Yesterday, I posted a letter written on behalf of Governor Cuomo by the director of state operations, Jim Malatros. The governor wants to know what should be done about the bad teachers, especially in “deplorable” districts like Buffalo.
Here is an answer from a teacher in Buffalo, posted as a comment on the original:
“As one of those teachers from a”deplorable Buffalo priority school who has condemned a generation of kids to poor education and thus poor life prospects” I take great offense to Mr. Malatras’ comments. Our school is primarily failing because 70% of our students are ELLs who have arrived at our high school without the prior academics needed for success in high school. 30% of our students have little or no literacy in their primary language and many have never been in a school setting until they enter our 9th grade cohort. NYSED has consistently ignored their needs of first learning the English language, learning to read and acquire math literacy before they take the grade/subject level Regents exams. How about letting us provide our students with a strong foundation before condemning us as “bad” teachers because these students are unable to make the grade? In a school with about 800 students, we have been allocated a single reading specialist. Time and time again, research has shown that it takes 7 years for older students to master English and yet you (NYSED) have only allowed an extra year for our SIFE students to get up to speed in school. How about looking at how your unrealistic expectations have created poor life prospects, along with the poverty and inequity of financing our inner city schools that have contributed immensely to the problem?”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
You are correct. We have requested a waiver on the one year requirement. USDE really doesn’t get it….
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On the mark. I suggest your letter be translated into the language groups represented in your school and sent by registered mail to the regents and officials and newspapers who are so eager to judge you and your students as incompetent, lazy, and the rest.
Unless I am mistaken, fluency in any language requires more time to achieve the later in life you start. Teens will have a harder time than younger students.
Alphabetical and grammatical similarities between two languages will ease the path, but vernacular deviations from the standards for proper use, in formal and educational contexts, adds another layer of complexity.
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Thank you. The same can be said for the majority of our New York City schools. My school in Bed-Stuy has 70% ELLs. Our teachers are told everyone should be on the same page, pushing the students along. But what do you do when a kindergarten child can’t count to five in his native language nor in English and has not been in pre-K or daycare? Make him add and subtract just for the sake of data? This also applies to reading and writing. Children need time and exposure. They need to experience and love learning. This is not happening because of the edicts of the USDE, NYS (Cuomo and Regents) and NYC (DOE).
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I think what we have to understand is the governor doesn’t really care about a child’s future. If he did he would find out all aspects that help and hinder a child’s education. He hasn’t done this because he doesn’t care to. All he cares about is helping his rich friends get richer with charter schools. Anyone who cared could see the statistics regarding public and charter schools. Anyone who cared would be relieved to see the majority of teachers were effective or highly effective. Anyone who cared would look to other ways to help our struggling students. He doesn’t care about children or their future; only the future earnings of his wealthy friends and his political future.
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Cuomo’s political future, doomed and damned, for his callous disregard for people and facts.
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I feel your frustration and pain. I was an ESL teacher for over three and a half decades in New York. I too would we considered a deficient due to the students I served. When I taught in the high school for several years and found the needs of the students to be overwhelming. I had 10th graders that could barely write their name and could only do simple addition and subtraction. In those days, we tested to measure progress, but we didn’t have to play a game of false metrics and assigned guilt with the teacher “doing a walk of shame.” No ESL teacher is responsible for the war torn countries, extreme poverty, trauma and loss these students have experienced. Many of my students aged out at 21 and got a GED at night while working. Lots of these students went on to live productive lives as New York taxpayers. I know because I have kept in touch with some of them. Even then, we did not fail them!!!!!
New York needs to get realistic about what it wants to accomplish. The current preoccupation with false metrics and assigned blame is counter productive. ESL teachers are among the most diligent and caring. I know from my work with NYSTESOL and the SED. New York state teachers are among the best trained in the nation. A master’s degree is the minimum requirement for permanent certification, and some have two master’s or a PhD. Following the recommendations of business leaders is a no win situation for the future of New York. and will result in more lawsuits since the expectations do not match the research. The governor should seek the advice of the experts in education, not business. He should start acting like a leader and a problem solver, not a lackey for his campaign contributors. The students of New York need him to make informed, not politicized decisions.
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To Gov. Cuomo: Matthew 7:1-3.
Has Cuomo ever visited a Buffalo public school and observed hard-working teachers in action? I’m guessing probably not because it would wholly contradict the false story he wants to sell to the ignorant and gullible.
Does this country have any journalists anymore?
