Before the elections, Governor Andrew Cuomo in New York offered legislation to defer high-stakes for teachers based on the new Common Core tests. However, he never pushed his own legislation, and it was never passed. Now, he says that he wants a new system because he is disappointed that so few teachers were found to be “ineffective.” Some of Cuomo’s campaign supporters–like the hedge-fund managers’ “Democrats for Education Reform”– want to see teacher evaluation toughened and more teachers fired. Cuomo also appears to believe that if students don’t get high and higher test scores, their teachers are to blame and must be held “accountable.” Most research on teacher evaluation shows that the largest impact on test scores is students’ home life–poverty, nutrition, health, and other factors that affect their motivation and opportunity to learn.
He focused on the relatively few teachers who earned the lowest ratings in the 2013-14 school year, calling out New York City in particular, where 7 percent earned a “developing” rating and 1.2 percent earned an “ineffective” rating. (Just 2.4 percent of teachers in the rest of the state earned one of those low ratings.)
“It is incredible to believe that is an accurate reflection of the state of education in New York,” Cuomo said. “I think everybody knows it doesn’t reflect reality,” he added.
Cuomo did not say what he would consider a more realistic distribution of the four ratings, though he said his vision is to “reward the high performers and give the low performers the help they need.” His comments were the latest indication that he will mount an aggressive charge to change the teacher evaluation law for a fourth consecutive year, this time to make it more difficult for districts to ensure teachers earn top ratings.
The state only determines 20 percent of a teacher’s final rating, leading to a patchwork of plans across the state’s roughly 700 school districts. Cuomo said the current law gave a “disproportionate amount of power” to teachers unions, whose approval is required on all district plans.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m shocked, I tell, shocked! Who would have thought that Cuomo would ever break a promise. Next you’ll be telling me that Obama broke a promise.
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What is interesting to me is how Cuomo can accept Science to make a determination on Fracking but never seeks out educational research to make educational determinations. The hedge fund tail is wagging dog. I believe he is ultimately after the teachers union and pensions.
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I think you’re correct. The hedge fund managers want to get their hands on the relatively healthy, sustainable New York State employee pensions. After they “bet the farm” and lose. they’ll blame the greedy teachers for the debacle, just like they did in New Jersey.
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Oh..so if turnabout is fair play…”“It is incredible to believe that is an accurate reflection of the state of politicians and civic thought in New York,” Robert said. “I think everybody knows it doesn’t reflect reality,” he added. Oh yeah. Money doesn’t talk it screams..said another far more famous Robert (Zimmerman).
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Cuomo has to be watched he, is dangerous.
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The man is a pathological liar. I’m not surprised at all.
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Cuomo is a no nothing nobody. Andre Cuomo would be a NYC garbage man – if he was lucky – if his father was non other than Mario Cuomo. I can just imagine sitting around the family table or living room talking with cuomo if we were related and probably realizing that this guy is a real jerk – you know the uncle who sits around during the holidays going to the toilet and not washing his hands…..thats him….he is a politician who reacts rather than being proactive. This guy sits around and plays boss meanwhile he is so out of touch…omg I can just imagine him trying to work the computer or a smart phone – he is probably one of those ignorant politicians who know nothing about modern tech and quite possibly still has a flip phone….look closely in the next photo you see of him…look fo two things…his cell phone, its a flip and his back side…look for the underwear to be all crumped up after his toilet visit and oh year one other thing look at his hands because he does not wash his hands coming out of the toilet…its been reported by spies in Albany…..So, andy you do not like the new teacher eval eh?? First go wash your hands and leave me your cell phone in case anybody calls.
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Cuomo turned teacher evaluations into a zero sum game where someone must lose. Why can’t all teachers be rated effective? Isn’t that the goal? Kind of like how we want all children to succeed. Why is that unrealistic? It reminds me of my old school professor who graded on a bell curve. It didn’t matter how good the class as a group was, someone was going to fail and that was that.
