Several superintendents in Long Island, Néw York, hope to find a path out of the morass created by Néw York State’s authoritarian Board of Regents, which loves high-stakes testing.
Here is a comment by one of those superintendents:
Opening the Door: An Alternate Way for Public Education
Our public education system is truly at a crossroads. The question is, do we just passively sit and watch big business tycoons, lawmakers and our elected educational leaders at the state and national level to continue the perpetuation of unproven lies? The over standardization of curriculum and testing as well as their stripping teachers of their professionalism and dignity is not what’s best for kids. There is another way…
Three Long Island superintendents, Mr. David Gamberg, Dr. Steven Cohen and I co-organized an Education Forum that focused on solutions to the broken New York State Regents Reform Agenda. School district administrators, teachers and parents gathered on Thursday, March 13th at Stony Brook University for a panel discussion about “Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School.” Book co-authors and education advocates Dr. Michael Fullan and Dr. Andy Hargreaves joined the panel along with school superintendent Dr. Steven Cohen of Shoreham-Wading River, renowned Finnish education expert Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, South Side High School principal Dr. Carol Burris, and Plainview-Old Bethpage assistant superintendent Dr. Tim Eagen. Southold superintendent David Gamberg moderated and I represented the Shelter Island School District as a panelist.
“The worst teachers teach alone” and don’t collaborate with others. “How hypocritical to put them in competition?” Dr. Hargreaves said, in reference to proposed teacher incentive programs tied to student test scores. Dr. Hargreaves and Dr. Fullan explained that the “professional capital” approach toward education is about creating a comfortable atmosphere for teachers to encourage curiosity and creativity in students. They also described the U.S.’s current direction with education as “business capital” since the focus of measuring academic success has shifted toward the reliance of test scores and unproven methods to evaluate teachers and principals.
From a practical sense, teachers need time to collaborate. Most respected professions do this. School leaders must break the industrial revolution public school model of how schools operate and find ways to alter the internal structure (schedule) of their school day to promote “social capital”. Our east end Long Island school districts are partnering together to begin a district collaboration process to promote our human and social capital capabilities. Dr. Cohen, Mr. Gamberg and I are committed to walk the walk of this alternate and research-based path for public education.
In an effort to change the state’s current path toward their misguided view, we are forming a new lobbying effort called “Summer 2014 Education Action Institute.” It is currently in the conceptual stages. Its purpose is to rally parents and community members to encourage elected officials to participate in future workshops and events.There will be more to come regarding our Summer Institute.
Public Education is at a crossroads but it is not broken. Many will lead you to believe it is. Private sector business tycoons do not have the answer nor do our elected Regents in New York State. The answer is not through testing, standardizing and evaluating every single little thing within our public schools. It’s about trusting and building the capacity of our teachers. The door is open to a better way of educating our children. The question is… will you enter and join us?
Dr. Michael J Hynes is the Superintendent of Schools for the Shelter Island School District.
Twitter:
@MikeHynes5
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What an outstanding panel and what an important message! How do I get on the contact list for the Summer Education Action Institute?
Email me at michael.hynes@shelterisland.k12.ny.us
I’ll make sure to contact you.
This looks like a rainbow of hope in a stormy sky.
“. . . to promote human and social capital capabilities.”
More business/corporate discourse terminology rearing its ugly head.
Folks, we’ve got to quit using the edudeformers’ discourse/memes before we can have a chance to counteract them.
“human capital capabilities” puke!
Indeed, the dead language they use is based on their false and misleading premises; accept either one and we lose.
I think you are conflating ‘Capitalism’, with its associated consequences of competition, commodification and alienation, with the non economic use of the term “capital”, in the sense of a resource. The posting argues for the the nexus of professional growth with collaboration and against ‘Capitalism’, which is reactionary and is the basis of education ‘reform’.
These Superintendents clearly oppose the basic tenets of ‘reform’.
I would have no problem with the statement with the term “capital” left out as for me it implies that we view humans and human interactions from an “exploitative” point of view.
We are looking to invest in our teachers and allow them to collaborate and make decisions. Local control is going away and public schools want it back.
I suggest you dip into the writings of contemporary
Radical sociologists, political scientists and cultural critics, such as Henry Giroux, whose analyses confront and oppose the contemporary conservative paradigm. Your opposition to the term “capital”, limits your mode of analysis. At the same moment, it is not worth qubbling about, as you come from a progressive posture.
Love seeing things like this.
Small point, but are the New York Regents really elected?
They are appointed but it is usually a rubber stamp.
Teachers are weary of those who were never in front of a classroom and those who briefly were and ran from the experience finding ways to build their capacity.
“Néw”
Is there a new meaning with new spelled in a new way?
This piece was meant to have the reader pause and think. The current reality of our public education system is moving in a direction that is 100% bad for children. I’m not against reform. The reform needs to take place at State Ed. and the US Department of Education.
Why is there not more of an outcry (or at least a questioning) of this fact: The SAT has been losing ground to the ACT for years. David Coleman of ETS (SAT) is a main writer of the CCSS. Now the SAT “mirrors” the CCSS and makes their adoption a necessity for students and a money-maker for ETS.