In a major story today in the New York Times, Governor Cuomo of New York is said to be backing down from his rigid stance on evaluating teachers by test scores. This represents a huge victory for the parents of the 220,000 students who opted out of state testing last spring.
Kate Taylor, the reporter, says that Cuomo may not only reduce the role of testing in teacher evaluation, but eliminate it altogether, which has been the main demand of parents. Parents have been outraged to see their teachers rated by their children’s test scores, which has made the testing more important than any other aspect of schooling. They are outraged to see their school’s resources diverted to test prep and time stolen from the arts, physical education, and everything but the tested subjects of reading and math.
[PLEASE NOTE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES’ STORY THAT THE REPORTER REFERS TO NAEP PROFICENCY AS “GRADE LEVEL.” THIS IS WRONG. NAEP PRIFICENCY IS NOT GRADE LEVEL; IT IS EQUIVALENT TO AN A OR A-. NAEP “BASIC” IS A CLOSE APPROXIMATION OF GRADE LEVEL. MOST NEW YORK STUDENTS ARE BASIC OR ABOVE ON NAEP. ]
But beware, parents. This may be a hoax, a temporary moratorium intended to deflate the Opt Out Movement and cause it to disappear. Do not rest until the law is changed to delink testing and teacher-principal evaluations. The new federal law–not yet enacted–eliminates the federal mandate that Duncan imposed without authorization by Congress. New York may now permanently eliminate this punitive, anti-educational requirement.
New York parents: As Ronald Reagan said, “Trust, but verify.” I suggest turning that saying around: “Verify, then trust.” Meanwhile, to quote an even older saying, keep your troops together and “keep your powder dry.”
The leaders of Long Island Opt Out and the New York State Allies for Public Education have proven to be effective, organized, strategic, and articulate. They have attended every meeting of the Regents, of legislative hearings, of Cuomo’s Common Core task force, and show up wherever they can inform other parents and policymakers. Their dedication and relentlessness made a difference.
I travel the country, and parents everywhere are in awe of the organized parents who opted out in New York. One of every five children did not take the tests, and that number could only go up.
Let’s remain watchful and wait to see what happens. In the meanwhile, this is reason for joy on the day before Thanksgiving.
Democracy works. It can even overcome billionaires when the public is informed, alert, and organized.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Keep the pressure on!!!!!
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Cuomo talking about reducing standardized-test-based evaluation of teachers N.Y. State schools has all the credibility of O.J. Simpson talking about his on-going search for “the real killer” while he was golfing several hours a day (prior to O.J.’s imprisonment, of course.)
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Diane, Well stated.
One might also add some Sun Tzu: “Know thy self, know thy enemy.” “Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy’s strategy.”
Especially a pol like Cuomo.
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I second that. Well stated, Diane.
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Also note that Commissioner Mary Ellen Elia supports evals tied to tests, and that Cuomo can pass the political mess back to her while keeping the policy intact. Also, isn’t it interesting that the Times closed the piece with a comment from Students First.
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Place close attention to what he says, not what you want to hear.
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Pay close attention to what he DOES, not what he SAYS! Let’s put the same pressure on him so that nyc gets fair funding!
Lady Macbeth to Macbeth: Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it.
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“Never Trust a Mole”
Trust the parent
Not the pol
One’s transparent
Other’s mole
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Opting Out is about so much more than just the tests and evaluations. Keep the pressure on to eliminate ALL of the so called reforms.
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Cuomo doesn’t give up. He blames someone else and tries to get someone else to do his dirty work for him. Isn’t it strange that Malatras’s name is all over his policies? Malatras isn’t coming up with this stuff, he could write the memo and have Cuomo sign it – why does he need a direct intermediary?
Now, he’s blaming the Regents and claiming that they can fix this. He’s poised to listen to the task force so he can flip flop gracefully by changing his mind. I don’t think his intentions have changed, just the political areas he’s focusing on and how he focuses on them. This is the same man who decried the Regents and said they shouldn’t give out lots of waivers from his system and is silent when they did – he talks tough but is a marshmallow who cowers from Preet.
The teacher evaluation thing was a way to disempower public schools further by trying to gut their institutional memory and drive people away from being career educators. I honestly don’t think he cared that much about the pension money and salaries – that’s a can being kicked way down the road and has little to do with him now since even if he COULD fire teachers, he’ll long be out of office before that ball starts rolling.
Way fewer people are becoming career educators though. Teachers are extremely demoralized. Sounds to me like his policy worked.
His real game is charter schools because while teacher pensions could give more budget he could put someplace else, eventually, it could never have had immediate impact. Charters are where his backers make money. Charters put way more unionized teachers out of work than a direct firing from the state level. And the state still has authorization policy that subverts local control.
It’s only a matter of time before school choice becomes his buzz words from 5 years ago to justify pushing a damaging policy against public schools. I get the feeling the receivership part of the law was what was really important to him in the last budget battle. While we all wrung our hands over evaluation, Elia is setting up the state to gut local public schools.
