in a public school.
The NYS Commissioner of Education sends his own children to a private school, a school that is not legally bound to carry out the same testing and data sharing mandates that he is subjecting thousands of public school children to. He has stated, “I believe that every parent should have the right to choose the school that is right for their child.” Commissioner King subjects public school students to harmful practices while maintaining that parents do not have the right to refuse these mandates. This certainly does not afford all parents “the right to choose the school that is right for their child.” Commissioner King is guilty of promoting inequitable education policies that essentially create a different set of educational opportunities and experiences available to those with the means to afford private school and those who attend public school. This is an attack on the freedoms and rights that are afforded to every American citizen and on public education itself.
New York State Allies for Public Education calls for the immediate resignation of Commissioner of Education John King as he is unfit to carry out the duties of his position competently and he is no longer able to conduct himself in a manner that is consistent with the principles and ideals of the American democracy. NYSAPE urges parents, educators and concerned citizens to:
Spend 10 minutes adding the attached emails and phone numbers to your contacts
Call, email, and fax Governor Cuomo DAILY
CC all emails to Senator John Flanagan, Speaker of the House Sheldon Silver, Senator Dean Skelos, Assemblywoman Nolan and Senator Jeffrey Klein and the entire Board of Regents
Call your local Regent
Let them know that:
*New Yorkers deserve a COMPETENT leader who listens to and engages his or her constituents
*New Yorkers deserve a COMPETENT leader who can handle the concerns and dissenting opinions of educated and involved New York parents.
*John King has let abusive testing and data sharing practices dominate the implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards
*John King runs away from the public.
*John King calls concerned parents “special interest groups.”
*John King is not competent to be the NYS Commissioner of Education
Western New Yorkers for Public Education statement on canceled town hall.
Western New Yorkers for Public Education expresses its disappointment in the cancellation of a
series of town hall forums on the Common Core sponsored by the New York State PTA. Locally a
meeting was scheduled for October 24 at Williamsville North High School. Families, the ultimate
stakeholder in public education, deserve to have to their voices heard by state education officials.
“NYSED Commissioner Dr. John B. King, Jr. blamed ‘special interests’ for dominating a recent forum in
Poughkeepsie, when it was the commissioner who controlled the first hour and a half of the meeting.
When parents began to make critical statements about the impact of state education policy on their
children, Dr. King tried to interrupt the limited time allotted to the speakers,” stated Chris Cerrone,
Springville parent and Hamburg teacher.
Molly Dana, a West Seneca parent, reacted to Commissioner King’s comments “The only special
interests in the town hall meeting held in Poughkeepsie, were parents! So who is denying dialogue?
Commissioner King has canceled the rest of his town hall appearances because he doesn’t like what he
is hearing from parents. Commissioner King, every time you attempt to silence parents, our voices
only grow louder.”
Eric Mihelbergel, a KenTon parent, replied, “If John King thinks parents everywhere in the state are a
special interest group, then we are likely the largest special interest group in the history of the
world.”
“It’s disturbing to see that an official with so much power over the day to day lives of our students
and teachers will refuse to meet with concerned parents in a public setting. Commissioner King’s
tone deaf actions are having the effect of mobilizing thousands of parents to take a more vocal and
active role in advocating for their kids, in spite of NYSED’s lack of leadership and fear of ‘special
interests.’ My children are my special interest,” stated Kara Kane, SpringvilleGriffith Institute Board
of Education member and parent.
Cerrone added, “Commissioner King’s actions during the forum in Poughkeepsie showed a lack of
leadership. The commissioner’s lack of composure is a poor reflection on the New York State
Department of Education and our entire public school system.”
Western New Yorkers for Public Education calls for new leadership at NYSED that will listen to the
families of New York State. WNY4PE will be joining New York State Allies for Public Education on
Tuesday October 15 in a day of action where individuals across New York will be contacting their
elected leaders and Board of Regents members about their lack of confidence in the New York State
Education Department.
For more information visit http://www.wnyforpubliced.com
Diane Ravitch's blog 
King has an ego second only to Andrew Cuomo and Arne Duncan. What a threesome.
A little humor to lighten things…
What occurred backstage with John
King and his advisors after King fled
the stage:
There were several town halls
scheduled to sell Common Core to
the parents of New York state
schoolchildren. N.Y. State Education
Commissioner was the presenter,
with the events organized and
presented by the N.Y. State PTA.
