Dear Diane,
I’m the parent in the video who raised the point about Montessori school…http://youtu.be/P_Eiz406VAs (Spackenkill High School. PTA Sponsored Meeting about the Common Core). I hope to set the record straight on my comments.
Sincerely,
Mikey Jackson
As I Was Saying…
Last Thursday evening, I travelled up to Spackenkill High School in Poughkeepsie to attend the PTA-sponsored Common Core town hall where State Education Commissioner John King spoke. I made the hour-long drive by myself with nothing more than a prepared statement I had typed earlier in the day. I was not part of any group. No one lobbied me to go. I had no plans to pick a fight with Mr. King. I was there on behalf of my 8 year old son, his mother and me. I got there very early and thanked the PTA reps for organizing the event while I signed up on the list to make a statement. The PTA told me that Mr. King would not be answering any questions or responding during this portion of the night and would only be listening to concerns.
Before Mr. King gave his presentation, the crowd was told that their concerns would be heard and listened to very carefully. Mr. King went on to give an hour-long PowerPoint presentation and video about the Common Core. Some of it was very interesting. A lot of it made sense. The biggest point I took away from his speech was that we need our kids to do better in math and science to compete in the global job market. That notion makes a whole of lot of sense to me—but the plan of action that the Dept. of Education has decided on to get us there is wrong. It is completely based on number crunching and textbook publisher lobbying, etc. The Board of Ed. can claim whatever statistics they want, but suddenly making great teachers follow scripts or “modules” in the classroom is obnoxious and leaves very little to zero room for any imagination or flexibility in educating. (Homework, for instance, consists mostly of prescribed worksheets.)
My statement was cut short at the regulated two-minute mark and the microphone was turned off. Anyone can see my full statement online, but I wanted to clear something up and finish what I was saying. The NY State Education Commissioner sends his children to private Montessori school. In Montessori, the learning is child-centered and child-specific; from my experience sending my son to Montessori preschool, the kids dictate the speed at which they learn. Common Core and everything that goes along with it could not be more different. Montessori is a proven method of learning. The kids that I know who went to Montessori have all the intellectual benefits that Common Core hopes to achieve. I had no intention of taking Mr. King to task for sending his kids to private school, and I completely understand why someone in the public eye would do so. But after listening to his informative, yet boring, presentation about how great the Common Core is—while knowing how much stress it is adding to my son’s life (and the lives of his teachers, principal, friends, and my parent friends)—I thought Mr. King did himself a giant disservice by not listening to parents’ and teachers’ very real concerns.
The school and district my son attends have always been known for having amazing teachers, arts, sports, and more. Our college rate was already good. Why fix what wasn’t broken? Mr. King, the problems in our schools are community-based problems. This is where you should be putting your attention. How can we make schools in poorer areas just as good as the schools in districts with lots of money? How can we give the districts guidelines, then make sure they know that they are just guidelines and that no teacher or school will be penalized because a seven-year old didn’t fill in a bubble fully? How can we make Art, Music, Physical Education, Technology, Social Studies and reading FICTION just as important as Math and Science? How can we keep big business from influencing how our educrats dictate policy?
This issue is NOT Liberal or Conservative or Progressive. It’s about our kids. My kid. My “Special Interest.” I want him to love school! I want to build him up and let his imagination thrive. The Common Core and the State Assessment tests are hurting our schools, and if Mr. King and the NYS Board of Education don’t want to hear the voices of parents who are on the ground fighting for their kids’ right to learn and be healthy and happy, then they should go get other jobs.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is an excellent post. It is hard to get by the fact that the Commissioner of Education and all the Regents but one (Roger Tilles) send or have sent their children to schools that DO NOT follow the Regents Reform Agenda. We might as well say that our leaders dictate that our kids to take a wonderful new drug, not yet tested by FDA, that will save their lives, but which will not be swallowed, under any circumstances, by their own children. Hmmmm…
It stinks to high heaven. Lipstick on the pig.
Here’s NY Education Commissioner
John King behind-the scenes:
Fabulous! Thank you for echoing my sentiments!
Brilliant:The truth shall set you free.!
