Having been thoroughly embarrassed by his haughty showing in Poughkeepsie, where parents booed him as he lectured them and brushed off their questions, Commissioner John King and the State Board of Regents want to prove they are not afraid to meet parents. They have scheduled 16 meetings across the state.
With only one exception: there are no meetings scheduled in New York City, where 1/3 of the state’s children are enrolled.
Has he learned to listen? We will see?
Has he learned to treat parents with respect? We will see.
Will we find out why he is skipping the state’s biggest district?
Maybe it was an oversight.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Well I hope they at least compose some quality songs to go with the propaganda campaign. Then we can at least have a tangible piece of this movement to recall when it finally fades away.
Perhaps they can model it after a good Protestant hymn with a couple proclamations and a warning or two. As long as the song-writing sticks with good chorale style hymnody, it should stand the ages. But I certainly do not think CCSS will.
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Here’s a video of NYS education
Commissioner John King behind
the scenes reacting to parents
who want to opt out of Common
Core testing, or who compaing
about Common Core;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvKVkitKOgk
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I believe some are by invitation only and others (majority?) will be open to the public.
However the format will be “different”.
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This is what John King really
thinks of parents who “opt out”,
or even complain
about his “education reform.”
http://www.southbronxschool.com/2013/10/fine-dining-with-new-york-state.html
King draws an asinine analogy
between parents bitching about
Common Core, or excessive or
inappropriate-for-grade-level
testing or whatever…
to…
the lack of restraint to a customer
would show at a restaurant when
that customer has a problem with
the wine or food served to him:
http://www.southbronxschool.com/2013/10/fine-dining-with-new-york-state.html
He puts himself in a higher order
of class than those belly-aching
parents because when a waiter
brings him substandard food or
wine… well… in such a situation,
he doesn’t complain, or send it
back. He sits there and eats it
whether he likes it or not…
(*** actual quote… no joke***)
JOHN KING: “When I’m in a
restaurant, and the waiter opens
the bottle of wine for me to taste,
I never say ‘No,’ send it back,
even if it’s horrible. The same
with my meal; if I don’t like it I’ll
eat it anyway.”
AND DAMN IT!!! THAT’S WHAT
THE PARENTS AND STUDENTS
IN NEW YORK STATE SHOULD
DO AS WELL!!!
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How many meetings they have or is running things is not the issue. They put the cart before the horse is the issue. Develop a curriculum that everyone agrees works, train the teachers, teach the material, then roll out the tests once all that is in place in four or five years.
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What John King needs is a Time Machine and a much less ambitious governor.
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Wrong answer! In their hubris they think they can win public support with a massive PR campaign. It won’t work. They lost the ability to gain trust when they excluded the people who are directly affected by these reforms. People don’t think about and feel things regarding their children and their children’s futures the same way they do when choosing a soft drink or a brand of deodorant. The PR machine is doomed to fail and expose their hypocrisy. I say “bring it on!”
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Let me guess, the new format will include scripted comments and questions.
NYS hasn’t even begun to share with parents its plan to use inBLoom. Wait til parents start to learn about that. You think parents are angry now …well that’s when the %&*$# will hit the fan. NYSDOE hasn’t been able to gain support for CCNS because it’s a dirty deal.
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When the inBloom data mining component hits the fan there will be a parental revolt. Keep in mind the student data collection piece was a required criteria in the Race to the Top contest. In order to earn enough “points” to “win” $700 million,NYS had to commit to inBloom data mining.
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A question about inBloom should be made at every event. Even if they defer it until a later date, it will get people talking.
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Wow. NYC’s union leadership allows him to be the teacher evaluation arbitrator after they and Bloomberg can’t come to an agreement and he leaves the city out of town halls?
Why, the union leadership must be outraged? No? Not a wee bit?
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This union member is OUTRAGED!
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I guess that’s what happens when you sell your soul (and the rank and file membership) for a “seat” at the Common Core reformy table. Who could’ve predicted that the union was only being used for their endorsements and then would be systematically excluded from everything else? Why, just us lowly, dues-paying rank and file members, that’s who!
Shame on Randi Weingarten and the Unity caucus!