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Buffalo teachers should deluge him with invitations to teach for just one day. All by himself. No supports. Just him and his apparent educational insight. And a drop-cam that would allow us to watch the disaster unfold.
Your point about the absence of investigative journalism is baffling. time to call out the reformers and their enablers: reporters.
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Cuomo and King have come to Buffalo. My image is of Cuomo in front of Lafayette HS, basically calling the school an embarrassment (his words were harsher). The circumstances did not matter to him, it was the results which counted.
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Cuomo doesn’t care about the facts. Obama doesn’t either otherwise the main focus wouldn’t be test scores, but the whole child. Farina too has been ignoring this because soon the state will strip deBlasio of any control. It’s time for all NYS/NYC parents to opt out until sanity is brought back into the system.
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When sanity (best practices) eventually returns, there will be nothing to opt out of.
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Governor Cuomo has been typical of leaders who dream of a bigger chair and a bigger stage to play on, and his speeches, press releases, memos, campaign ads and letters such as the recent attack on teachers letter is another page right out of the same playbook.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1383051-education-reform-letter.html
For Cuomo to state in his television campaign ad that the most important tools a student has are a kitchen table and a parent is to acknowledge that students without those things, or a lack of consistency/stability in those areas, come to school lacking the most important tools. For him to consistently put himself at odds with the profession that ends up being responsible for trying to combat the loss of those most important tools is not being a “lobbyist for the students” (as he has called himself), it is being a protector of the true status quo: economic exploitation.
In that kitchen table ad during the 2014 campaign for Governor of NY, Cuomo says:
“Over the years, I’ve helped my kids just by being there. That’s why I want real teacher and school evaluations” and “I still believe the best education equipment is the kitchen table, and the best teacher is the parent,”
“Still believe” to me means he always has and still does. So why isn’t he acknowledging that impact on student achievement, and why is the focus entirely on laying blame for underachievement on public schools and teachers? “Just by being there” makes me wonder: being where? In a very well off family and in well-funded schools?
In “Are you a truly bad teacher? Here’s how to tell (by Valerie Strauss) http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/12/19/are-you-a-truly-bad-teacher-heres-how-to-tell/ , Strauss writes:
“But I also think this preoccupation with bad teachers in the absence of the more urgent strategy for attracting and retaining good teachers is deeply unfair to students and in fact, unequally distributed, because it falls much harder on teachers in low-income communities who teach in far more challenging conditions and therefore are much less likely to see visible signs of success on a predictable basis”
While Cuomo can stand back a step, because it supposedly is not his hand that penned this letter-same as he often claims doesn’t (directly) make education policy, he needs to honest-up the narrative. His priority, for whatever reason, has been disempowering the most vital profession when it comes to advocating for the needs of those who need the most. It is time for the governor to listen to teachers.
Because test scores do not account for some of the most significant successes and achievements realized with a growing number of more challenging students.
Because the inequity in resources and funding, and the correlated proficiency rates on standardized tests are clearly a hot potato our leaders lack the backbone and the character to address.
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Cuomo also called for a five year moratorium on the use of standardized tests in that ‘kitchen table’ gag fest of a campaign ad. White sweater, white pumpkin, white noise. And helping his 18 year old daughter with her AP physics homework no doubt.
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‘The governor wants to know what can be done about bad teachers…’ This search for bad teachers has wasted huge amounts of time, money and energy that could have been used for real reform. It puts every teacher in a weakened position and lowers morale. Teaching, by its nature, is already a difficult job…to add the pressure of these mandates puts many good teachers in a frustrated state of mind. Enrollment in schools of education is down and a career in education has become less attractive. Real Reform: universal preschool, lesson study, collaboration, prep time, and a full curriculum including the arts, science labs and computer labs at elementary, academic freedom at secondary.
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Here in Hartford, CT, we face the same issues. I have had classrooms that included 27 students, 24 different languages with me as the only English speaker, and where 100% of the students had never attended school in their lives. Yet, the reformist district somehow decided that these students were in the 10th grade although none of them could do 10th grade level work of any kind. To top it all off, the same district decided that we teacher were failing because we did not have them reading, writing, or doing mathematics (not arithmetic) to a 10th grade level by the first round of testing. Incredible! And, an obvious anti-teacher political ploy on the part of the charter school industry, who many of the district board of education members and the state Commissioner of Education represent.