Great statement and too bad the mike wasn’t left on so Ms. Jackson could finish what all of us need to hear. These words will help parents across the USA, even those places that are not infected with Common Core. Our parents will lead the way out with their hearts and minds front and center.
As a parent and as a teacher–I not only agree with you but I stand by your side in our fight to return education to the educators so that our children will not only learn but LOVE doing it again!!!
Reblogged this on CNY Teacher.
As many of us have asked numerous times…
If the Common Core (and all the testing, worksheets, modules, and whatever else that come with CC) is so wonderful, so necessary for the future of our country, and so completely important, why haven’t all the elite private schools adopted the whole package?
Ang: you raise the [given inflation] billionaire-dollar question.
I recall being attacked on this blog for launching an ad hominem attack because I posed the same ethical problem: how can so many of the leading charterites/privatizers send THEIR OWN CHILDREN to schools that provide wonderfully enriched curricula that encourage independent thinking while mandating narrow drill-and-kill instruction coupled with docility and obedience training for OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN?
The best the edufrauds can do is not even allow discussion of said question; when it’s raised, simply pout and fume that you are being personally attacked, then curtail discussion quickly followed by shutting it down. *Think State Commissioner John King.**
Even at the risk of publicly putting their feet in their mouth, though, they persist in their singleminded pursuit of making huge amounts of $tudent $ucce$$ on their vanity projects. They actually think Sophocles said: “Rather succeed with fraud than fail with honor.”
They do exemplify, though, another observation that that old dead Greek guy made: “Foolishness is indeed the sister of wickedness.”
Keep speaking and posting truth to power. They are as thin-skinned as they come. You’re having an effect.
Thank you for your posting.
🙂
So, KTA, what you are now saying is that we have two, count em two, ad moninemers?
Better make it three. Let’s see, the edudeformers are a bunch of hubristic hypocritical bottom of the alimentary canal feeders?
Señor Swacker: I would remind you that the alimentary canal serves a useful purpose.
And just useful purpose do the edudeformers serve?
Besides reminding us of the importance of honor and decency and such like…
¿?
A copy editing suggestion: “broke up” should be in quotes, since it was nt this concerned parent who broke up the meeting, but Comissioner Kind, with his hypocritical petulance.
No one questions King’s right to send his children to whatever school he thinks best for them. What people object to is the rank hypocrisy of someone in authority imposing an untested, punitive system on public schools and their students, one diametrically opposed to what his children enjoy.
Think about this…. being the ‘commissioner of education’, having 2 young children, sending them to ‘public school’ where educators are up against all odds… and pretty much everyone is blaming ‘King’.
Ah…. I wouldn’t think it would be advisable…
I served on my school board a couple of years after switching my oldest OUT of private school and mainstreaming her Into public because my youngest was going to go to public and I felt it would be disingenuous if I was serving for a public school board and they would have been in private schools….. Regardless, do you know the cross they carried and still do because of who I was? During the year I was president my daughter’s FERPA rights were violated continuously…. “Hey it is always easy to pick on the boe president’s kids…” Still, a year since my term ended and my daughter still has to be haunted by those disgruntled…
I don’t blame King for protecting his kids… It is a shame that I couldn’t protect mine. Both of my kids were up for their games and unfortunately it became ‘politics’ which my children did NOT deserve.
This may be just my 2 cents…but believe me, a very uncomfortable place for young children.
Why are people with little or zero direct experience in public education creating and implementing its policies?
John King – New York State Commissioner of Education:
Years teaching: 3 – 1 year private, 2 years charter
Attended: public school (PS 276)
Children attend: private school
Merryl Tisch – New York State Regents Chancellor:
Years teaching: 7 – private school
Attended: private school (Ramaz School)
Children attend: private school
Bill Gates – Chairman Microsoft:
Years teaching: 0
Attended: public elementary, private middle and high school (Lakeside School)
Children attend: private school
David Coleman – Common Core “Architect”, President College Board:
Years teaching: 0
Attended: Public school PS 41, IS 70 and Stuyvesant High School
Children attend: No information available. Does he have children?
Arne Duncan United States Secretary of Education:
Years teaching: 0
Attended: Private School (University of Chicago Laboratory School)
Children attend: public school
Ad hominemmer!!