However, after yesterday’s first
suchtown hall, N.Y. State
Education Commissioner King
strong-armed the N.Y, State PTA
into cancelling the remaining town
halls with the following statement:
https://www.facebook.com/nyspta
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“While our goal was to provide
an opportunity to learn and share,
based on review of the initial
October 10 meeting, the
Commissioner concluded the
outcome was not constructive
for those taking the time to
attend.
“Please know that NYS PTA
will continue to work with all
education and child advocacy
partners to keep our members
updated andinformed on
education, health, safety and
welfare issues affecting children
and families.
“We apologize for any
inconvenience this may cause
and express our sincere
appreciation to those who have
given their time to assist with
organizing this initiative.”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Well, you can “review” for yourself
the crucial final 20 minutes of
yesterday’s town hall here—
the colorfully titled YouTube video
“Commissioner King Gets Spanked”:
This meeting was a Rhee-like
farce where King spoke for 2
hours straight, and was scheduled
to to be followed by 1 hour of
public comments and questions.
Note that… ***was scheduled to
be followed…***
The best laid plans…
Indeed, 20 minutes in, neither
King nor the NYS PTA
moderator “could stand the
heat, so they got outta the kitchen.”
They were totally unprepared by
how well-informed and
onfrontational these parents were.
At about the 10 minute mark, one
parent brought up the fact that King
sends his own kids to a Montessori
School which has a curriculum that
is the antithesis of Common Core
as a Montessori school is…
(to quote its wikipedia entry)
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
“… characterized by an emphasis on
independence, freedom within limits,
and respect for a child’s natural
psychological, physical, and social
development….
“… and has these elements
as essential:[1][2]
” — Mixed age classrooms, with
classrooms for children aged
2½ or 3 to 6 years old by far the
most common
“— Student choice of activity
from within a prescribed range of
options
“— Uninterrupted blocks of work
time, ideally three hours
“— A Constructivist or ‘discovery’
model, where students learn
concepts from working with
materials, rather than by direct
instruction.
“Specialized educational materials
developed by Montessori and her
collaborators
“— Freedom of movement within
the classroom
” — A trained Montessori teacher
“In addition, many Montessori
schools design their programs
with reference to Montessori’s
model of human development
from her published works, and
use pedagogy, lessons, and
materials introduced in teacher
training derived from courses
presented by Montessori
during her lifetime… ”
– – – – – – – – – – – –
This disclosure and implied attack
on King pretty much ended things.
King made the dubious claim that
his Montessori school scrupulously
follows “Common Core”
“This totally enraged the audience
of parents as it was and is a
ludicrous and demonstrably false
claim that was rightly met with
skepticism and loud booing,
enraging the crowd… if for
no other reason that folks
don’t like to be lied to or have
their intelligences insulted.
The flustered moderator then
quickly wrapped it up, “We’re going
to allow two more people to speak.”
At which point people began
screaming even louder:
“WHAT HAPPENED TO ‘ONE
HOUR’ ?!!!”
This is absolutely riveting video.
Again, you can see that crucial
final 20 minutes at:
UNTIL THINGS GET CORRECTED-“IT” MUST BE CALLED THE BOARD OF MISEDUCATION!
Through in Bloomberg and you have enough for a foursome. Wonder what the handicap would be?
Diane,
For goodness sake: Yes! John King’s contract should be terminated.
But his sugar mommy Merryl Tisch needs the axe as well. New York State voters need to put pressure on their elected officials to get another appointee who is a true educator.
A true educator is the vanilla bean pod we need; right now, we have Tisch, a bottle of Vanillin. That’s it! Tisch is not the real thing; she’s vanillin the villain.
Tisch and King are not the kind of royalty the people deserve. This very Shakesperean couple are Albany’s own Gertrude and Hamlet. When they are not incestuously busy with each other’s politics, they warming the political thighs of corporate America and Bill Gates.
Both are so far removed from what it means to teach and learn, that I see none other than a termination for both of them.
EXACTLY Who cancelled the
remaining meetings?
King or the PTA leaders? Gates?
If it’s a PTA event, can’t they carry
on without King participating?
Everything’s booked and paid for,
and people have set aside time
to attend.