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Cuomo’s (and Arnie’s) assumption is that since many students are failing, teachers must not be doing their jobs effectively. Since Cuomo, and many others in school reform, have never actually taught, they have no real experience or understanding of the many factors that impact a student’s learning.
It’s all theory to them.
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Well, the idea that children are “failing” is his first assumption. That teachers are responsible is his second. Neither assumption has any basis in fact.
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Via Governor Cuomo on Twitter:
Director of State Operations Jim Malatras sent this letter to John King at NYSED and Board of Regents Chancellor Tisch:
Click to access Tisch_King_letter_12182014_0.pdf
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I notice none of the suggestions for improving education in New York include addressing the funding inequities the state was just cited for. Most the suggestions appear to be a laundry list of top down orders that will do more harm than good, despite some of the “warm and fuzzy” wording.
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Here’s a letter to Cuomo from NYSUT President, Karen Magee, in response. http://www.nysut.org/news/2014/december/nysut-condemns-cuomo-letter-as-clueless
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What would help kids in these so called “struggling” schools the most would be the availability of jobs with good pay for their parents.
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Politics is a dirty business! As teacher we need to remain above the fray and save our clout for only the most important issues. Time to gear up for the Constitution of ny state referendum coming up soon. Save our pension system. Call in our chips for bailing the state and city out so many times with our investing.
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See Michael Fullan’s work, Using the Wrong Drivers for Educational Reform.
Click to access Fullan-Wrong-Drivers1.pdf
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Thank you for this reasoned look at a positive approach to school reform. Not only are we on the wrong path by choosing all the wrong drivers, we are in the middle of a “tsunami of standards and assessments.” Fullan does not explain the reasons behind America’s poor choices. The current driving forces behind our wrong choices are politics and greed. Instead of trying to develop better teachers through collaboration and professional growth, we are stuck in a blame and shame agenda designed to destroy professionalism.
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How sad…Again, just wanting to eliminate teaching as a career profession which benefits our children….Teaching is the last thing they can profit from and ruin.
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This must be part of the new and improved trust-building and collegial collaborative effort around the Common Core, right?
Wait until the scores come out. Public schools are going to get hammered.
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Andrew Cuomo broke a promise to teachers? Today must be a day.
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Dear Governor Cuomo and fellow like-minded minions,
Your hyperbolic statement of public schools being the last monopoly is incorrect. A better analogy is that you and others like you who are making demands of teachers teaching children in public education is analogous to a slave owner demanding his slaves pick more cotton faster than is humanly possible or face punishment for no wrong doing of their own but rather inhumane demands and treatment. The technology of the cotton gin didn’t reduce or eliminate slavery as it was hoped by the inventor but rather ramped up the desire for more profit. The dehumanization of the system was increased as inappropriate, inhumane demands and treatment were thrust upon the captive labor force of enslaved humans in the name of greed and excessive profit. This profit in no way benefitted the enslaved population who were insanely considered property not people in the eyes of the law.
We the Citizens of the United States who teach children in the public school system are not some outsourced industry to some newly industrialized nation where the citizen workers are being exploited because the workforce is abundant and workers are easily replaced once any exploited worker is injured or dies trying to keep up the inhumane pace. That is what Cuomo and his kind want to do. They want to dehumanize the process of teaching and reduce it to a form that is easily replaced by minimally trained individuals. OK so we current teachers with Master’s degrees conferred upon us by New York State are now the wretched refuse because we are doing the job you trained us to do. Your system trained us. If your system was so flawed in our training at that time why would we think you and your kind are an appropriate dictator of the improvement?
Yes there is a breakdown in the system…we realize this as the teachers of children. This is after all the GREAT EXPERIMENT WE CALL THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. We the Amazing citizens of the Amazing United States of America are aware of the authentic improvements that will transform the United States educational system. You Mr. Tammany Boss have misdirected the energy of the educational system in order to kill it and rebuild an outsourced cheaper and inferior product not improve the product so stop espousing that you are improving the system. You are a robber baron of the worst kind. You hide your sincere motives and pretend with your forked tongue to be promoting a reform that will improve the quality of education when the words you really mean to say is a cheaper form of education will prepare the 21st century workforce to be drones that will feel their inferiority and never rise up to speak truth to power.
