A reader reports on first-hand experience with Néw York’s EngageNY curriculum for Common Core:
“As a 2nd grade teacher with nearly 20 years teaching experience, I cannot express how disturbing it is to be forced to use the EngageNY materials every day. It goes against everything we know works effectively to engage and educate our students. As professionals originally hired for our creativity, enthusiasm, and dedication – these materials do everything possible to kill those qualities in each of us.
“We were told from day one that we were to use the program “with fidelity.” It was obvious that no one had actually reviewed the materials (probably due to the fact that many of the modules hadn’t even been completed yet when districts adopted them) or had asked teachers to take a look at what we were being given ahead of time. We also were not given any training – the boxes were just delivered just a few days before the school year began. As the year progressed and it became increasingly evident that there were multiple errors and/or no way to implement all of the many components scheduled in a day with the time allotted, we were then told to “use common sense.” We were not exactly sure what that meant as we were still expected to follow the program and would be evaluated on our use of it as well.
“Last year we entered our second year with EngageNY. Having been through it once, we are still identifying more and more errors and, most importantly, developmentally inappropriate material that we are expected to present to our students. Mid-year we were told that we would finally have a day to meet with a representative to do some training. All we had ever requested was that someone come in to our school and demonstrate exactly HOW all of the materials were to be used in a given lesson. Please just SHOW US! – we asked over and over. That would never happen. However, during our “training” (which was essentially just a sales presentation showing us each component), again we asked how it would be possible to fit all of these things that were dictated in a lesson into our limited time each day. The representative did finally admit that there really couldn’t be any at to fit 2 1/2 hours worth of lessons in an hour or 1 1/2 hour period.
“We, teachers and students, are being set up to fail. It is so sad to think that I hear teachers talk about “the good old days” when we used to be able to create fun and engaging activities that students enjoyed and we loved teaching! I am sorry that this has been a bit long-winded (and I could go on and on with more about this), but I haven’t had an opportunity to share this with any teachers outside of my own district. It is both comforting (and discouraging) to know that there are others experiencing the same things around the country. I hope that we can come together and fight for what we know is right for our students!”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As teachers we must fight for academic freedom. Being told how to teach minute by minute is not a formula that will sustain our nation. Bad enough they want to evaluate using junk science, now they want to evaluate us based the results of their awful scripts.
It’s time for our unions to stop capitulating to political agendas and once and for all declare this a war against our very existance. Ourstrongest weapon is academic freedom, don’t let them take that away from you.
There are many others who are going through the same. I teach fifth and there is no way I can get through four ELA modules as asked to do and no way can get through six Math Modules. Now soon, SS Inquiries Are coming upon us. We notice weaknesses in creative writing and with spelling. The two programs Core Knowledge and Expeditionary Learning are both unrealistic. I loved teaching US History and Science, but only what is included in the modules do we have time for. It is time for all of us to speak out and say we know what is right for our kids. After all, we all have needed to receive Masters Degrees to do so. Just let us teach! Let teachers write the standards. We had great NY Standards. Our test scores were fine. This is all one big political nightmare!
Oops please fix “can’t” to “can” for me.
Thanks! Wish there would speak out about these horrendous modules!
Many of this units are hundreds of pages long, tedious and redundant. On the 10th grade English reading list there is no full length novel. Not one! Many of the readings are excerpts from novels that are to be read and re read multiple times which will kill any love of learning left. It is obvious the people who wrote these lessons have never spent any real time with adolescents because anyone, who knows and cares about young people, would never subject them to this.
I wrote this 2 years ago when the Engage NY materials were rolled out in my district. I have abandoned the skills strand, but our Principal has purchased the Wilson Fundations program, and we’ll be doing that now……..from one script that needs to be followed with fidelity to the next.
https://antiqueteacher.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/second-grade-skills-strand-lesson-1-thanks-engageny/
Here is my intro to this post at: http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Teacher-Beware-EngageNY-C-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Cause_Diane-Ravitch_Errors_Experience-150722-402.html#comment555883
This post by Ravitch is so important for anyone who wants to grasp how the Common Core is a ploy to cause endemic failure. Read and learn the TRUTH, because it shows how the profession of pedagogy has been replaced by top-down mandates which take BEST PRACTICE out of the hands of the professional. Imagine if doctors were told to use unworkable practices, and then fired when the patient fails to meet objectives. Read this, because it is THE PROCESS that cause school failure. The teacher who KNOWS WHAT LEARNING LOOKS LIKE, and who must plan to meet objectives for those kids who sit infant of her, is TOLD what she must do, by those with no idea of what she faces in that practice.
A teacher writes at the Ravitch blog: “As a 2nd grade teacher with nearly 20 years teaching experience, I cannot express how disturbing it is to be forced to use the EngageNY materials every day. It goes against everything we know works effectively to engage and educate our students. As professionals originally hired for our creativity, enthusiasm, and dedication – these materials do everything possible to kill those qualities in each of us.