The fight isn’t over yet. There may be a fight we win in standardized testing, but we still need to fight for our local schools. Don’t just focus on his right jab, look out for the left hook. We need to counterpunch both this horrible policy that he can now wisely say was wrong in hindsight while his real goals will be met far quicker with receivership.
If those state tests are used to determine school closures, they are still high stakes. Just different stakes and targeting the disempowered and disenfranchised while shying away from the Long Island stronghold of power and wealth except where the communities can’t fight back.
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You make a good point on the receivership issue. Using the bottom 5% as criteria for receivership, it gives the state endless opportunity to create new charters. There’s no guarantee that charters will make any improvement. They should have to do better than the public schools to continue to serve those students. Otherwise, why cause all the disruption?
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There will always be a bottom 5. The more seats get filled at Big Charter Inc, the more the bottom 5 grows, thus creating more charters.
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Opt Out parents will not be satisfied with even a permanent decoupling of student test scores to educator evaluation in NYS. A complete overhaul of the flawed standards and student assessment system must occur. Furthermore, tying individual school status and ranking also corrupts the intention of student assessment. As long as schools and districts are punished for test scores, the entire system is corrupted and results in a continued emphasis on test scores taking a greater priority over a well-rounded and whole-child education.
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I agree completely Chris!
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“Parents have been outraged to see their teachers rated by their children’s test scores, which has made the testing more important than any other aspect of schooling.”
As a NY parent who has refused state tests 3 years in a row, my primary concern is the quality of my child’s education. The Common Core standards and the associated requirements for the curriculum my child must live with every day of the school year are more of a concern than tests and teacher evaluations.
The tests last a few days. The tests and APPR are only one small piece of what NY families are fed up with. We sit with our kids at homework time all year long. It’s the inappropriate standards driving the school day that this mom has had enough of.
We don’t have years to wait for NY State Ed to get it right. Our family “opted out” altogether this year and switched to a private school that is child-centered.
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Below are the comments from a parent n Tennesee via Peter Greene’s blog, Curmudgucation. They summarizes beautifully the frustrations of so many parents around the country regarding the Common Core and their children’s school experiences.
Frustrated Mom
Oh if only it HADNT made its way to the classrooms…
I can state definitively, armed with 5 years of class work from 3 kids collectively spanning 10 grade levels (grades k-9) , that common core is alive and well in Tennessee classrooms. It is faithfully implemented daily and successfully causing it’s inevitable confusion and chaos,turning kids off to both math and reading. They are turned off to math because (at the lower levels especially) it seeks to teach the “why” long before teaching the “what”. It is truly the definition of illogical and kids as young as 1st grade are very articulate about being a combination of frustrated and insulted. Parents everywhere know exactly what I mean. Why are they turned off to reading? because adhering to the standards as written replaced inspiring, well written stories with dry, bland, poorly written materials that often are only excerpts vs. entire stories. They are turned off to reading because the stories are gone. Gone. Intentionally.
I too believed at first that the struggle was with implementation. That the failure to find aligned materials led to this endless stream of chaos, stupid and insulting approach to math and bad, boring “texts” vs. stories and books. But 5 years in Its obvious I am wrong. The chaos isn’t from a failure to properly implement. It is the result of correctly implementing. Common core, properly realized, implemented and taught is, at its core, chaotic, disconnected and backwards. At its core, the CC relies on that chaos, combined with a deep level of developmentally innaprioprite material to appear “rigorous”. The corresponding tests rely on a combination of above-grade-level content and difficult to navigate software to appear “rigorous”.
There is very little about about the CC and its tests that is authentically “challenging” vs. fundamentally “bad”. Unless you count expecting kids to be taught above their developmental capabilities “rigorous”. Unless you count the skills it requires to operate badly designed computer software as “raising the bar”. There is no “there” there. What kids learn during this decade of hell will be in SPITE of the CC – or by accident, or to the credit of teachers who look for “work arounds.” This thanksgiving those teachers are at the top of my list of blessings. Without them- all would be lost. And I mean that. (Which may prove your original point..)
So… Yes. CC made it to the classroom. Now it needs to leave.
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Cuomo has made public education a nightmare for students, parents and teachers. He has no concept of the chaos he has caused, nor does he seem to care. Anyone that does not support public education is not fit to be a steward for the very schools he wants to dismantle. It is unfortunate that New York’s children have been harmed by endless irresponsible testing.
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“The Common Core standards and the associated requirements for the curriculum my child must live with every day of the school year are more of a concern than tests and teacher evaluations.”
But you can see how it’s all connected, right? If schools’ and teachers’ futures are determined by the tests, then they have no choice but to teach to the tests and use the associated curriculum/standards. If you do away with the stakes for teachers and schools, there is no longer any reason for teachers or schools to buy into the ridiculous curriculum/standards or spend time preparing for the tests. If you want a better education for your child, don’t allow your child’s (or any other child’s) test scores to be used as a cudgel against your child’s teachers.