Today’s educational system isn’t about educating faster and cheaper like exploited labor sewing in a sweatshop. This is about educating human children better not faster and cheaper. Time has come to reallocate resources for new models of public education that value the human capital of teachers who pay to educate themselves as instructed by the rule book with Master’s degrees and seeking continual opportunities to learn, grow, and improve as educators.
We began with a public education model that was noble and valiant to educate all in the 1800’s, and now we want that to evolve into a 21st Century educational model that isn’t about cheaper and faster, or one that lays waste to those students who need more and deserve more. From the accelerated student to the challenged student, and the students from one end of the spectrum to the other who have their own unique leaning needs regardless of scoring the highest or lowest on a test because they all have learning challenges and needs…all students deserve more than the system is allowing these children, yet powerful, ignorant, politicians expect the same accomplishment at the same time from all of these children. We know, you know, and even parent knows each child begins with different physical needs, emotional needs, and educational needs even when born to the same two parents.
The system created by No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top has attempted to create a future workforce that feels it is not enough as a human and deserves less as a person, worker and so he, she, they, don’t ask or expect protections in the workplace and society as a consumer. That is who you Governor Cuomo and others like you are training and what you are training into existence with the laws you have adopted.
We are the amazing citizens of the amazing United States of America, our amazing children are citizens and they deserve smaller class sizes, appropriate models of comparison to the schools that people pay $40,000 dollars a year or more to send their children to as examples of the best ways to educate children. Is my tuition waiver to a charter school going to cover the cost of $40,000? No but your child will get that education and you want to make mine cheaper now by paying the human capital less in order to provide profits to investors. Who will win out in a decision between education improvements and shareholder profits? You can’t be beholden to two gods Andrew and you have demonstrated that your god is the golden idol of greed wrapped in green backs. We the public school products do most of the living, breathing, buying and dying that make the economy move. So we deserve our due, a top of the line educational system.
We aren’t going to be treated like exploited laborers working with a piece of metal…slow down the assembly line Henry Ford…We are teachers working with children and in both cases our work deserves to be valued and justly compensated. Technology is used to improve the process not dehumanize the process, not cheapen the process but rather enrich the process. Fast isn’t fast enough for you Andrew. Where are you racing to because it is the space between birth and death that the race takes place and some of us want it to be more than what you have planned for us? Oh that’s right your race is to the White House so who cares if you step on some children’s bodies in the process. That is your race to the top. Just like Rockefeller you have to tear down a few Italian immigrant grocery stores to make room for progress. Well we citizens, teacher, parents, and students are here to stay to insure a better future for all children in our care because we made and will continue to make a difference in the future of a child.
A sad thought to reflect upon is this following stark inequality, that if you have power and influence nothing in this process matters because you can buy your way through it with expensive private schools or buy influence over the system itself, BUT for the vast majority of us we can’t buy our way into that club of influence. We need a real education that provides real opportunity and not admittance to exclusivity. We are working towards inclusivity. ALL CHILDREN CAN LEARN AND WANT TO LEARN AND LEARN DEEPLY, INTENSELY, PASSIONATELY, AND AT A HIGH DEGREE OF MASTERY AND SOPHISTICATION.
To those of you who think this is a poor hyperbolic analogy let us recall that THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARIES from the streets of Boston to the House of Burgesses who compared their plight as colonists of England to slavery and that was for paying taxes that were less than those paid by the British in mother England without representation in Parliament. Well who is representing our voices when the lines are gerrymandered Andrew.