Since the PTA took a boatload
of Gates money, does the
cancellation of the town halls mean
the PTA is not an independent voice
and representative of the parents, and
instead just puppets of Gates? Or
King? Or whomever?
King’s latest statement is that the
truth is the opposite of this. No,
his latest claim is that those
loudmouth parents who spoke out
at the town hall (in the video) were
phony agents of “special interests”
out to disrupt the event, and deny
“the real parents” an opportunity to
learn and dialogue about Common
Core and school reform. (Is King’s
thought process here the kind of
critical thinking he wants taught in
Common Core?)
A MESSAGE TO ANY OF THOSE
WHO SPOKE ON CAMERA:
Were any of you actual parents?
OR
Were you just pretending to be
parents so you could then disrupt
the town hall event on orders from
your “special interest” masters?
OR
Were you perhaps actual parents
as well as “special interest”
provocateurs out to sabotage
the event, and thus deny
the non-special interest parents
the benefits of the town hall?
Inquiring minds want to know.
And to Commissioner King…
exactly WHO are these nefarious
“special interest” puppeteers who
masterminded the destruction
of the Common Core town hall
event?
Whoever they are, they need
to be rooted out at once, and
exposed for these destructive
forces—the enemies of true
school reform—that they are!
Tell the world!
Let’s study the video once again,
so we can start the process
of identifying and exposing them:
Once those speaking on the
video are subjected to a thorough
interrogation, we can get them all
to “flip”—as they say on THE
WIRE—and give up the names of
those “special interest” bastards who
put them up behave and say what
they did at the town hall!
Most were teachers and I would think that PTA would carry on without “King”. Personally I felt as if King should have been in attendance but made his curriculum leaders do the talking.
On a side note, King wasn’t disrespectful, it was the audience. I was appalled by knowing many of them.
One thing people should remember, ‘we are advocating for children, let’s set the example of how to behave and get our point across.”
There is more to this 26 minute video everyone is watching…. if only everyone else was there.
There are options, I would suggest getting a strong group together to devise a plan rather than screaming and yelling in a public forum.
PTA has a strong voice, they need to use it with their constituents rather than bow their heads. Common Core is a canned curriculum which is derived from the federal government’s push for ‘Race to the Top”…. it is complex and essentially the students are at the brunt of this which is a travesty.
There are other constructive ways to help get this message across without braiding one man…. Common Core is not KING.
If we know what is best for children as their advocates, then I suggest we all start by setting the example. There were children in that audience and there were people standing up with 2 middle fingers extended screaming ‘f u King’. “yeah, now that is what we want to teach the kids….”
Sad, but the truth is….. this was unfortunate.
let’s hope that our voices can get to the hearts of the administrators in Albany.
Robert,
I agree with you about Tisch, but I think that the Hamlet analogy is too generous. I understand your point about the incestuous nature of her relationship with King, but Hamlet was too sympathetic a character to be compared to King. Julius Caesar or Richard the Third might be more fitting. Like many tragic characters, King, Tisch, Gates, Duncan and Bloomburg, are supremely arrogant as well as blind to their own limitations. While Shakespeare and Sophocles have provided the most classic fictional examples of this, there are modern ones as well. I have provided one below. All hail King Heisenberg! What do you think?
HRH88,
I confess, I am not as well read in Shakespeare as I would like to be, given the demands of putting in long hours at work every day and on weekends.
But you are spot on that Hamlet was a sympathetic character, while King and Tisch are synthetic characters concoted from the imagination and realities of Plutocrats whose evil and greed are insatiable.
My apologies to William Shakespeare and Hamlet himself.
Maybe we need to compare King and Tisch to Angela Landsbury and her son in the Manchurian Candidate. Or Norman Bates and his mother had she lived.
I like your clip.
I just watched the video. I’d get fired if I acted like King.
Ray Charles says it for me.
Mommy1: for me, it would be Aretha Franklin singing the Otis Redding song, “Respect.”
But Ray Charles suits me just fine too!
🙂
That’s awesome!!! Get rid of the BUM!!!!!! We have enough of them in Congress!!!
“King went on to state that “Essentially, dialogue has been denied.”
PCTKB!!!