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MarieL, I agree with you completely. I opt my children out here in upstate NY, but the test is only a very small part of the problem. The real issue is that the test and aligned standards drive curriculum (just look at the classwork and homework assignments–any fool can see this). The curriculum has become so rigid, limited, mind-numbingly boring and actually dumbed-down under these “rigorous” standards that it’s amounting to educational malpractice in my view. The curriculum is test prep, and the kids’ grades are now essentially based on test prep,. Elementary school report card grades are now, this year, aligned with the state tests and directly manipulated down–yes, down from what the child has actually achieved– to align with average local test scores of the population. Creativity, innovation, imagination and yes, true critical thinking and intellectual exploration, are all gone from the curriculum. My kids have suffered under this garbage now for four years. Time is running out and I too am considering private school.
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Upstate NYer
What appears to be ‘test-prep’ classroom instruction is in fact the prescriptive nature of the Common Core standards being faithfully implemented by your kid’s teacher(s).
Frustrated Mom in TN got it exactly right:
“I too believed at first that the struggle was with implementation. That the failure to find aligned materials led to this endless stream of chaos, stupid and insulting approach to math and bad, boring “texts” vs. stories and books. But 5 years in Its obvious I am wrong. The chaos isn’t from a failure to properly implement. It is the result of correctly implementing. Common core, properly realized, implemented and taught is, at its core, chaotic, disconnected and backwards. At its core, the CC relies on that chaos, combined with a deep level of developmentally inappropriate material to appear “rigorous”.
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Dienne is 100% correct, Common Core and testing are connected. The tests may last a few days, but the tests are based on CC, and we teachers do not know how valid the association between the two. So while the tests are a few days, they corrupt the entire learning process for the remaining days.
Standards by definition are meant to limit freedom and stifle creativity. There is a constant tension between standardization and innovation. If the balance is skewed too far in one direction, serious problems arise. Too much standardization results in stagnation. Too much innovation results in chaos.
In teaching, the best approach should be competing standards offered as a guide at the local level. Teachers should be free to synthesize a classroom experience from the competing standards that is developmentally appropriate and meets students’ needs. Standardized testing, rather than a weapon to bludgeon teachers, should be a diagnostic tool to help teachers. Technology should assist, not control, in the classroom.
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New York parents ROCK!!!
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Andy you’re a boy make a big noise
Threating our schools gonna be a big man some day
You got mud on your face
You big disgrace
Kickin’ your plan all over the place
Singin’
We will we will rock you
We will we will rock you
Andy you’re a bad man hard man
Shouting on the tube gonna take on the teachers some day
You got blood on your face
You big disgrace
Wavin’ your tests all over the place
We will we will rock you
Singin’
We will we will rock you
Andy you’re an sad man lost man
Pleading with your eyes try to make you some peace some day
You got mud on your face
Big disgrace
New York parents put you back into your place
We will we will rock you
We will we will rock you
singing
We will we will rock you
We will we will rock you
everybody
We will we will rock you
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NYS Parent,
That cheering is from all the New York State Opt-Out parents AND Queen.
Well Done!
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And it is crucial that schools are no longer put in state receivership based on test scores.
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Of course we can’t really believe it until it’s a done deal. But the fact that it’s even being discussed is a sign of hope. Elia needs to start packing her bags and do harm somewhere else. Hillsborough is still paying off the budgeting mess she made just to be a star in Bill Gates’ eyes. But I am sure John King will hire her.
Thank you Opt Out and LI principals who kept the fight going and even now won’t give up!!! Happy Thanksgiving!!!
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“This may be a hoax, a temporary moratorium intended to deflate the Opt Out Movement and cause it to disappear.”
Isn’t a moratorium by definition temporary?
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Normally, yes. But in politics, what is temporary is often permanent.
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I posted this over on Perdido earlier:
I don’t think Cuomo is making these considerations in the face of and against his $$-giving ed reformster supporters. He is most likely doing it with their consent and counsel.
Its a giant pause button being pushed here, thats all. Its not, in any way, a refutation of VAM-APPR, tests, or anything else. They need a pause button to get this right…to weather the current parent storm. The broader hope is that parents need to calm down and disengage, then Cuomo and the ed reform infrastructure needs to rebrand and do ed reform more quietly and then pull the triggers like VAM-APPR when both those criteria are met.
Honestly, at this point, ed reformers and their ideas have started to become sort of the educational infrastructure of the state. Because the challenges to and responses to ed reform in NYS have never been about the fundamental and philosophical groundings, always just the sort of tactical things, ed reform…its language, ideas, corporate vendors, institutional thinking, etc…have become the ground on which NYS education is built. So, again, this VAM thing with Cuomo, its a pause button. VAM-APPR is not going to disappear into the ether. It will come back repackaged, rebranded, and much more quietly…with its goal aways the same: a “scientific” foil to break and remove teachers.