”
“We were told from day one that we were to use the program “with fidelity.” It was obvious that no one had actually reviewed the materials (probably due to the fact that many of the modules hadn’t even been completed yet when districts adopted them) or had asked teachers to take a look at what we were being given ahead of time. We also were not given any training – the boxes were just delivered just a few days before the school year began. As the year progressed and it became increasingly evident that there were multiple errors and/or no way to implement all of the many components scheduled in a day with the time allotted, we were then told to “use common sense.” We were not exactly sure what that meant as we were still expected to follow the program and would be evaluated on our use of it as well.”More… go tot he article…
.
and here is my comment, which at the site, has the links to all the posts mentioned below.
“Here Ravitch gives us Anthony Cody, explaining the failure of the Common Core and Vam, but no where in the media is the reality known.
“She says: “More than any other person, with the possible exception of President Obama and Secretary Duncan, Bill Gates controls American education. He has promoted charter schools (a passion he shares with ALEC, Obama, and every rightwing governor); VAM; high-stakes testing; Common Core; and whatever promotes free-market fundamentalism. His billions are the tiller that guides the ship.
Anthony Cody reproduces an interview in which Gates shows zero knowledge of how his pet reforms have failed. He shows no recognition of charter scandals or the effect of charters on the public schools who lose their top students and funding. He seems unaware that VAM has failed everywhere.
“Yet, the Common Core is forced on THE PROFESSIONAL in the practice… and the schools fail so thy can be taken over by the legislatures, and public education is ended!
“Here is how it works in Buffalo.”https://dianeravitch.net/2015/07/21/ny-commissioner-to-buffalo-fix-your-schools-or-i-will/
And look at the swamp that is Chicago public education under Emanual:
https://dianeravitch.net/2015/07/18/chicago-public-schools-lose-charters-gain/ “Rahm Emanuel has made clear that he favors charter schools over public schools, as do many of his campaign contributors. So it should come as no surprise that the city plans to cut $60 million from the budget of the public schools while adding $30 million to the charters. …and in Detroit: “State Representative Tim Kelly, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, called for the dissolution of the Detroit public schools. This is a sign of abdication of responsibility by those on control.”
Ohio: Who Bought the Legislature?” https://dianeravitch.net/2015/07/17/ohio-who-bought-the-legislature/
Tax funds have likely made White Hat Charter school operator David Brennan and ECOT operator Bill Lager very, very rich. (Some out-of-state charter operators are also cashing in on Ohio’s Wild, Wild West charter industry.)” The charters, that these fine, civic-minded gentlemen operate, generally speaking, perform at a pathetically low level.”
and “Nevada has made its bid for a gold medal in the race to the bottom of the barrel for public education. The state’s GOP legislature, with help from Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education (a name that belongs in Orwellian annals right next to “Peacekeeper Missile”), has created an all-state voucher system. The backers of the bill are as delighted as they are divorced from reality. Here’s bill sponsor Senator Scott Hammond, quoted in the Washington Post
a tiny fraction of what is ongoing under our noses, as the media watches Iran, the elections, and celebrity news.(Links at my comment)
Scott Walker’s War on Public Education in Wisconsin More Privatization in Wisconsin: Legislators Propose Additional Charters
Jeannie Kaplan: How Denver Reformers Lost Nearly $1 Billion
The Big Business of Charter Schools
Peter Greene: Kevin Huffman Sells Tennessee Snake Oil in Pennsylvania
Jon Pelto: Connecticut Governor Malloy Says No State Budget Without Money for New Charters
Larry Lee: Follow the Charter Money in Alabama
Innovation Ohio: E-Schools Are Terrible Schools with Politically Powerful Sponsors
and these are but a few of what is happening in the 50 states as the public watches th corruption in FIFA and the debacle of the primaries, and worries about ISIS.
Go to my quicklinks series on education, 15,880/50, and The WAR ON PUBLIC EDUCATION or follow it yourself at the Ravitch Blog. Get the feed… nothing is more important than this!
I feel for this teacher. While I do not teach in NY, teachers in my district teachers often discuss those “good old days” when quality teaching and learning abounded. We didn’t know that in the coming years we would have to break the rules to try and regain lost excellence in teaching and learning.
Opps … teachers in my district often discuss those “good old days”
What I tell you below, would be impossible today.
In 1990, at a new magnet school on York Ave and 78th st, in NYC (the east-side near the Mayor’s mansion for hose of you unfamiliar with NYC) I was given a room and a student roster and told to ‘teach Communication Arts” the euphemism for seventh grade English.
Luckily, I had the state OBJECTIVES for that age and content materials, from East Ramapo, when it was a functioning school system that was their in the state rankings….back then, before NCLB.
Luckily, I had witnessed how teachers in all the seventh grades in East ramapo met those objectives, and luckily I had an education in both education and English literature, Speech and theater.
Luckily, I had read “In The Middle ” by Nancy Attwell, and thus, I created a letter-writing curriculum to ensure that reading for meaning was the objective, and writing with clarity and creativity was ensured.
Eventually my curricula was featured at seminars, and carried by the staff developers at the LRDC (Univ of Pittsburgh) around the nation,– because after looking at 20,000 teachers across the nation in the Pew funded original genuine, National Standards research, (out of Harvard_ whenI was the NYC cohort) I was one of six teachers who had created a unique curricula that motivated kids to meet th objectives in spectacular ways!
