Arthur Goldstein, a New York City high school teacher, has a great article in today’s Daily News lambasting the Common Core and the tests based on the Common Core.
Goldstein writes that if he gave a test and 70% of his kids failed it, his principal would be outraged at him.
He wonders why state officials predicted high failing rates and then–voila!–the failing rates were as high as they predicted.
He scoffs at those who say that Common Core is the salvation:
“Are our kids failures? Have schools and teachers failed? Have parents failed?
If there is failure, it’s on the part of those who set the curriculum. It’s those who hired teachers and ran schools. It’s those who boasted of the very successes they now paint as worthless.
If anyone has failed, it’s the very people who now tell us Common Core is the answer to all our problems.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Amen.
I hope that everyone affected as a result of “failing” test scores in New York sees this article and others like it. Check out what the Superintendent of the Voorheesville district has to say. vcsd.neric.org/superintendent/.superintendent.htm
Link didn’t work for me.
They both just worked for me, Duane. Reboot?
chemtchr,
I’m talking about AT’s not Diane’s. But thanks for the response!
Duane
Joel Klein certainly didn’t fail. This whole testing fiasco is a sidebar for his agenda, which he describes in this little interview.
http://thejournal.com/articles/2013/08/08/amplifys-joel-klein-talks-tablets-big-data-and-disappearing-textbooks.aspx
He’s giddy with success at the destruction we’re seeing, across all the urban centers the corporate reformers dominate.
Yes, they dominate in many fnthe major cities, but the cities were just the opening front. As Jersey Jazzman reports, the so-called reformers are now beginning to infest the suburbs.
Arne blames students and teachers for testing fraud mandated by his department, but doesn’t have a clue about the backlash by parents – voters.
Allow Arne to OWN Race to the Bottom reform by putting the basket ball in his court. He only seems to understand sports.
Duncan, a political puppet and Gates operative, failed all students, all families, and the US public educational system. Push back and demand accountability for Duncan and Gates. They OWN their failed common core and RTTB (race to the bottom).
Give them credit for cooking the books with their own related high stakes testing A-F scam. Grade Duncan with an F. Watch corporations circle Arne’s wagon as the parents catch on in every state.
Didn’t your parents knock you down every time you tried to walk?
This is from another blog; he explains the contrast between NY and the same issues in Massachusetts and he explains quite well. This type of information needs to get to the hands of parents, school boards, and elected officials.
—————————-QUOTE
Gregory McCrea says:
Mr. [former commissioner] Steiner leaves out one important point when he compares reform efforts in New York and Massachusetts. At the same time Massachusetts was demanding higher standards through their Education Reform Act, they were dramatically increasing funding to public schools. In fact, from 1993-2002, state spending on public schools increased 8% a year, for a total of over $2 billion.
New York has failed to do the same. Instead, funding for schools in New York has decreased or flat-lined through the political shell game known as the Gap Elimination Adjustment. Despite the politician’s suggestions otherwise, funding has not increased and GEA continues to be the most significant drain on public school funding across the state. More recently, boards of education have had to deal with a tax cap railroaded through by the governor and the legislature. As in Massachusetts decades before, the New York tax cap has made school districts more heavily dependent on state aid which only worsens the funding equation.
Anyone who actually works in a New York public school (something most of the State Ed. bureaucrats have never done) will tell you that the dramatic shift in testing requirements combined with cuts in funding will decimate learning opportunities for New York’s children. Urban and rural schools alike, wrought with poverty, will be forced to redirect funds toward unproven curriculum models and canned materials based on the false promises of Common Core alignment and improved test scores. Music programs will be cut, art teachers will be directed to teach reading modules, class sizes will increase dramatically, and districts will be forced to cut valuable extra-curricular activities. Students will lose enriched learning opportunities and be herded into “interventions” to increase learning and achievement, the very thing that will most certainly not occur.
In his rush to defend his former employer, Mr. Steiner has narrowed his focus on increased standards for all and ignored the influence of funding, poverty, and parental involvement on student achievement (the latter two have the most significant impact). I am disappointed, but not surprised, that he could not offer a more complete review of the challenges facing schools today.
Jean, could you provide a link to that blog?
Jean Sanders: never mind, found the link.