I suspect that what we will see is a moratorium on consequences for a year. Lets not forget, ed reformers and their political whores are willing to adapt, cut, rebrand in order to allow the broader goals and ideas to survive. Because there has been NO institutional (namely union) pushback against the broader philosophy of ed reform (outside of inside-baseball articles, studies, and blogs), the reformers are willing to adapt and change so long as the bigger picture isn’t challenged.
Thats all we are seeing here. Reformers are still running things. They are still winning.
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Anonymous (Perdido Street Blog)
“In politics and government a moratorium is often a face saving measure. It is a way to allow an issue to go away without waving the white flag of surrender. I suspect we will never see testing coupled with evaluations again. It is radioactive at this point. Cuomo will not be governor forever.”
I second the notion.
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Seriously! The vast majority of parental refusals aka opt outs are because tests are flawed, age inappropriate, untested models for profit that use children as guinea pigs.
FURTHER the egregious narrative that Feds will be less intrusive if NCLB/ESEA PASSES IS FALSE!! If it passes it CEMENTS COMMON CORE!!
No matter how many amendments the bottom line in both versions from the House and Senate that’s passed out of conference it specifies STATES WILL CREATE A PANEL all plans will be submitted to them, they then MUST SUBMIT plans to Secretary of Education for approval!!! In other words it must be CCLS aligned!
I’m so sick of the Unions who by the way are deeply entrenched in the reauthorization IF it decouples scores from teachers and of course more funding to jam common core down the throats of children. Nothing about NOT TESTING CHILDREN!
Frankly, refusing tests this year means NOTHING. Yes, nothing!
The new testing company Questar in NY also dislikes big bulky ANNUAL testing. They prefer a model REAL TIME DATA collection and assessment via tablets. They want every keystroke, every lesson, every survey, psychometric data collected and uploaded in the cloud in real time. SEL Social emotional learning is all the rage via competency based education. So called individualized learning. BUZZWORDS!!
Its funneling into workforce pathways. Period. No choices. It will be decided where your child fits in the machine ranking and sorting workers. All designed by corporations for future profits and worker bees.
STOP ESEA OR ITS OVER.
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We Must Stop ESEA!!! You are absolutely Correct!!!! Unions are playing teachers for fools!!! We can NOT let Common Core stay!!
Say NO to ESEA!!!
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As an English teacher in the state of New York, I do not implement the CC standards as written and I do not employ close reading, I do not eliminate fiction for nonfiction, and so forth. Simply put, there’s no evidence-based claim (get it?) that proves that any of it is tried and tested and works. Instead, it turns kids off to learning, literacy, and reading, which serves and suits the Owners Of This Country just fine. I, on the other hand, integrate the social, historical, and cultural context for everything I teach, implement silent sustained independent reading every class to allow kids to read something they are interested in or enjoy, thereby fostering an interest in reading and literacy. My kids love it and we have stimulating, awesome class discussions. I’ve made English fun for them and it’s because of that they’re getting something out of it. I do what’s best for these kids, not for the state, not for the Owners, not for the stupid economy they own, not for international competition and globalization but for these kids who are starting to think of their lives as something meaningful as opposed to ciphers in a maze of hapless servitude.
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All new or fearful NY teachers pay close attention to these comments. Education Ed has encapsulated some of the best advice you will ever get regarding the proper way to deal with directives from no-nothing amateurs and over-paid consultants.
Superbly uplifting commentary Ed!
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English Ed: Your comments confirm the best advice I ever got about teaching. “If what you are doing works, do more of it. If it doesn’t work, stop it.” This is a quote from Nancy Atwell.
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I don’t think we should rest until these tests are GONE and until all the other CC accoutrements are gone.
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I never doubted this would happen because basing teachers’ evaluations on student test scores is so incredibly, profoundly stupid; but it’s still good to hear.
This is what I’d like to know: Do Cuomo and the rest really not know that student scores mostly correlate with their socioeconomic background or are they pretending not to know?
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They know. But all this was never about that. Never about kids. Never about education. Never about education policy. Their bet was that John Q. Public was willing to suspend their disbelief about test scores in favor of their loathing for public sector teachers, their pay, and their pensions.
It was always about creating a space for privatizers. That is a political-economic end-game.
If anything were truly about “the kids” politicians would be worrying about creating a society with robust middle class jobs. That ain’t happening. So “the kids” are really not the concern…..the vast bulk of kids in public school will lead lives of diminished expectation where they, probably mercifully, will never know what was taken from them and what it once meant to be middle class. They will also vote in super low numbers as well, so their interests will never be aired in our system. So no, ain’t about the kids. “The kids” as such are a political liability if they ever come to understand how people’s decisions directly, over the course of decades, stole their futures from them. Best to hand all that over to a corporate entity that will never, ever get in the muck of real education that works to create citizens. Just corporate created, data-driven curriculums that for sure create brain death a solid 7 decades before the rest of the body dies.