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It will be very controlled. Expect some stooges planted throughout the crowd to praise King, the CCS and testing.
Maybe someone should invite the Albany Montessori principal so he or she can tell everyone how they incorporate the national standards so effectively.
Let’s here from the Montessori experts not King.
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You bet the format will be different! Here are some possibilities:
pre-selected audience, guests screened for point of view, by invitation only, narrow range of permissible questions, stringent time limits, on-site security to immediately exit any “disruptive” participants, pre-determined topics for Q&A, participants required to “register” with driver’s license or state id, photographing of license plates in the parking lot, very small or inconvenient venues thereby limiting public access
I’m sure others can contribute to this list.
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Arrested for clapping, hissing or booing. Microphone cut off when King doesn’t like your comment or question. Accused of racism if you disagree with King. Break into small groups and follow the Delphi technique, meant to control the crowd and create the appearance that they want your opinion:
The Delphi Technique was originally conceived as a way to obtain the opinion of experts without necessarily bringing them together face to face. In recent times, however, it has taken on an all new meaning and purpose. In Educating for the New World Order by B. Eakman, the reader finds reference upon reference for the need to preserve the illusion that there is “…lay, or community, participation (in the decision-making process), while lay citizens were, in fact, being squeezed out.” The Delphi Technique is the method being used to squeeze citizens out of the process, effecting a left-wing take over of the schools.
A specialized use of this technique was developed for teachers, the “Alinsky Method” (ibid, p.123). The setting or group is, however, immaterial; the point is that people in groups tend to share a certain knowledge base and display certain identifiable characteristics (known as group dynamics). This allows for a special application of a basic technique.
http://www.learn-usa.com/transformation_process/acf001.htm
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Sounds like a NYC PEP meeting.
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NYSED’s network team institute has perfected the technique: one could only give “pluses” -positives or “deltas”- could be better when critiquing ideas and materials presented. There was no way to express a negative perspective, challenge methods or language, or simply disagree with King’s ideas. Teachers and administrators should boycott this top down, teaching a short story for three weeks, five excerpts from Romeo and Juliet-approach as rigorous–do they really mean rigor mortis? Parents should request elected senators and assemblymen hold their own hearings for their own constituents without the Regents’ or King’s dog and pony show. The Regents represent the 1percent, who do not attend or care about the state of public education, unless it affects their investment portfolios.
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Buffalo is not on the list either. If they have to pick and choose their venues so carefully, the message must not be very compelling.
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Possibly they checked with overtime availability in each city’s police department and the willingness of local politicians to come clap for King and control the crowd. There will be assigned seats so the cheerleaders can sit up front. Wear a charter Tshirt..you’ll be sure to get preferential seating.
Sneak in copies of Reign of Error or make several copies of one review and pass them out to all as they enter.
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Amherst is on the Buffalo border (a large suburb). There are three school districts in Amherst (Amherst, Sweet Home, and Williamsville). Those three districts will easily fill the auditorium. I don’t know how they can hand select the crowd – the parents are angry. The tests results, all of a sudden, indicate their children are dumb. A suburban parent doesn’t want any evaluation which denigrates their “smart” children. They also have seen the homework, have talked to the teachers and administrators, and have listened to their frustrated children who now hate going to school. Don’t under rate a disgruntled suburban mom – worse than any mama bear protecting her cub.
King probably thinks he is safe because he had a welcoming reception when he visited Amherst High School in September, but that was with the administrators and not the parents (who have recently received test results).
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Ellen, please make sure that John King hears from the parents in Amherst and that he does not protect himself by screening out parents.
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Maybe he heard from an influential and well-respected figure in education that urban school parents are powerless?
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That’s real classy how you misrepresent something said by taking it out of context Tim. Reformy much?
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Democrats are as crooked as the republicans in your state and California with their illegal maneuvers for their financial masters. Joke time on us. Yes, King does not want to come to N.Y. City for obvious reasons as their joke on the public is going away as in L.A. They are afraid of the Blowback as a result of Bloomburg and now it looks like Di Blasio will get in and ruin their game. So the payback is to not come where 1/3 of the states students are. Here we are 13% of the state and 50% of the county of L.A. Then you have the fact of the very high funding in N.Y. at over, in N.Y. City, $22,000/student/year. Lots of money for friends. What if that shut off? That is their fear and why they are afraid of coming to the city organized against them, so put on a Kabuki Dance for the rest of the state and see what happens is probably their game plan. Doubt it will work in this environment.