I believe Arne Duncan’s children attend public school in VIRGINIA (Arlington — I think — not too shabby)… a state that has
REFUSED to adopt Common Core. Check out this link to the Virginia Dept. of Education. Incredibly, among other goodies, it characterizes CCSS as “National Standards.” Manna from heaven! It also states: “Virginia’s accountability program is built on a validated assessment system aligned with the SOL; validated assessments aligned with the Common Core do not exist.” Granted, this was written in 2010, but still…. http://www.doe.virginia.gov/news/news_releases/2010/jun24.shtml
I live in Virginia, and you are correct. The SOLs were restrictive enough, but after a decade or so, we’re at peace with it. (honestly, it’s not so different from the old Regents requirements, except it starts in elementary school and everyone, with very few exceptions, has to pass them). Virginia was, along with Texas, an early adopter of the test-score accountability game, so the state has been able to tweak the system and make it work on our terms. Virginia was on the board that helped develop CC, but we don’t use it, because we want to retain flexibility. If we didn’t have standards already, sure. But we’re good now, so no thanks. THis article does a good job describing it – http://www.schoolimprovement.com/common-core-360/blog/Virginia-and-the-Common-Core-Standards/
Mikey Jackson starts at 12:15 in the video. Good Read!
In Tacoma, WA, we have two public K-8 Montessori schools. I wonder how they will be incorporating CCS?
Here in Denver, CO we also have 3 public Montessori schools. I heard on Tuesday night that at one of the 3 schools, the parents have gotten together to opt out of Benchmark testing = perhaps CCS will be the next to opt out of
Curriculua with scripted lessons are simply a revision of Direct Instruction, a rote learning method in which children repeat the scripted words from the “lesson”. Research from the late 1990’s by High Scope Educational Research Fondation in Ysilanti, Michigan, showed that the children in that program had three times the number of felony arrests (assault with a deadly weapon) by their mid twenties than children who had been in a traditional progam or a special curriculum program developed by High Scope. Another High Scope research is the one quoied that prechool education saves the taxpayers seven times the amount spent for special education, welfare, unemployment, and the prison system later on.
Paul Vallas tried to start this progtam when he was the CEO in Chicago in the late 1990’s. A colleague and I sent him the research. When we spoke at the Chicago Public School budget hearing about the research, he spoke no more publicly about it, but quietly pressured principals into implementing it.
We should not want our children to be subjected to a program/curriculum that has such disasterous consequences.
Great post. Thank you for providing a forum for a parent rebuttal to Mr. King.
I’ve been attending (some, not all) public meetings on my local public schools for more than a decade now, not as a “special interest” but as a community member and parent, and I have to tell Mr. King, they’re never “orderly” and they’re often fractious.
This part of her piece made me smile, not because it’s outrageous of evidence that she’s a “special interest” but because it’s so familiar to any parent who is accustomed to PUBLIC meetings on PUBLIC schools:
“but I wanted to clear something up and finish what I was saying”
We all sound like that 🙂
Maybe he’s in the wrong job if this sort of direct advocacy upsets him.
I can’t help but think Mr. King’s inability to deal effectively with upset parents and community members comes from the basic untruth of one of the ed reformer’s beliefs; that there is no difference between public schools that are run democratically thru elected boards and charter schools that are not.
If I object to the KIPP program, I have a “choice”. I am obviously not going to CHANGE the KIPP program as a single individual with no elected representation on their board, so I LEAVE. I go to the public school.
That isn’t how it works with parents who are committed to a public school. We don’t leave. We do what this parent did, which is act as a public advocate.
Because King refuses to accept this difference, when he encounters it, he doesn’t know what to do.
Excellent post. I take issue with one part of it, though.
“from my experience sending my son to Montessori preschool, the kids dictate the speed at which they learn. Common Core and everything that goes along with it could not be more different.”
The Common Core (for mathematics, at least) does not, in any way, say anything opposed to what you describe in Montessori schools. In fact, the Standards for Mathematical Practice very much embody this! Prescribed worksheets, scripted lessons do NOT meet these standards for practice. Consider these:
1 Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
Prescribed worksheets are unlikely to involve any sort of real problem-solving that requires perseverance. If they do, I’d be interested in seeing those worksheets!