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NYS Teacher: Reform today is mostly about monetizing the value of students and products that can be marketed to serve them. The students and teachers have been collateral damage in the pursuit of corporate profit. The CCSS is all one big sales pitch. The testing was never intended to improve public schools; it is meant to undermine them. Testing alone does not improve student outcomes.
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Rage,
Of course the 5,000 teachers will be replaced. Who is going to watch all those children? Nothing is purely budgetary my friend.
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Really?! I wouldn’t be so sure!
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At first when I read the headlines regarding “Cuomo’s shift” in policy I was pleasantly shocked. Upon reflection it’s all about RECEIVERSHIP. That’s what his campaign donors want and that’s who he serves! Tests will still be as important as ever, if your school scores in the bottom five percent it will be labeled and if it happens long enough the school will be put into RECEIVERSHIP! Eventually schools put into RECEIVERSHIP will be overtaken by charter schools, hence Cuomo’s donors get their kickback. Teachers will be under constant pressure to not be in the bottom five percent and continue to teach to the test. Remember, he can decouple test scores from evaluations but if the issue of RECEIVERSHIP isn’t addressed nothing changes!
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Pressures regarding RECEIVERSHIP are moot. The wholesale dismissal of entire teaching staffs are a logistical impossibility. All good, hard working teachers will be protected behind closed doors.
State take-overs have a near perfect record of failure
because magic wands don’t exist.
Roosevelt, LI
Newark, NJ
Paterson, NJ
Jersey City, NJ
Camden, NJ
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Sadly, I think you are right. Thanks for responding.
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Rage,
Good, hard working teachers are endangered. Five thousand teachers are slated to be laid off in Chicago. I am a good, hardworking teacher under a CAP (Corrective Action Plan). Being on the wrong side of fifty is one of the basic requirements. How many ATRs are there in New York City? Are they being protected behind closed doors?
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Abigail
My comment was made in reference to looming state take-overs (receivership) of a few dozen of NY’s lowest performing schools where district superintendents have one year of corrective action and the power to fire and replace staff.
The Chicago layoffs are strictly budgetary – no teachers are being replaced, so the good hardworking teachers cannot necessarily be protected behind closed doors.
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Hey wait a minute. Parents have never said evals are their top concern. The abusive daily curriculum and corporate take over, that’s our top concern. This is no victory for the children or the parents trying to protect them. For the union maybe. Not us. This is yet another smoke screen to attempt to quell the backlash and “give common core a try”. No, we won’t! #stopCOMMONCORE
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And SCCNY has made very clear the biggest problem with letting parents and opt-out do the fighting for us, working teachers. Parents interests are inevitably going to diverge from our interests and here it is. Those who haven’t seen so much the tragedy of our unions NOT picking up the fight, and relying on opt-out, there it is.
Yes, killing the entire reform culture is the goal for sure. I would be the first to say that we need to attack and win against the entire philosophy of Ed reform. However, as a working teacher in New York, VAM-APPR has been the nastiest, most egregious piece….and the one that, if killed, really works towards killing the culture of testing. Parents see it differently. And that’s totally fine. They shouldn’t have to carry our water. The problem is that Cuomo is desperately trying to find that sweet spot where parents itches are scratched and our interests are ignored. Once he finds that spot, he will surely redouble his reform-backed teacher killing efforts.
It’s clear that that spot is beginning to show itself.
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Without tests tied to teacher/school evaluations, the Common Core standards become mere suggestions. Suggestion that most teachers will mostly leave in the new “take-it-or-leave-it” atmosphere. The ESEA re-write is about to eliminate the federal waiver requirement that states implement Coleman’s Common Core standards. This will give cover to any and all political supporters that have been looking for a way out now that CC is the most toxic brand in America.
Peter Greene explains how and why teachers will react once the test pressure is relieved. (Also see Education Ed below)
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/11/has-ccss-affected-instruction.html
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In a sane state not run by the likes of Cuomo, invalidating test scores would invalidate everything else that came with Cuomo’s recent “reforms”, including receivership and weakened tenure.
By the way, the number used to close schools and fire teachers in NY is based on a 1630 on the SAT, brought to you by David Coleman:
http://sullio.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-college-and-career-readiness-is-all.html?m=1
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This is NOT a victory for parents… Nor is it a victory for children! This is (if it holds true) a victory for teachers and only teachers!
While parents do support the elimination of the VAM component, if the testing itself remains, along withe the psychometric data collect it contains, as well as the test if the Common Core Agenda, the this will be a DEFEAT for parents.
Four years of waging this battle has made parents politically savvy and if this “decoupling” occurs and CC remains, we are well aware of the fact that the Randi/Karen//Lily-come-lately opt out support from the unions and hardcore union teachers will dry up faster than a California aqueduct in august!