On another humorous note, I just found
this over at STUDENTS LAST:
————————————————
THE KING’S DICTIONARY:
New York – The reigning Commissioner of Education for the State of New York, John King, has released the following dictionary of terms that he would like distributed at any other town hall meetings he deigns to attend.
accountability — fireability, what the King is above
child — learning unit available for sale to corporations (notable exceptions include: King’s child(ren))
critical voices — that to which the King is deaf
democracy — a form of government in which people choose their leaders and their leaders choose not to listen to them because it is time-consuming and inconvenient
dissent — that to which the King is impervious
education — marketplace
educators — pawns
experience — overblown requirement for teaching
evidence — that which does not exist to support the use of Common Core Standards
knowledge — facts, information and skills not necessarily required before implementing state-wide learning standards
money — short cut around democratic process
parent — easily manipulated adult unit in charge of child (see above)
Ravitch — she who must not be named
respect — what silent acquiescence shows
rigor — developmentally inappropriate
schooled — what the King got on October 10, 2013 in Poughkeepsie, NY
special interests — those who disagree with the King’s policies
Town Hall meeting — gathering at which the King speaks and you listen
——————————————–
This is at:
http://studentslast.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-kings-dictionary.html
As a New York State parent of two school-age children, I feel that John King abdicated his authority to direct the education of my children the moment he insulted those truthful, articulate and empowered parents in Poughkeepsie by labeling them tools of “special interests.” I have long disagreed with his policies, but that is not the point here. When King refuses to acknowledge the right of parents to their own opinions about education, he has revealed himself to be an autocrat at heart who should not be in a position of responsibility in our democracy. And Merryl Tisch, who put him in this position, also needs to go.
Add to this ALL NYS elected officials who have supported the corporate core Gates standards.
You are so right! Instead of referring to the standards as CCSS we should refer to them as CCGS (corporate core Gates Standards).
GLCCSS??
I live in Williamsville and I don’t think Williamsville South’s auditorium would have been big enough. They would need Kleinhans Music Hall, or Shea’s Buffalo, or the Buffalo Convention Center to hold all the disgruntled parents in the Western New York Area. The test scores indicated that most students were lacking (I.e. Stupid) and parents don’t like any test or educational system that denigrates their children. Schools should nurture, not do harm to a child’s self worth.
Message to King: Don’t mess with our loved ones. A mom speaking..
“. . . that most students were lacking (I.e. Stupid)”
Yes, and that is how the most vulnerable and innocent of our society come to view themselves from these educational standards and standardized testing regime. What a way to start one’s life being told that one is STUPID.
The ones that are STUPID (as in DF’s) are those GAGA teachers and administrators who CHOOSE to administer these educational abomination malpractices-may they roast in the 21st level of Dante’s hell.
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
The problem isn’t just the common core, but also the whole culture of high stakes testing that comes with it. This is what co-ops instruction and takes the life out of education. Since teachers, principals, schools, and districts, are all evaluated based on the reading and math scores, schools and districts are incentivized to narrow instruction and teach to the test.
Low income districts struggled before the standards were ramped up. Using the common core to fix this makes no sense. Rather than providing support where its really needed they spend hundreds of millions of tax dollars to change up the whole curriculum, While pretening they are addressing the challenges faced by low performing, high poverty, school districts.
Encouraged by Arnie Duncan, and his free-market inspired, peanut sized, vision for our public education, lug-heads, like John King, are running school districts all over the country.
“. . . but also the whole culture of high stakes testing that comes with it.”
And that whole culture is one of epistemological and ontological error and logical falsehoods that render the whole process invalid as shown by Wilson in his never refuted nor rebutted “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: ttp://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700
Brief outline of Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” and some comments of mine. (updated 6/24/13 per Wilson email)
1. A quality cannot be quantified. Quantity is a sub-category of quality. It is illogical to judge/assess a whole category by only a part (sub-category) of the whole. The assessment is, by definition, lacking in the sense that “assessments are always of multidimensional qualities. To quantify them as one dimensional quantities (numbers or grades) is to perpetuate a fundamental logical error” (per Wilson). The teaching and learning process falls in the logical realm of aesthetics/qualities of human interactions. In attempting to quantify educational standards and standardized testing we are lacking much information about said interactions.
2. A major epistemological mistake is that we attach, with great importance, the “score” of the student, not only onto the student but also, by extension, the teacher, school and district. Any description of a testing event is only a description of an interaction, that of the student and the testing device at a given time and place. The only correct logical thing that we can attempt to do is to describe that interaction (how accurately or not is a whole other story). That description cannot, by logical thought, be “assigned/attached” to the student as it cannot be a description of the student but the interaction. And this error is probably one of the most egregious “errors” that occur with standardized testing (and even the “grading” of students by a teacher).