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here’s my take
http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2014/12/thompson.html#.VJSTy8CceA
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Every licensed ESL teacher in NY State knows what the governor does not. We know it not only from our daily experiences in the classroom, but also from our study of linguistics and second language acquisition.
http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/easl.htm
“Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) , or the context-reduced language of academics, takes five to seven years under ideal conditions to develop to a level commensurate with that of native speakers.”
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I wish we could drop Cuomo in Finland and give him one year to learn the language and then perform on a high stakes end of high school level exam in Finnish. Include Arne in that little experiment.
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Actually….I would not want to inflict Cuomo on Finland…maybe Outer Mongolia would be better…
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The OMS requests that you refrain from inflicting that sort of extreme punishment on our little outpost on this earth. We’d prefer to not have to get the lawyers involved.
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My husband is an Earth Science teacher n the Buffalo Public Schools. His ESL and ELL students are hardworking, but lack the vocabulary to successfully answer the Regents questions.
For example, one of his former students is taking Chemistry and she showed him the question “What is the central atom in Carbon Tetrachloride?” But she didn’t know what the word central met. Once he explained it was the middle atom, she could answer the question.
It’s hard to give answers when you can’t decider the questions.
Ellen T Klock
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The issue goes beyond ELL. Our first-language English students are reaching college without a strong foundation in reading, writing, and arithmetic because the government is so intent on testing them on higher level skills before they can do the basic ones. Students need to learn to read before they can apply “critical thinking” to a text. And most–not all, but most–children are not physiologically ready to read before they are six. What they are ready for are the preliteracy skills that they are being denied because of the rush.
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And remember that Merryl Tisch and Regent Bob Bennett came to Buffalo last year. Teachers were told that they wanted to hear, from our International Schools, about the problems we were experiencing and ideas for educating our ELL students. In truth, they came to insult our InternationalHigh School and to pat themselves on the back for initiating new NYS state regulations that will reduce the number of ESL teachers statewide. They had those new, senseless, anti-ESL regulations in the pipeline before their visit. Merryl Tisch is intensely creepy in person. Bob Bennett is irrelevant but harmful to our local public schools. There was one bright spot, though! One of our local public school advocates dressed as Mr. Monopoly and tossed Monopoly money at the shiny black Caddy SUV that they were cruising around in on the West Side of Buffalo. Shame on Tisch and Bennett.
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This is my response to the letter written by Jim Malatras, Director of State Operations for Governor Cuomo. His letter to the NYSED chancellor and commissioner goes to great to focus blame on teachers for the failings of public education, highlight carefully picked popular teacher-bashing statistics, while also asking that in response to his loaded questions: politicizing is avoided.
Dear Mr. Jim Malatras, Governor Cuomo, Chancellor Tisch, and Commissioner King,
As you know, citizens of the state of New York have an obligation to hold their elected officials responsible for the policies they promote, the people they appoint, and the words they either write or speak-whether it’s campaign season or not. It is one of the most important things we can do: model for our children the civic duties to promote honest, productive leadership for the good of all, and eliminate the destructive policy-making that promotes narrow interests and inequities in opportunity. Although those in education policy and in other leadership positions have spoken strongly about the need for improvement in educational outcomes for public school students, they have chosen to pursue this goal with an attack on public education as the source of problems-while largely ignoring the greater burdens facing students, families, and schools. Despite the ongoing damage of market-based policies and data-driven, investment style formulas- this is the precise type of approach to education that is currently being called “reform”.
We all can agree that this is simply unacceptable.
The citizens of New York believe in leadership with a foundation in good character, informed and guided by the people of the state over the narrow interests that have already divided wealth with growing disparity and reduced opportunity for the majority of people. Character-based leadership would be evident when citizens do not have their value, or the value of their children, defined by a market-driven approach where people are turned into data and that data gets churned in a so-called “value-added” system. A market based approach such as this prioritizes the goals of the market and squanders the true value in public education. While citizens understand that it is difficult for politicians to free themselves from their intimate relationships with big-money donors, advisors driving policy while avoiding accountability, and the desire to remain politically positioned for future campaigns and opportunities, it is more important to promote the needs of the many over the greed of the few. So let’s reframe the narrative regarding education reform. Instead of blatant attack on those coming to schools burdened by the failures in our leadership, and those serving the public in order to address those failures, let’s focus on systemic reform. It is time for leaders to own up to their responsibilities and submit themselves to evaluation and accountability with the same fervor with which they demand those from the public.
