Superintendent Roy Montesano wrote a powerful letter describing the dangers of Governor Cuomo’s education plan.
He warned that the plan would create a permanent culture of high-stakes over testing; good teachers will be fired, and the judgments of their principals will be disregarded; local control will be eroded (he adds that no one could possibly believe that more control by Albany will improve the performance of the schools of Hastings-on-Hudson); the loss of local control will drag down high-performing districts like his own.
He invites everyone who agrees to sign the petition calling for the repeal of the Cuomo law. The link is included in his letter.
Download the full letter here.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sign the petition…forward the petition…lets take this thing viral. Do your part–now is a critical time!
LikeLike
He writes “while homogenization of schools in the state may help the worst schools, it will make it very difficult to maintain the high performance” of suburban schools like his. NO- these policies hurt all children and all schools. Wow. What a divisive – and baseless- thing to say.
LikeLike
How about “I would like to note that this message and the petition are the solely the product of the superintendents.This is not a ‘union effort’. (In case you wonder, I am not in a union.)”
I guess one can view that statement in a couple of fashions.
My question is: Did he order his district to not give the tests and send the boxes unopened back to the supplier?
These supes know who butters their bread and the vast majority have no cojones to do the right thing and are the lead GAGAers for almost all of these educational malpractices. It has only been after the shit hit the fan for their districts have they started to speak up.
LikeLike
He’s just keeping it real. The sentiment was best expressed by former Westchester Regent Harry Phillips, who liked to say that New York’s schools were the finest in the world as long as you factored out the poor kids.
Then there’s that messy Federal discrimination judgment against Hastings — “Hastings residents especially have this fear that Yonkers is someday going to start marching upwards and engulf Hastings. There are definitely undertones of racial fear and prejudice [in the affordable housing debate] that will only get stronger the longer we wait to diversify the community.”
We’re all in this together, though!
LikeLike
“Amid mounting national pressure on the Obama administration to forgive billions of dollars of federal loans owed by former students of the now defunct Corinthian Colleges, the most powerful man on the education committee in the U.S. House, Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., has remained remarkably quiet until now.
Some federal lawmakers, state attorneys general and student advocates say that those who attended Corinthian Colleges should not have to repay loans after allegations by the Department of Education and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that the company lied to students about job prospects and relied on unseemly recruitment practices. The collapse of Corinthian, which ceased U.S. operations in April, was among the biggest meltdowns nationally in the lucrative for-profit college industry.
Kline said in a statement that he supports loan forgiveness for former Corinthian students.”
Kline was one of the biggest supporters of for-profit colleges in Congress.
It’s kind of amazing that 100 students brought this giant scam down, when no one in DC has done anything about it for 15 years. Good job, Strike Debtors! You go.
http://www.startribune.com/rep-john-kline-says-he-is-in-favor-of-loan-forgiveness-for-corinthian-students/305635251/
LikeLike
Socialized risk, privatized rewards. Shades of Wall Street bailout, only through students.
LikeLike
The Economist had a great piece; “Arne versus the Students” where they explained the student’s strategy. I can’t link to it because it’s paywalled.
They got help. They got pro bono legal help on the bankruptcy aspects, but it is still amazing. 100 students have made more progress on holding for-profit colleges in 6 months than all of DC did in 15 years.
LikeLike
These are their stories. I bet Kline is ashamed. I certainly hope so.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/04/corinthian-colleges-loan-forgiveness_n_7492908.html
LikeLike
When the superintendent states that maybe “homogenization throughout the state may help the worst schools”, it disheartened me because such an action does not help these schools. More funding, small group size instruction, and wrap around services would help them. Engaging parents and training them to become leaders so that they can know how to navigate the system and execute local control for the benefit of student achievement is also a viable option versus putting a school into receivership or taking away local control, which Dr. Montesano so rightfully fears. Preventing poverty before it even occurs outside the schools would also help, as it does in countries like Finland, Canada, and France. It would have behooved Dr. Montesano, per ISLLC 6, to reflect upon that and offer such a notion in his missive.
I almost received the impression that he thought poverty ridden schools can acceptably fall prey to these measures proposed by the governor, but that middle and upper middle class schools should be exempt simply because their attendees’ parents can afford expensive real estate.
His was somewhat of a statement that justice is good enough for his school district and others like it, but really not really good enough for impoverished American and immigrant children.
Is this an upper middle class thing he has going on? Is it a view of democracy that Hastings-on-Hudson holds? I’m wary of generalizations, but I’d like to know.
Other than that, I’d posit that Roy Monetsano is very well intending, and I truly support him otherwise.
Doctor Montesano, I am in back graduate school and doing an administrative internship. As a student of educational leadership, I very respectfully solicit you to clarify what you meant by your statement. I have an open mind and would like to be further educated by someone who has vast experience as yourself. Please help me to become a better leader by responding to this.
LikeLike
Cx:
. . . . Roy Montesano . . . . .
LikeLike
At least Montesano knows where his community’s priorities really are, real estate values…re colleges and careers: this is a good read http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/03/city-corporates-destroy-best-minds George Monbiot polled England’s top universities about their priorities for top graduates.
LikeLike
Administrators need to be given very specific, nuts and bolts, job descriptions. Otherwise, they are usually disasters as “educational leaders.”
LikeLike
It is ironic that the state where the lead writers of the Common Core live is where there seems to be the most groundbreaking protest. Did they not read the tea leaves or what? You are inspiring all of us across the states. Thank You New York!
LikeLike
Diane how about a story on how the Common Core agenda is being solicited and sometimes forced onto academics in higher education? This needs to be addressed now before it too gets out of hand.
LikeLike