3. Wilson identifies four “frames of reference” each with distinct assumptions (epistemological basis) about the assessment process from which the “assessor” views the interactions of the teaching and learning process: the Judge (think college professor who “knows” the students capabilities and grades them accordingly), the General Frame-think standardized testing that claims to have a “scientific” basis, the Specific Frame-think of learning by objective like computer based learning, getting a correct answer before moving on to the next screen, and the Responsive Frame-think of an apprenticeship in a trade or a medical residency program where the learner interacts with the “teacher” with constant feedback. Each category has its own sources of error and more error in the process is caused when the assessor confuses and conflates the categories.
4. Wilson elucidates the notion of “error”: “Error is predicated on a notion of perfection; to allocate error is to imply what is without error; to know error it is necessary to determine what is true. And what is true is determined by what we define as true, theoretically by the assumptions of our epistemology, practically by the events and non-events, the discourses and silences, the world of surfaces and their interactions and interpretations; in short, the practices that permeate the field. . . Error is the uncertainty dimension of the statement; error is the band within which chaos reigns, in which anything can happen. Error comprises all of those eventful circumstances which make the assessment statement less than perfectly precise, the measure less than perfectly accurate, the rank order less than perfectly stable, the standard and its measurement less than absolute, and the communication of its truth less than impeccable.”
In other word all the logical errors involved in the process render any conclusions invalid.
5. The test makers/psychometricians, through all sorts of mathematical machinations attempt to “prove” that these tests (based on standards) are valid-errorless or supposedly at least with minimal error [they aren’t]. Wilson turns the concept of validity on its head and focuses on just how invalid the machinations and the test and results are. He is an advocate for the test taker not the test maker. In doing so he identifies thirteen sources of “error”, any one of which renders the test making/giving/disseminating of results invalid. As a basic logical premise is that once something is shown to be invalid it is just that, invalid, and no amount of “fudging” by the psychometricians/test makers can alleviate that invalidity.
6. Having shown the invalidity, and therefore the unreliability, of the whole process Wilson concludes, rightly so, that any result/information gleaned from the process is “vain and illusory”. In other words start with an invalidity, end with an invalidity (except by sheer chance every once in a while, like a blind and anosmic squirrel who finds the occasional acorn, a result may be “true”) or to put in more mundane terms crap in-crap out.
7. And so what does this all mean? I’ll let Wilson have the second to last word:
“So what does a test measure in our world? It measures what the person with the power to pay for the test says it measures. And the person who sets the test will name the test what the person who pays for the test wants the test to be named.”
In other words it measures “’something’ and we can specify some of the ‘errors’ in that ‘something’ but still don’t know [precisely] what the ‘something’ is.” The whole process harms many students as the social rewards for some are not available to others who “don’t make the grade (sic)” Should American public education have the function of sorting and separating students so that some may receive greater benefits than others, especially considering that the sorting and separating devices, educational standards and standardized testing, are so flawed not only in concept but in execution?
My answer is NO!!!!!
One final note with Wilson channeling Foucault and his concept of subjectivization:
“So the mark [grade/test score] becomes part of the story about yourself and with sufficient repetitions becomes true: true because those who know, those in authority, say it is true; true because the society in which you live legitimates this authority; true because your cultural habitus makes it difficult for you to perceive, conceive and integrate those aspects of your experience that contradict the story; true because in acting out your story, which now includes the mark and its meaning, the social truth that created it is confirmed; true because if your mark is high you are consistently rewarded, so that your voice becomes a voice of authority in the power-knowledge discourses that reproduce the structure that helped to produce you; true because if your mark is low your voice becomes muted and confirms your lower position in the social hierarchy; true finally because that success or failure confirms that mark that implicitly predicted the now self evident consequences. And so the circle is complete.”
In other words students “internalize” what those “marks” (grades/test scores) mean, and since the vast majority of the students have not developed the mental skills to counteract what the “authorities” say, they accept as “natural and normal” that “story/description” of them. Although paradoxical in a sense, the “I’m an “A” student” is almost as harmful as “I’m an ‘F’ student” in hindering students becoming independent, critical and free thinkers. And having independent, critical and free thinkers is a threat to the current socio-economic structure of society.
