Eva Mancuso, the lawyer who heads the Rhode Island Board of Education, accused the superintendent of schools in Providence, Susan Lusi, of “grandstanding” because she came out against using NECAP as a high school graduation requirement.
Lusi sided with the Providence Student Union, which has steadfastly opposed the use of a standardized test for graduation.
Mancuso and State Commissioner Deborah Gist (a member of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change) have refused to relent in defending NECAP (pronounced Knee-Cap).
As the linked article by Tom Sgouros shows, the choice of this test will disadvantage and harm the state’s neediest students unfairly.
He writes:
“As I’ve written in the past, I have completely failed to find a forum in this state even for simply presenting a technical critique of the use of NECAP tests to anyone in authority. What’s remarkable about this is that a technical critique is more than just a statement of opinion. It’s an opinion about how the future will unfold. What I observe is a natural consequence of arithmetic, statistics, and the choices of the test designers. The results are impervious to the attention they get. Whether anyone listens to the critique or not is irrelevant to whether or not its effects will be felt. To date, I have not heard or seen a single response to my critique that did not rely on purposefully misconstruing it, and it has been endorsed by people who know a lot more about testing than I do.
“If my critique is correct, then lots of kids will flunk the NECAP test, pretty much no matter what. I don’t have to be heard at a Board of Education meeting for this to come true. If my critique is correct, then RIDE is wasting a lot of money forcing school districts to undermine the test they have spent so much money designing and promoting. I don’t have to be on the radio for this to come true. If my critique is correct, performance on the NECAP test will not be well correlated with performance in college or a job. I don’t have to be called by a reporter for a response to RIDE’s many misstatements for this to come true.
“These are serious consequences, with dollar signs attached to them. Not to mention thousands of damaged lives. Unfortunately, they are no longer just future possibilities. At this point, six hundred Providence students, along with over a thousand of their peers around the state, are at risk of not graduating from high school. To some extent their school systems have failed those kids, and to a large extent RIDE has failed them.”
“Policy makers have a responsibility to consider the consequences of their actions. Simply ignoring the possibility of bad consequences — precisely what has happened — is utterly irresponsible. Eva Marie Mancuso and Education Commissioner Deborah Gist, by doing everything they can to shut down debate over their policy, have demonstrated that they simply do not care about the consequences of their decisions. They claim to care about the students for which they are responsible, but belie those empty claims with their actions.”
Read the article to see his many excellent links.
– See more at: http://www.rifuture.org/eva-mancuso-stifles-debate-wonders-why-debate-went-elsewhere.html#sthash.4AI9NeSI.dpuf
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“To date, I have not heard or seen a single response to my critique that did not rely on purposefully misconstruing it,…”
Yes, that’s intentional. It’s intended to convey that not only are they not listening to you, they’re going to paint you as some kind of screwball whackjob so no one else will listen either. And when you try to fight back and get your voice heard, you will be accused of being “shrill” or “emotional” or “grandstanding” or some other sort of dismissive label, further proving that they were right not to listen to you in the first place. “Grandstanding” is especially effective because it implies that you are the narcissist who is all about yourself, whereas they are the noble ones who have the children’s interests at heart.
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Speaking of grandstanding:
Click to access gist_testimony.pdf
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Interesting letter to the editor on Commissioner Gist:
http://www.providencejournal.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/20140206-lee-kossin-gist-should-seek-27-percent-paycut.ece
Home > opinion > letters to the editor
Lee Kossin: Gist should seek 27 percent paycut
February 06, 2014 05:52 PM
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Deborah Gist has been Rhode Island’s commissioner of education since 2009. She is ultimately responsible for the education in this state and already has had over five years to improve it.
Recently we learned that 27 percent of Providence students could not pass the New England Common Assessment Program exam under her tenure. I think Gist should step forward and offer to take a 27 percent decrease in her salary. After all, she apparently believes teachers who have a student for one year should be held responsible for that’s students failure or success while ignoring the educational history (not to mention personal history) of the child.
She has had five years already and should be held responsible for her glaring failure. I think the superintendent of the Providence schools and her staff should be held accountable in the same way. Perhaps that money could be better spent improving student outcomes.
Lee Kossin
Providence
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Deborah Gist is also a proud graduate Eli Broad’s Superintendents Academy. Her illogical pronouncements about the “waiver” process that can allow a student to get a diploma despite a not high enough NECAP score belongs in a fantasy by Lewis Carroll.
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Oh, that explains everything. Their philosophy is “don’t pay attention to the little people”.
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Follow the $$$$$! Cui Bono?
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So now the first amendment is grandstanding?
Wow . . . . .
Let’s all grandstand as hard as we can, therefore.
Granstanding is not illegal.
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it’s not illegal, just not helpful to the discussion.
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“They claim to care about the students for which they are responsible, but belie those empty claims with their actions.”
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