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Linda–Good ideas! One more–all of you bring a copy of Reign of Error to the meeting.
Hold it up–all of you–at intervals–the audience will then become a big, red sea of Reign (no pun intended)–each & every time you ALL hold up your book. No sound effects necessary. It will be a very powerful statement, as “a picture is worth a thousand words.” And. hopefully, it will bring some press attention, such as, “What were you doing? What book did you hold up?”
Then you can tell ’em all about it.
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Obviously an oversight!!!
LOL
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Why bother holding meetings in NYC?
It is already under the dictatorial of the Mayor, and parents and teachers constantly have their noses rubbed in the fact they are powerless. Tisch and King know that needn’t bother, especially since the leadership of the UFT is under their control.
New York City has already been pacified, especially since the UFT/AFT is in bed with the so-called reformers, occasional rhetorical misdirections sent out to snow the membership notwithstanding. NYC was the first target and prize of the edu-profiteers, given its position as a finance and media center, and continues to provide them with dividends.
The current strategic jewel, as Rick Hess indiscreetly pointed out last year, is the suburbs, where vestiges of democratic control linger, and where parents pay high property taxes to fund the schools. Suburban parents’ continued loyalty to their local public schools is a strategic obstacle to successfully completing the hostile takeover of public education.
Here in NYC, the neighborhood public high schools were destroyed years ago, middle schools more recently, and with local public elementary schools the current target. Thus Bloomberg’s desperate effort to impose as many charter school invasions of public school facilities as possible before his departure, and the confusing and demoralizing maze of the kindergarten application process.
The so-called reformers know that if they can break the parents and impose their tests-as-curriculum strategy in the suburbs, they’ll be able to vacuum up the $600 billion-a-year in K-12 spending for the foreseeable future. Thus the freak-out over King’s clumsy mishandling of his dog-and pony show.
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Michael, the days of Bloomberg’s regime are numbered
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Diane, with all due respect, Bloomberg’s regime is ending, but the so-called education reform regime is not.
Even if Bill de Blasio becomes Mayor, and assuming he sincerely wants to defend public education, he faces an immensely wealthy, influential and united front of interests that will insist he carry on Bloomberg’s policies. Tisch, King and Cuomo will still be issuing death threats and death sentences from Albany, they will still have the media echoing the basic assumptions of so-called reform (NPR’s involvement in King’s new round of performances is proof of that), and will continue to have access to unlimited funding.
Additionally, given who is behind so-called reform, De Blasio will need tremendous political skill and capital just to slow down the destruction, let alone reverse it and begin rebuilding public education.
If anything, King’s forays into the suburbs demonstrate how the so-called reformers are expanding the field of battle, especially since they have the UFT co-managing the roll-out of the Common Core and new evaluation systems on their behalf in NYC. I take that as strong evidence they feel they have the city under effective control, at least for the time being.
I hope they and I are wrong, but while King may rightly assume he he won’t get a “civil” response to his snake oil pitch in the city, I don’t think that’s why he’s not coming; I think it’s because, in their eyes, NYC has largely been taken care of.
Yes, the so-called reformers are worried about the new presumptive Mayor, but they will work him over, in public and in private, very hard.
Unless there’s a restive populace of NYC public school stakeholders making noise, resisting and causing disruption, they expect to continue doing what they’ve done, which is marginalize parents, students and teachers in the city. Not scheduling King’s propaganda theater here is strong evidence of that.
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I understand that the new meetings will bypass the parents’ associations and be coordinated by the teachers union NYSUT, which has already endorsed the Common Core and is bed with him and the Gates Foundation..
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The rank and file do not support CCS and they do support children and parents.
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Parents Associations are being dumped as sponsors for their children by NYSUT
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2013/10/8534767/lawmakers-call-education-chiefs-resignation
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