Parents will be, once again, as it was 2-3-4 years, on their own with a mere smattering of teacher allies, who will now, once again, be too afraid to speak out against the corporate, bureaucratic AND union supported Common Core Test and Torture standards, curriculum and testing!
The REAL “beware” should be going out to teachers… Who through a concerted effort by the Democratic Party (eg Cuomo here and HRC last week), are being sold a bill of lies and deceptions designed to A)buy their vote in 2016, and B) divide the OptOut/Refuse coalition, nullify its effectiveness and reduce its ranks.
You can bet dollars to political donuts that come next year, post election, teachers will be betrayed once again by Cuomo, HRC, and union leadership… And if they fall for this gimmick and walk away from the fight to Stop the Commin Core Agenda, parents will never trust them again and the opportunity that exists from this fight, to finally defeat the bait and switch, manufactured “war between parents and teachers” will be lost.
Defeat the ESEA and the Common Core Agenda in total! Stand united or fall in defeat!
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Michael,
You are right in target.
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I for one would like an apology from Obama, Duncan, and Cuomo for the damage they have done. But I won’t hold my breath. They will likely be too busy claiming they saved your kids and teachers from those darn tests.
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Reblogged this on stopcommoncorenys and commented:
Hey wait a minute. Parents have never said evals are their top concern. The abusive daily curriculum and corporate take over, that’s our top concern. This is no victory for the children or the parents trying to protect them. For the union maybe. Not us. This is yet another smoke screen to attempt to quell the backlash and “give common core a try”. No, we won’t! #stopCOMMONCORE
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We will keeps refusing until we have fair tests, standards, evaluations, and FUNDING!!
End GEA.
End tax cap.
Fix the foundation formula.
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I am surprised that you consider this a victory for parents. A victory for the teachers yes. I believe most parents opting out/refusing are doing so in protest of all of common core, the age inappropriate curriculum, the boring ELA. The whole thing, not just the testing. Parents will not give up until this is gone. This is a divide and conquer tactic by Cuomo. I am even more surprised you are falling for it
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Angela, I included a warning that this might be a trick; declaring a moratorium to take the steam out of the opt out movement. Verify then trust. I don’t trust words from politicians.
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A most unfortunate headline. I have a hard time believing Diane Ravitch doesn’t understand why parents are refusing the tests. I can assure you it has to do first and foremost with our children. Parents reject the whole common core agenda which includes invasive data mining, as well as the inferior standards as well as the inappropriate, costly testing. Is any of that ending?
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Diane Ravitch, indeed, understands, and knows….I thank her everyday for keeping me informed.
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This is NOT a victory for Opt Out Parents, this is a victory for teachers! Our children will still be forced to sit hours for meaningless tests and lose days of instruction time to do test prep. Opt Out Parents want Common Core repealed. There is also more to this than meets the eye. Cuomo would never just give in. He is planning something that is going to be even worse for our children and teachers.
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I agree. He is an untrustworthy snake of the highest degree.
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The whole thing reminds me of the 1958 film, “A Night To Remember” -you know, the one about the RMS Titanic going down.
As I recall much of that movie was a character study of people’s behavior during a disaster…the ignoble vs. the noble…..and, of course, the band that just kept playing on….
As the S.S. Common Core starts to take on water fast, listing seriously to the side, it is fascinating isn’t it to watch the behavior of the people who built this damned boat…this “ship of fools”. They long ago tossed our kids overboard and now, like the proverbial rats, they are biting into each other…. case in point, Andrew Cuomo. Can you imagine being in any life raft with that guy?
Of course, I’m sure most of the so-called “reformers” along with the toadies who sucked up to them will make it to safety -jobs and paychecks intact. And then they will go on to create some equally bizarre monstrosity, perhaps in a school near you. What’s next…..building a submarine while submerged? Yes, be on the lookout for Fiasco 2.0 Meanwhile, let’s hope our country can learn to work together to do what’s right for our kids.
But on this holiday, let’s pause to thank those people who stood up for what is right….the people who spoke out early on, risking their own well-being to take on this educational disaster otherwise known as Common Core.
I think, for example, of the New York State Principals APPR Paper http://www.newyorkprincipals.org/appr-paper and people like Carol Burris -along with the hundreds of educators who have posted here on Diane’s blog. Your intelligence and courage have been inspiring. Thank you.
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Andrew Cuomo’s “shift” in policy is pure trickery to deflate the Opt-Out movement. He would rather keep the testing and data collection vendors and their lobbyists happy, even if it means temporarily decoupling tests scores from teacher evaluation. But the coupling of the latter will resume full course and full speed ahead when Andy boy’s poll numbers go up again, and he can go back to grabbing power. I can just picture him planning this move with Ms. Elia and the lobbyists in a series of closed door meetings. It was probably a “This is what I can do for you if you can do XYZ for me” sort of dynamic.
