Governor Andrew Cuomo released a report which identified 178 “failing schools,” with more than half in Néw York City. His report was an implicit–if unintended–critique of mayoral control, since the schools in Néw York City have been under mayoral control since 2002.
Cuomo wants the state to take control of the schools he named and turn them over to private management organizations.
“The report aims to bolster Cuomo’s argument that the state should be allowed to seize control of the schools and hand them over to outside organizations. Cuomo’s takeover plan would allow “receivers” to restructure the low-ranked schools, overhaul their curriculums, and override labor agreements in order to fire “underperforming” teachers and administrators.
For another perspective, read Bruce Baker as he rips apart “Angry Andy’s” list of “failing schools,” most of which have been shortchanged by the state.
Baker writes:
“NY Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office has released a report in which it identifies what it refers to in bold type on the cover as “Failing Schools.”
Report here: https://www.governor.ny.gov/sites/governor.ny.gov/files/atoms/files/NYSFailingSchoolsReport.pdf
“Presumably, these are the very schools on which Angy Andy would like to impose death penalties – or so he has opined in the past.
“The report identifies 17 districts in particular that are home to failing schools. The point of the report is to assert that the incompetent bureaucrats, high paid administrators and lazy teachers in these schools simply aren’t getting the job done and must be punished/relieved of their duties. Angry Andy has repeatedly vociferously asserted that he and his less rabid predecessors have poured obscene sums of funding into these districts for decades. Thus – it’s their fault – certainly not his, for why they stink!”
“I have addressed over and over again on this blog the plight of high need, specifically small city school districts under Governor Cuomo.
“On how New York State crafted a low-ball estimate of what districts needed to achieve adequate outcomes and then still completely failed to fund it.
On how New York State maintains one of the least equitable state school finance systems in the nation.
“On how New York State’s systemic, persistent underfunding of high need districts has led to significant increases of numbers of children attending school with excessively large class sizes.
“On how New York State officials crafted a completely bogus, racially and economically disparate school classification scheme in order to justify intervening in the very schools they have most deprived over time.
“I have also written reports on New York State’s underfunding of the school finance formula – a formula adopted to comply with prior court order in CFE v. State.
“Statewide Policy Brief with NYC Supplement: BBaker.NYPolicyBrief_NYC
50 Biggest Funding Gaps Supplement: 50 Biggest Aid Gaps 2013-14_15_FINAL
“Among my reports is one in which I identified the 50 districts with the biggest state aid shortfalls with respect to what the state itself says these districts require for providing a sound basic (constitutional standard) education. Districts across NY state have funding gaps for a variety of reasons, but I have shown in the past that it is generally districts with greater needs – high poverty concentrations & more children with limited English language proficiency, as well as more minority children – which tend to have larger funding gaps.
“I have also pointed out very recently on this blog that some high need upstate cities in NY have had persistently inequitable/inadequate funding for decades……
“Personally, even I was shocked to see the relationship between my 50 most underfunded districts list and Angry Andy’s 17 districts that suck.
NY State has over 650 school districts, many of which may be showing relatively low test scores for a variety of reasons, including & especially due to serving high concentrations of needy students.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
New York State owes my district around $55 million in aid because of the GEA and frozen Foundation Aid. This year it expects to add another $3.5 million to what amounts to an illegal, interest-free loan to the state.
The amount is now nearly the equivalent of the district’s operating budget for an entire year.
@AngryAndy: pay up!
Yup!
Same here. We’ve been shorted nearly 45 million over the last five years. We’ve lost 31 percent of the staff, while enrollment has gone down just 5 percent. Sports teams have been cut, many clubs and activities.
Although promised to be returned eventually, his promise is as solid as his integrity is. Non-existent!
Vindictive Andy now wants gubernatorial control so that he can fire every teacher who voted for Teachout, and replace every public school with a charter. Good luck, Andy–the more your true motives and vengeful nature rear their ugly heads, the more the public is on to you. As the witches warned Macbeth, Beware Macduff!– in this case, a state full of angry parents and teachers
all voters.
“Curriculum” … “Teachers” … “Administrators” .. False causes and targets so that Cuomo can appease corporate interests …. He would be a better man to address issues of poverty but that would require too much honesty and so little personal payback.
I looked through the list, and most of the schools have over 65% poverty rate with many of the schools at 90+%. There were a few anomalies in this pattern. I also didn’t like the way the number of ELLs were reported, as a average of the district. It really fails to give you a real profile of the individual schools. Would Cuomo’s plan, to sell them off to the highest bidder, cancel out the community based initiative from DeBlasio and Farino?
In my opinion, something bold needs to be done, but I doubt privatization is the answer. I would like to see them try some regional magnet schools that would allow students to attend non-failing schools, but I would try to keep poverty under 35%. I think this is about the point of “tippable decline.” I believe students learn a great deal from one another and that having middle class students to model responsibility, impulse control and respect promotes pro-social behavior for students that never lived with too many positive expectations. Of course, Cuomo needs to provide them the adequate funding he owes them. Poverty is still the elephant in the room, but I don’t see any leaders willing to tackle it.