As you know, the public has had little influence over the roll-out and roll-ahead of destructive forces behind misguided reforms in our state. The most that concerned citizens have been able to get is a short-lived “listening tour” from Commissioner King, a campaign-season admission from the governor that common core standards were rolled out ineffectively and a television ad regarding the importance of kitchen tables and parents. For the most part, though, officials at the state level have essentially gave up listening long ago and continue repeating talking points and party lines. But parents, students and educators have had, from the beginning, many questions about how leadership in our state and in education policy could have degraded to this extent. What can be done to answer these questions?
In essence, how can we address what is really wrong with how education is currently funded, organized, and evaluated in New York, where the root causes of student-struggles are ignored and the one group continually burdened with undoing the damage done by lack of character in leadership and failed economic and social policies gets blamed?
Please give your opinion on these questions without the typical parsing of words that is the hallmark of those wishing to sound willing and interested while at the same time avoiding responsibility. Truly enlightened policy comes when citizens know what policy makers think.
1. How is the current lack of equity in funding and opportunity for students in public schools a defensible condition if the future of public school systems and teaching careers hang in the balance based results impacted by funding inequities? Data shows that the best funded schools spend in the neighborhood of 80% more per-pupil and enjoy about double the proficiency rates on state tests. State test results being the governor’s go-to criticism of public education should ride tandem with his admission that funding inequities need to be addressed. How does the governor plan on addressing funding inequities?
2. Should students, families, schools and educators be reaped for private and personal data to serve commercial interests? In addition, should testing companies enjoy privacy and protection in the process of test design and scoring when the tests themselves are intended to be used on public school students with results to be shared publicly? The governor’s own reform commission cited the importance of collaboration in moving forward with reform and this approach to assessment is in opposition to that goal. How will the governor increase collaboration with the professionals who understand teaching, learning and the best use for assessments?
3. Along with number 2, should testing companies and third-party vendors enjoy profitable state contracts for creating high stakes tests when actual educators could design and use tests as intended-not as high stakes end-product but to inform instruction and intervention going into the future?
4. Should educators be elevated to enemy number one in the battle for student outcomes when it is the investment/banking/finance industry that has done the most damage to parents and kitchen tables (the most important tools a student can have)and has still enjoyed the greatest protection from policy makers?
5. Should charter schools enjoy promotion and praise without operating under the same level of scrutiny and mandates? Often, charter schools are run by those with few (if any) credentials, have enrollment that can be shaped and filtered, and students that prove difficult or may threaten high proficiency rates are counseled out. How will the practice of creating charters ensure that it is about all students, not just a few, and prevents public dollars from going into the pockets of undeserving private charter-school operators?
6. While promotion to the national level seems to be the reward for an education commissioner that appeared disconnected from the citizens and students of New York, the opportunity for new leadership and a new direction holds promise. What new approach is planned for the next commissioner?
7. Can the many hundreds of thousands of teachers in New York, being paid quite poorly compared to other professionals with graduate degrees, serving in some cases difficult and dangerous student populations in under-funded and over-mandated schools really be called a “special interest”? Can the small group of very wealthy individuals and the corporations looking to cash in on the standards-curriculum-testing-“school choice” agendas be less of a “special interest”? Teachers’ special interest is being allowed and empowered to do what is best for students and to not be made to suffer for doing it. How will education policy moving forward make this possible?
8. While the state regulations describe pathways and opportunities available to all students, the reality is that funding does not support availability of these opportunities to all students in all schools. Can teachers be blamed for this? How will the governor address this?
9. Can the governor, the commissioner, or most of the regents look into the eyes of a student who comes from a violent and broken home and know instinctively how to approach that student first thing in the morning to make the rest of the day go as well as possible? Who among you is willing to admit that the ability to teach, to an extent, is a gift that often can’t be reduced to data on a spreadsheet and the positive gains realized with this type of student are outside of what any standardized test can show. How does the governor plan to honor that gift and reverse the tide of turning education into sterilized training?
It is clear that powerful people are driving the agenda to turn public education into a game of numbers that absolves leaders from the moral obligation to target the true areas of need for reform. The bureaucracy of the wealthy minority (silent advisors, campaign donors and private interests) that enjoys influence over policy that restricts opportunity for the majority of citizens presents a challenge we must face cooperatively. As the commissioner prepares to take his reform agenda to the national level, it will be good to hear his thoughts on how to break free of the status quo of wealth-driven inequity for public school students.
Sincerely,
Dan McConnell
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