The ultimate conclusion here is that Cuomo Junior can never be trusted again. He is like a bad boyfriend or spouse. He cheats on you or gives you that very first black and blue on your face – just one time after taking those vows – and you know your parents and best friend are going to tell you to split up with or divorce him because an abuser with that kind of behavior can NEVER be trusted again.
Oh, Andrew. You are so desperate, but so are the little people, and will they, in their vulnerable desperation, be tricked by your shrewd machination?
And that is my own personal issue, I will discolse to readers: Sometimes, I don’t know whether to despise the American masses, who do not get informed, think critcally, and stand up for their interests or to loathe the malevolent seemingly benevolent politicians who manipulate the masses.
Something tells me that Lisa Rudley, a veritable celebrity on the NY state pro-public school circuit and those like her, will not fall for Cuomo’s garbage.
And after all, this IS New York and this IS Long Island. We ain’t exactly sittin’ around knittin’ doilies and sipping Earl Grey. New Yorkers are tough. New York is tough. For Christ’s sake, even the Statue of Liberty carries around a spray of pepper mace under her robe . . . .
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Cuomo is out of political capital and running out of time. This is just another self-serving quasi-epiphany. Another political calculation in his misguided quest for the oval office. You are right RR, New Yorkers are tough and jaded, which is exactly why Cuomo will not pull another trick. He will get all the cover he needs fro the Regents and the new ESEA re-write. Water under the bridge for the bastard. At some point even Cuomo realizes that not every fight is worth losing.
And on a side note:
I hope you all remember to post your “Eating Objectives” for all family members to see. Be sure to point them out at least three times during the course of your meal and be extra thankful that you entered a helping profession that is stronger at its foundation than any corporate reformer, any common core shill, any kool aid drinking, ladder climbing administrator, any no-nothing consultant, or any politician more concerned with their career than the parents and children they should be serving.
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Politicians are no better than “pimps” for corporate power. We have to amend the Constitution to overturn Citizens United.
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Yes, Retired Teacher! Overturn it and burn it!
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Unable to view comments on this post.
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Disregard. Once I posted, I could see the comments. The older comments button lit up in orange — appeared?
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This is great news! But all teachers who were deemed “ineffective” or “developing” should also be exonerated and their ratings should be permanently dismissed. Our students and teachers should have a clean slate as we work to improve our education system.
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I’ve been seduced before … and I’m the wiser for it.
Yes, I’m delighted to see test scores decoupled from teacher evaluations for a host of reasons … but most especially because it will refocus everyone on the progress of students and the appropriate responses to remedies needed for them.
I’m delighted to see the effects this can have on resources for the arts, enrichments, and phys ed … and even simple recess.
But I’m a very wary person now. I’ve seen lots of “maybe promises” and other outright lies. I’ve also been warned that their arsenal … or toolkit … is supposedly well-stocked. I can’t imagine that they’ve stockpiled all of that artillery only to posture for a sort of truce with conditions mostly in our favor. It just doesn’t fit the scenery we’ve been staring at for years.
This time, I’d love to be proven wrong … to be called out for not embracing this magnificent moment. I’ll be okay with those “I told you so’s” IF … when this all plays out … kids are once again back in situations controlled by teachers who will apply their creative decisions as dictated by the child and not by the script.
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You are not wtlrong. This man is a snake.
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“wrong”
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NYSED SURVEY
I read all the comment on the NYSED survey. I took the NYSAPE
survey. I looked at the NYSED survey and it is as difficult, tedious
and off- putting as everyone says. I thought of an easy way to foil
the survey and make a statement.
I clicked on the buttons until I got to a place to indicate feedback.
I then checked “Discard this standard “. In required remarks section,
I pasted
Common core has no evidence showing it works and is a confusing.
inappropriate curriculum. The tests that rely on it have an
inappropriate benchmark and discriminate against minority children and
children with special needs. The regents have too high a benchmark and
serve to bar minority students and students with special needs from
getting a diploma.
I forgot to add
If you want to have a diploma that means something: put enough
resources in the schools using research based techniques (like small
classes) so that when students graduate high school, they actually
know the information they need to get on in the life and they still
like learning.
They try to make it difficult. To get to submit feedback, you need to
put a few spaces behind the last word. Make sure to hit submit
feedback after each entry or you loose it.
They making pasting difficult. You need to click on the upper left
corner of remarks bar to get the cursor. To get paste, you need to
lick around the middle of box (not the cursor).
Because you’re not reading and rewriting standards, my suggestion
makes filling out the survey much faster and sends a message. If we
all did it, it would be hard for Elias to say people support the
Common CORE.Lenore Grandizio
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This was not just a win for teachers. It was a win for teaching.
A win for teaching is a win for children.
A win for children is a win for parents.
The job of the Resistance is not over for sure. But I hope parents can see just how important this first step really is.