3 Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
Worksheets and scripts do not provide an opportunity for this.
4 Model with mathematics.
This, particularly, cannot be addressed by scripts and worksheets. This requires students to take a real-world problem, make some assumptions, select and use an appropriate mathematical model, check that model against data and possibly adjust that model, and interpret the results in the context of the situation. This would require that students start where they are and use what they know. This requires individual feedback based on what they’ve done and what they’re able to do. Scripts and worksheets cannot address this.
So I think the problems described here, while legitimate, are not problems with the Common Core standards themselves, but with the inappropriate attempts at implementing them.
Yes, but what do the tests look like? Which types of questions are asked?? In early April, ALL children must be at the same place. If they have yet to master the concept they are labeled “not proficient” = 1 or 2.
Interesting how you were cut short. The last I knew our local school board had a limit of 3 minutes. At our board meetings twice my time was limited and was told to sit down even though my talk asked for nothing for myself or family, only pointing out educational goals. School board members are not required to have a high school diploma, only to get elected. Obviously teachers must have a minimum of 4 years of college yet board members run our schools. How crazy is that?
King sends his kids to private school? Well! That shows where he stands.
Good leadership leads by example, not by taking paths one’s ‘followers’ can’t or don’t take. If folks like Commissioner King and Bill Gates can’t understand and apply this basic concept to themselves, they are not leaders.
Excellent Mikey! Thanks for sharing.
Excellent! This parent makes her concerns and the concerns of many crystal clear.
It is the parents that will rescue students and teachers from the Common Core madness.
Study psychological warfare and all will become clear as to why they do what they do and how to mess them up in their subconscious mind. They have the top level psyops people working for them. I mean former secret service, military intelligence, FBI, NSA, former seals and Green Beret working for them on psyops on you. They are quite good as I have seen them destroy many people with it. I happen to know and use it on them and boy does it work. They are simpletons really. They cannot handle their documents with their name on it and putting the documented proof of their criminality in front of them publically. There is lots of video of me doing this to the LAUSD Board and especially to Deasy. He just loses it. It is so much fun to do and for the public to watch as they cringe and are so uneasy with the truth. This is how we cracked Aquino. Deasy is next. We accept for their replacement nothing else but the public process which is the one thing which is the silver bullet for the vampire of education robbery and destruction. Put this in place in your district and state also.
Robert Skeels is correct, they used that money to destroy all others. Unfortunately in the race against Garcia they did not decide to have only one run against Monica Garcia and that made it easy for her to win. Zimmer won as a result of a candidate giving him her 8,000 votes to prevent the “Nader Effect” in which his ego, and now we know a very large donation from the right wing just before Florida, allowed Bush to win. 5,000 Nader votes which would have gone majorly to the democrats trumps 130 chads. Monica Ratliff won as a result of Diane Ravich and her readers supporting Ratliff in the end. Both won by only 1.8%. In Measure J, which was for $90 billion, $300 billion with interest, we beat them by a narrower margin but we won those three against the larges financial power on the planet. It can be done. Done here 3 times in under 6 months.
Expose them, hammer them endlessly, they cannot take it. They are really wimps if confronted continuously. If LAUSD goes for the iPads we will drive out every board member if they vote for this. As they will have proven that they are worse than the last guys in selling us out and “That is Over.”
What can one expect of mere State officials, when the Congress and President exempt themselves from being included in Obamacare, aka ACA. You can see the hypocrisy when it happens in education, your own domain, but not when it happens in the current administration. Why is that? It must be that you yourselves are fundamentally hypocrites. You bluster about the CCSS, but eventually you’ll swallow that . . . see Duane’s post . . . and bow and bob and weave, because it’s your living. I would hope the public school Montessori teachers will find a way to stay under the government radar, and so continue doing what is right for kids in spite of the monumental tyrannical conspiracy of the CCSS.
This is silly.
My 5th grader is still working on his worksheets…..
Use multiplication and the distributive property to find the quotient ..there are 20 questions….worksheet two has 6 questions…. Find the unknown digits..
