Yesterday I learned that the New York State School Boards Association was running a poll about the Common Core. When I logged on, responses were running heavily against the Common Core. Most respondents said that CC “hinders” education instead of improving it. Some 85% said that it was not liked by local parents.
I posted these results, and the NYSSBA canceled the poll on grounds that the response rate was so high that the results were not accurate. But before I posted it, the results were already overwhelmingly opposed to the Common Core. Don’t blame me for the opposition from school board members who answered overwhelmingly in the negative before I read the results or posted about them.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Never underestimate the influence you have on events of the day.
Reblogged this on Femininican and commented:
Cowards.
They didn’t ‘move’ the goal posts – they removed them.
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Attention all NYSSBA members. What you saw here in 2,700 responses is the just the tip of a MASSIVE iceberg of opposition to the CC standards and the Pearson tests designed to trick, tire out, wear down, and frustrate students into failing. All in order support the false claim that the majority of NY schools are failure factories. In fact most parents in relatively affluent districts moved to their communities BECAUSE of the SCHOOLS! We did not need a multi-million dollar overhaul of the NYS public education sysytem to tell us that impoverished inner city and poor rural school students are struggling academically. And we certainly arent falling for the snake oil claim that CC standards are just so new and amazing that they will help to erase the effects of parental neglect, substance abuse, family dysfunction, poor health care, generational poverty and the hopelessness that comes with it.
Precisely. And where is the proof that by implementing some curriculum (created by whom and field-tested where?) to attempt to reach these goals, that students will achieve to the needed “college and career ready” standards? I think the answer is: there is none.
I guess the NYSSBA only wants to know what school board members think. That’s sad!
From the referenced site:
“Latest Pulse Poll Invalidated
For more than six years, NYSSBA’s Pulse Polls have given school board members the opportunity to express their opinions on critical education issues. However, we are invalidating the results of our most recent poll on Common Core Learning Standards for two reasons. First, the sheer volume of responses to this poll (approximately 2,700 per question) is about four times greater than the number of responses given to typical polls. Second, the poll was shared on social media sites where non-school board members could respond to it. For these reasons, we suspect that the integrity of the poll has been compromised. As a result, we cannot draw any meaningful conclusions from the data. If you come across these results, we ask that you not cite them or portray them as valid.”
Of course the “integrity of the poll has been compromised” as most everyone decided to tell the emperor that he has no clothes and is ugly to boot!
In 2011 there were 697 public school districts in NY (according to nysed.gov). Now if there are, let’s say six board members per district that would be almost 4200 members (if all are part of that organization). 2700 responses would be feasible and perhaps possible considering that CCSS is very controversial. Maybe those responding wanted to be heard on this topic.
I wonder if they had a caveat on the original poll that only NYSSBA members could vote or if there was some mechanism to ensure so.
From the NYSSBA: “Please do not tell me I’m naked and ugly! That’s not playing nice!”
“Compromised Integrity”
Integrity was compromised
It’s taken quite a toll
You mean your own, from Common Core?
No, of the online poll
As a NYSSBA member…I hope they repeat the poll as I’m not so sure it was invalid.
“… canceled the poll on grounds that the response rate was so high that the results were not accurate”
What do they want, ten people to respond and all love Common Core? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the larger the response, the higher the accuracy was.
For a public opinion, a million responses should be more accurate than ten.
i wrote a rebuttal to FORMER Regent Jackson’s FULL PAGE oped in NYSSBA’s On Board and the Editor refused to consider it and was exceptionally patronizing. Thanks to Diane for posting it on this blog where it will get far more exposure. Thank you NYSSBA.
There has been too much money invested in this now. They know … They just don’t want to admit defeat. They will continue to try to fix and push Common Core. It will be revamped renamed and reintroduced at a later date. Politicians will receive campaign donations to push it later under a new name. Same song … different verse.
Thanks for giving me a laugh at three a.m. What was the play where one of the songs was “Don’t nobody bring me no bad news…” We need to do a satire on these people…
I imagine State Education Commissioner King, Chancellor Tisch and their “rock star” Regents Fellows preferred a more “scientific” framing of the poll question, something along the lines of, “Which do you prefer, a Common Core curriculum that prepares your children for success in the 21st century, or that they wind up eating cat food because of the Chinese?”