Just as bad as Mr. King’s behaviour is the defence offered on his behalf by the state leader of the NY PTA.
Read her excuse making here:
http://nysptapresident.blogspot.com
Can you say Chicken Train?:
That song is just too appropriate for these folks. Yeah, them Ozark Mountain hillbillies (apologies to the DD’s and any other country kin) can be just as relevant today as in the past! A little “hill country wisdom and commenting”.
Let’s open our minds… she was put in a precarious position.
Words, sometimes cannot express exactly what the author wants to convey…. Being Politically correct means that sometimes your own opinions have to be pushed to the waste side.,,
I should know., I was there….. and very instrumental.
Unfortunately the public is only getting pointers from what stakeholders are using as the driving force.
A shame – for sure…….
….I was at the Poughkeepsie Meeting. Sat in the front row, cause I wanted to look directly into the eyes of the man who has stolen the love of school from my 9 year old.
I am a mom, I have two boys (9 and 14) and we reside in the small community of Millbrook NY. No matter if the persons who did speak were teachers, they were most likely parents too….and I trust them to be surrogate parents to my children when they are in their care 6-7 hours a day.
We are a team.
So, I suggest that every parent start attending every BOE meeting and PTA/O meeting (as I have for the last 4 years, and that’s why I was at that meeting in Poughkeepsie) to show the local districts our support and encourage them to break free of the STATES hold on our children’s love of learning and their own love for teaching.
REVOLT…..great history lesson….lets stop talking about how teachers are scared for your Jobs…implementing the CC cause you have to…and lets NOT DO IT ANYMORE.
The claim from King was that local districts have some control…and I agree, so now we should show him!!!! Some of the problem is that not enough parents understand how much power we hold in the accountability dept. But, we are educating ourselves and in turn becoming more involved whether our districts want us there or NOT.
It’s time for WE THE PEOPLE…..Teachers and Parents TOGETHER….No excuses, we are just as much to blame for this mess as anyone else. Let’s listen to each other and lets take back the importance of educating our youth.
I am writing for King’s resignation. His disrespect for anyone to have a voice showed him to be the Dictator of his “Communistic Core” and I will not be silenced….this mama bear will fight for her cubs.
When asked by reporters today who the “special interests” were, King told them “google it.” The Board of Regents meet in Albany next Monday and Tuesday. Perhaps parents who cannot afford the choice of a private school should loudly chant “google it” during the Regents meetings.
It’s time for parents to begin a letter writing campaign to Governor Cuomo and the Board of Regents asking for Dr. King to be removed from his position. Teachers can’t do it because they can get in trouble.
This is antidotal but I believe that every parent has a voice. I live in NY and my children are thriving this year and learning under the new curriculum that our school is using that is aligned to common core standards. I wasn’t surprised to see my exceptionally bright child more engaged in school this year but I was pleasantly surprised to see that my other child (who has many special needs) is understanding math and ELA concepts more deeply. I know that this process has been hard on teachers but my kids are really getting it. I hope NY State can stick with it. Otherwise, I’ll be using CCS at home long after the dust has settled.
Don’t know how old your kids are. Are you aware that kindergartners are being forced to do multiple choice bubble tests?
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/kindergarten-tough-multiple-choice-tests-article-1.1481197
Some educators feel that some parts of the standards, especially for younger children, are not developmentally appropriate. It is my understanding that the standards were developed for high school and then spiraled down for the younger grades. It is in the younger grades that the implementation, at any rate, has gotten especially, um, crazy. Certainly bubble tests in kindergarten are not something that I would have wanted for my children when they were five years old.
Some people like the standards, but don’t approve of the assessments or the way that they are being used to punish or fire teachers. Maybe we shouldn’t throw out the baby with the bath water and some of the standards are ok, but maybe they should be tweaked. However, if the people who are developing and implementing the standards refuse to listen to the very people, i.e. parents and educators, who are most affected by their decisions, I don’t see how any constructive change can occur.
Mr.King, your arrogance is intolerable. You need to get off your high horse and listen to the people. Take this common core nonsense and shove it…it helps no one. The entire state if NY would be better off without you, do us a favor and resign. NO ONE LIKES YOU!!!