Stretch your thinking …. What two digit number multiplied by itself has the product 2,025? Explain how you found your answer.
Then supplying long vowels 15 questions…..
Then use each of your twenty spelling words in sentences ….
Read for twenty minutes
Practice your instrument for twenty minutes
Then memorize twenty spelling words for your test on Monday
I was not sure anyone had seen this so I wanted to share regarding the Montessori School comment. Thank you.
http://13wham.com//news/features/top-stories/stories/nys-education-chief-accused-doublespeak-6623.shtml
We really need to look at the moderators of this meeting. Why did they let Mr. King monopolize the evening? Why did they let Mr. King ramble on for each question asked? And why was he allowed to speak during the statement portion of the evening? The purpose of the meeting was to inform the parents/teachers of Common Core. There was a PowerPoint presentation that did this. Most of the questions asked were yes/no questions, but Mr. King and the moderators let the answers go on for over 15 minutes each. If he was only allowed the 2 minutes per question, then many more questions would have been answered. The whole meeting should have been planned out better.
Go Mikey… well said!
Bravo!!! I have an eighth grade student who has had a 93 over all average for the last 3 years of middle school and because of one state test feels like she is “stupid”. Now it seems that instead of teachers creating our regents test the company who is in charge of state testing will be doing the math and english regents this year. Last year with the new core they “jumped” a year to catch up with the new core standards. Where does that year of learning go? If you are going to raise standards they should be phased in at the elementary level. They are leaving our kids behind in droves. I am so glad other parents are out there trying to fight this and get answers to this ridiculous program. We don’t have Montessori schools in our area but I really wish that was an option for us!!
She’s going to feel a lot stupider if she cant pass the new CCSS 9th grade math test. Its required for HS graduation as of the class of 2018.
The 3-8 tests are a federal mandate. The APPR tests(SLO’s etc) are a result of Cuomo legislation that King opposed. I think you are opposing the wrong person. My thoughts are found here: http://www.coxsackie-athens.org/Page/1307
Randy , you are absolutely CORRECT !
…just saying!
Tying teacher evaluations to test scores was one of the criteria in the Race to the Top contest. It is one of the reason MNYS “won” the contest. It was also the hidden hook that has corrupted the system. APPR had to be implemented at all grade levels in virtually every subject. Cuomo insisted on rushing this component into place before it was required. King may have succumbed to political pressure (as did Ianuzzi) but he could have been a vocal opponent instead of just another Cuomo suck-up. That gravy train scheduled to leave the station in 2016 will never make it.
Let’s not confuse mandate with legitimacy. While the 3-8 tests are a federal mandate, such mandate does not, by any means, confer legitimacy upon them. Standardized tests are inherently unreasonable, rendering the mandate illegal. That federal mandate needs to go. I will not lose any sleep at night if Pearson ceases to line its coffers at the expense of my child (who, by the way, does just fine on standardized tests).
Second, the burden of APPR (teacher evaluations) reflects the state’s commitment to put in place a teacher evaluation system as a condition of the $700 million granted through the federal RTTT program; in essence, you could say this is in response to a federal mandate as well. Teachers have been testifying before our state legislators, saying they welcome being evaluated. It’s not the evaluation, per se, that is objectionable, but the component that correlates teacher effectiveness to student performance on a standardized test. Teachers deserve to be evaluated in a fair and reasonable manner. Evaluations tied to student performance on standardized testing is unfair and unreasonable.
Finally, there was outrage long before the APPR. There was outrage because assessing a child’s “educational worth” via high-stakes standardized testing is just plain wrong and has been for years. And, as we have seen, in many cases it is cruel and destructive behavior perpetrated by government. It is only because of the most recent round of testing that people are waking up and realizing the breadth of its egregiousness. That recent round of testing was a catalyst for long-awaited and long-needed change. I say Cuomo gave us a gift. He single-handedly blew the door to Pandora’s Box wide open and gave legitimacy and voice to a movement that has been objecting to standardized testing since before Cuomo was old enough to run for office. I say, “thank you, Governor Cuomo.” Now it’s our turn. The laws need to change, plain and simple.
I like your take. All hail Sir Andrew Cuomo – the Great Liberator of standardized testing demons.