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I see the agony teachers are still suffering each day. Excellent, experienced teachers getting “developing” irregardless that their students have IEPs, are special needs or are English language learners and have difficulty with testing…high stakes tests, MOSLS, running records, classroom tests etc. This way of evaluating has NOT stopped even as VAM and Common Core are being questioned and looked at…revamped perhaps. But the beat of bullying administrators, harassment and the demand for data continues on. This should stop immediately while the powers that be reflect on these invalid measurements and curricula that are making for anger in educators and hurting our students. I have never seen teachers more frustrated and wanting to get out of education in my career. And nowhere do I see our union leaders apologizing for supporting this agenda and calling for an immediate stop to its use. This is abominable.
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I agree 100 %. How do we do that? I wonder if this effort has already begun. Anybody know?
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I think the staff cuts at the New York Times have gone a bit too far.
Spaghetti twirlers and Spongebob cannot be taken seriously as educational scribes for the Gray Lady.
At the Times, educational issues are slightly more important than the woes of barren rhinos at the Bronx Zoo. Or the mystery of a dead cat in a water tower owned by the Koch brothers.
They periodically punish staff writers by assigning them to stories about charter schools or teacher ratings or Common Core. Their joylessness bleeds through every word of the articles they scribble. Readers never see the actual flogging, only the suffering articles that infuriate those who know better. But we all understand the agenda of the New York Times.
My favorite is Frank Bruni … a famed food critic with an eating disorder! … who every once in a while walks the educational plank then laments the dreadfulness of American schools and calls for an army of Simon Legrees to whip teachers into tip-top shape. More often than not, Mr. Bruni’s words have the passion of a blow-up doll.
The current Times’ scribbler-punishee is Katie Taylor … who’s most famous for chronicling the woes of some folks related to SpongeBob Square Pants … who is NOT a product of public schools.
Try as she might, Ms. Taylor can’t get her facts quite right about Governor Cuomo’s most recent shrug to scale back … or perhaps eliminate entirely! … the linkage of test scores to teacher evaluations.
Ms. Taylor claims that it was the growing opt-out movement that pushed Mr. Cuomo to his latest reconsideration. I’d like to give Ms. Taylor partial credit for half-truths, but even they’re hard to find in her article.
“In New York, Mr. Cuomo’s push to give test scores more weight in evaluations helped propel a widespread test refusal movement this year, centered on Long Island.”
Memo to Ms. Taylor: Parents pulled their children from testing situation because the tests battered their children … NOT their teachers. AND there was plenty of opt-out power way beyond the borders of Long Island. Credit where credit is due.
I know that makes for gooey politics and sort of botches her attempt to define what she doesn’t understand. Perhaps she can call SpongeBob for a better explanation than I’m supplying.
Ms. Taylor … like lots of area writers … plays very loose with the rules of connect the dots. It’s important that we do our best to set them straight every single chance were get.
The next point is stupefying. I think Ms. Taylor is trying to start a civil war.
Decoupling student test scores from teacher evaluations might bring Cuomo some political peace, but Ms. Taylor thinks all hell is about to break loose because charter schools see their most cherished advantage evaporating before their very eyes.
StudentsFirstNY, a charter school advocacy crowd that endorsed Cuomo vigorously in the last election, is now unsmiling. The organization’s executive director, Jenny Sedlis, was quick on the gauntlet throw-down.
“When only a third of students in this state are performing on grade level, even without evaluations, we know that there’s ineffective teaching going on.”
Oooooh! Dem’s fightin’ words!
I wonder how the spineless union leadership … NYSUT President Magee and UFT pugilist, Michael Mulgrew (most famous for face-punch threats) … feel about that love tap from the charter school bullies. Can’t you see blood in the streets? What fun!
The point of my nonsense is all about nonsense. Never forget that there are few folks on our side … few folks with the right intentions … and fewer folks who are friendly with the truth.
Whether it’s The Times, Newsday, The Daily News or the New York Post … they all have a huge capacity to batter the truth and polish their agenda.
Read them as you would a glamorous-sounding, sticky menu in a roadside dive … with great skepticism.
Fight on.
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Three years ago, the county I work for implemented a new teacher evaluation program. The last group of teachers is now going through the evaluation process for the first time and are faced with the same issues that were faced in the pilot. No evaluation model is going to be perfect, but there are many issues that seem to be evident that need to be addressed.
-There is not enough time to effectively do the number of observations that are required.
-Teachers are choosing student groups and learning objectives that are a “sure thing”
-Including state assessments in the evaluation is encouraging teachers to focus on test prep instead of rigorous instruction
-The state assessments changed shortly after the evaluation model was implemented
-The data collection and portfolio is time consuming and takes valuable planning time away from the teachers
I agree that the last model needed to be revamped and that rooting the model in student achievement and instructional improvement was the right decision, however I don’t think that we are finished. In my opinion, the evaluation model is not improving instruction or student achievement and in some cases may even be hurting both. Because of unresolved issues, administrators are making their own adjustments to the model and in three short years the evaluation has lost its validity.
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