Sam Adams was a hypocrite after the American Revolution because he condemned those Revolutionary War Veterans in Shays Rebellion for protesting the same way the Sons of Liberty did leading up to the American Revolution. Veterans were mistreated in 1786 too. So Governor Andrew Cuomo you have reached the pinnacle of power like the early revolutionaries and now you want to deny the pathway to others. Your ancestors and mine hailed from Italy on a boat to make something more of themselves with the opportunities in America. Some of those same ancestors like my grandfather and grandmother grew up here in America during the Great Depression and some like my grandfather, gave his last full measure as a patriotic American and died in WWII to preserve the opportunities for future generations like his daughter and grandchildren, nieces and nephews. He didn’t lose his life so those who came after him would have the same struggle he had being exploited and pushing a vegtable cart by age 8. Hard work yes, but not the extinguishing of hard won opportunities.
All children deserve more and to learn how they learn best. Testing that screens learners for how the learner learns best in order to create a well educated, involved, citizenry of excellence is the goal. Stop the smoke and mirrors version of testing that doesn’t improve students and education but rather relegates students to the sidelines sooner because the testing forces them out of the game before they’ve even learned to swing the bat. The tests tell the children they aren’t enough even though the tests aren’t appropriate. You remember this testing you support well the outcome is much like the communist testing of the COLD WAR ERA. All of us who grew up during the 1970’s and 1980’s were appalled by the educational testing that we learned about in history class or while listening to a spotlight biography of an athlete from the SOVIET UNION or another WARAW PACT country during the Olympics. The testing that eliminated opportunities rather than opening opportunities for all.
We teachers are creating leaders with skills to lead themselves and others around them.
We teachers are creating leaders with skills to make the world humane, with skill to be effective problem solvers, and creators of a world where problems are engineered out or minimized before the creation is manifested. We are creating our world…
It isn’t about profit or perfection it is about the journey of excellence.
My words are to inspire the next leg of this journey if you are reading this what can you do to help create a manifestation of this public school of excellence into existence.
Famous people are quoted to inspire us daily and one such quote is
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Winston Churchill . Students and teachers are experiencing the antithesis of this quote when they should be trying and failing and learning and growing in order to bring the best into the present.
Cuomo has teachers chasing their tails like the private sector has employees running a race that sucks the life out of humans. All this exhaustion and defending to prove we are worthy of humane treatment as employees and consumers, who are trying to do our best to maintain our families and communities. OHH Master Andrew don’t sell us away from our family our way of life our opportunity for happiness amidst the labor of slavery. I’ll be good, I promise to be good and behave. Well guess what Andrew we already are good we are amazing. We include all children in our country in the public educational system.
Many maybe even most feel unable to put forth energy to protect what generations before us fought for and what our generation should be rebuilding and expanding to include ever more humans, a decent way of life where we are respected along with the ideals espoused in our pledge to the flag, the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.
And Andrew if public schools are a monopoly, then what are The College Board and Pearson Publishers? Perhaps part of Boss Cuomo’s New Tammany Regime.
Best Regards,
Chris
“In life, surround yourself with those who light your path.”
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When I was in the assessment process for NYS, there was a saying: How do you feel about the cutscores? Evidently our governor measures the validity of the teacher evaluation process the same. My Crazy 8 Ball says the right number is…..?
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Mr. Governor… maybe it’s not the teachers who are ineffective. As a Six Sigma trained professional educator, I can say Man is seldom the root cause of process ineffectiveness. It’s almost always one of the other M’s: Measurement, Methods, Machines, Materials, and Mother Nature.
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Is he still considering running for President in 2016???
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SO WHAT IS NYSUT AND UFT GOING TO DO ABOUT IT??
ALL EYES ARE ON THEM TO FIX THIS
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Nothing to fix yet. Cuomo is just posturing; time will tell if he is really serious. This sandbagging crap makes him look like Luck with the football. He is miscalculating the degree to which teacher bashing can score him political points. He is also making this personal which is a big mistake. Magee’s response was a surprisingly good start.
http://www.nysut.org/news/2014/december/nysut-condemns-cuomo-letter-as-clueless
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“Lucy” of the CB comics – not Luck of the Colts. Ooops.
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