Teachers release list of failing governors. Guess who’s at the top of the list!
That’s a tough question Joseph!
Cuomo?
Christie?
Walker?
Yes, the rheeformers like competition. Rauner is approaching their league.
Is there a list for former governors? Both Bushes
A list of failing reformers & politicians: That sounds like a media campaign the AFT & NEA should initiate.
There are few of any FAILING schools!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I find it interesting that in the United States—where it is a source of pride that we live in a country where accused criminals must be proven guilty in a court of law by a jury and judge after all the evidence is dissected—that an elected governor like Cuomo, without a trial and evidence for an informed jury to weigh, brands any public school as a failure based on arbitrary standardized tests with predetermined failure rates.
I don’t know how many times I’ve repeated this, but there are few of any failing schools.
Standardized test scores come from students/children and alleging that the schools are failing due to those scores ignored what caused those children to end up on a list with failing grades without delving deeper into why those students ended up with that score and how the score was decided.
Imagine the life of a child and-or school being judged by TEN hours of standardized bubble tests when a student spends more than 1,000 hours a year in class being offered the opportunity to learn. If even one student in a classroom learns, isn’t that enough proof that the teacher was doing his/her job.
In every class I taught, there were always students who learned what I taught, and I know why some students don’t learn. Common sense tells us there are other reasons than how a teacher teaches.
What explains why some students in the same class don’t learn what the teacher teaches while some do?
I think we should be finding that answers to that question first.
Right on, Lloyd!
Cuomo’s personal hostile agenda is clear. He wants teachers fired, and schools closed to make way for charters, no matter what he has to do or say to get this accomplished. Period. He set the bar, and now is unhappy with those results, so wants a higher percentage of testing tied to firing teachers, and independent observers to also fling the sledgehammer on firing teachers. Period. What a tool. He is so transparent. But, he is not the King of New York. Parents and students will rebel. Then, how can he blame the unions and the teachers for putting the parents and the students up to defending their community schools? I look forward to the AG putting Cuomo behind bars with Silver. Did you see Cuomo is now purging emails older than 3 months? Something to hide–lots to hide.
Cuomo insists on using Common Core test scores as weapons. Tests that I imagine he has never even looked at. He must be challenged on this point!
We should DEMAND that our self appointed educational “thought leader” sit for the 8th grade math and ELA tests – and release his scores. And if he refuses – so should the rest of the state. This man has not one shred of evidence that shows the Pearson, Common Core tests were developed for evaluating schools or teachers. They have not even been validated for assessing the students who took them. His unsubstantiated “threat to harm” must be challenged in a court of law.
There are 125 school districts on Long Island, only four are on Andy’s hit list. All four are in poor minority districts. One of these districts was taken over by the state in 2002. Yet Andy wants an investigation on teacher evaluations on Long Island.
This is about raising money for a presidential run, not education. Why not just take the high scoring kids in these districts and track them. This was done in a middle school in which I worked. They were given counseling for selecting a high school program as well. I learned later that one went to MIT, one to Berkley, and one to UCLA. Their teachers had also taught students whose scores would have shown these teachers to be ineffective.
In this same school, I employed a reading program (which was soon discontinued by the publisher) teaching reasoning and test-taking skills. Students’ reading test scores went up by two grade levels in one year. Selecting appropriate materials and strategies based on individual need could be a lot easier than destabilizing neighborhoods.
It’s more about deflecting attention from ethics reform. He’s ramping up the attacks on public education out of sheer spite,yes, but many suspect the hidden agenda is to delay any action on anti-corruption laws.
Both of my kids’ schools are on Cuomo’s list. The schools definitely need improvement, but I don’t see any indication of how receivership would help. Firing the so-called incompetent teachers? (Of which I have met very, very few in my 11 years in these schools.) Who the heck are you going to get to replace them? Even now as a district with pretty highly paid teachers it can be difficult to attract decent candidates. I have been on interview committees, and one year our principal felt she couldn’t hire anyone who came in on the initial batch of applicants. What magic bit of honey is Cuomo going to add to the pot to get people to want to come to our schools that are under attack? It seems like only teachers right out of school that want to get their foot in the field would be attracted to this gig.
None. No money; not for TEACHERS. He loves to pay the charter rents, he loves to pay the charter admins. Teachers? Screw the teachers — they are in bed with the union, and you know Cuomo hates teachers and teachers’ unions. Were it up to Cuomo, and Moskowitz and her ilk, teachers would be paid $10 an hour, no benefits. Yet, Moskowitz can somehow rationalize her $600,000 annual salary, and all those pigs with their hands out waiting on their ROI…well, they deserve that too, right?