They had the highest scores on all standardized tests, back then, and went to the top high schools!
The core curricula is crap. it is just a ploy to remove all best practice from the hands of the professionals so the schools will fail AND the ‘expensive’ salaries and benefits for veteran teachers can be eliminated as they are evaluated as failures.
and it works because of the hidden process of civil rights violations that is virtually UNKNOWN TO THIS NATION. http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
That is how the ‘gotcha’ worked for me
http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2009/03/gotcha-squad-and-new-york-city-rubber.html
and here is how it is working in LAUSD http://www.perdaily.com/2015/07/lausd-blacklisting-teachers–how-they-do-it.html
I never saw my classroom again. Eight years of careful crafted curricula was trashed (including my dat-based research for Harvard thru the LRDC) , my 1000 book library (all purchased by me) was given to other teachers, and my reputation was shredded at the site by my UNION REP; UFT did nothing with my grievances and fed me to the dogs at a time when I had publishers offering game a book deal to explain HOW I DID IT…the question that Harvard asked and why the studied my practice for 2 years) .
In the end Randi herself came to ‘rescue’ me, INTO RETIREMENT, because I had filed a 4 million dollar lawsuit…and my husband had actually reached her with the horror story that was unfolding— as the NYC Manhattan Union Rep, did nothing to represent me as the DOE issued allegations of crimes and… well… this was before VAM made it easy to send a teacher packing.
Have told mystery here, often, but your comment reminded me of the good old days…a s does the letters I get form the former students, now in their twenties and thirties, who tele that I MADE THE DIFFERENCE IN THEIR LIVES.
Many who graduated high school with honors nominated me for WHO’S WHO AMONG AMERICA’S TEACHERS…in the good ole days when teachers were allowed to TEACH!
it is the loss of our professional practice, our ability to do what we know who to do, which is gone!
Modules are so horrid to that I can’t imagine how anyone can actually teach with them. 700 page lesson plans (!!!!!) for a partial module for grade 6, and everything had to be majorly tweaked. I used the first three lessons for Bud, Not Buddy, adding immensely to them and almost lost my mind. Lessons were painstakingly slow…we killed figurative language analysis, destroying the novel by picking apart every figurative expression uttered in the first 3 chapters. I finally abandoned them when my students’ enthusiasm for reading started diminishing. I will never use a module again. Thank goodness my district does not require them, thanks to our union reps fighting for sanity and freedom in our classrooms. I will not be a robot teacher.
Robots will be teaching in the future. Slowly but steadily, human teachers are made obsolete. Frank Smith predicted that the entry of computers in the classroom would spell the death of the teaching profession. He wrote it in his book Insult to Intelligence, in 1986!
Whoever wrote this Library Journal review back then, must be very happy with the state of education now!
“Smith delivers yet another attack on the education system. He castigates the use of worksheets, drill and practice exercises, and programmed instruction. A lengthy chapter is devoted to a tirade on testing. The use of computers as drill and practice tools is also discussed. Smith offers a variety of solutions to these educational problems. He suggests that the importance of grades and tests be reduced, that more student-centered activities be used, and that parents become more involved. “
Great posting.
I particularly noticed the quoted phrase “with fidelity.” Perhaps teachers are lacking TFA’s ‘right corps member mindset’ [google Gary Rubinstein’s blog].
But the “best” part is yet to come. When the day arrives that EngageNY, as rheephorm worst pedagogical practices are wont to do, comes in for severe criticism and there are promises to “tweak” and “improve” it, the brunt of the criticism for its “botched implementation” will be borne by—
Teachers! And teacher unions and their thugs! At least according to the media enablers of the self-styled “education reform” movement.
It’s called a sucker punch. If you don’t want to get sucker punched, I ask viewers of this blog to reread the last line of the posting—
“I hope that we can come together and fight for what we know is right for our students!”
Otherwise you are going to be unhappy recipients of the blame for something that was forced down your throats.
Just my dos centavitos worth…
😎
Teaching with fidelity is a euphemism for, “to the letter in the script”; a term whose meaning was made all too clear in our district in Colorado, when in 2006 they began using Reading First in all elementary schools and in all grades.
“Disengage NY”
Disengage your brain
Teach in NY State!
Join with the insane
Teach for “test and rate”
Diane,
Your loyal blog readers think I dislike you. It’s not true. I believe that you are the one person who could change the status quo, if only you would use your eloquent and articulate voice on behalf of teachers, and begin to examine and discuss the internal problems and corruption brought about by authoritarian leadership in the public schools. Surely you are aware of the level of intimidation and abuse of the staff and of newbies to the profession by administrators who employ CYA to cover their behinds. Former peers are role playing the part of master teachers when they wouldn’t dare to model their directives.You must be aware of the fear that the boards instill in every employee, while their members make educational decisions that are completely out of their bailiwick, and create an additional level of bureaucracy that is totally superfluous to the system. Education is well funded but taxpayer money earmarked for public schools is diverted by greedy corporate computer gangsters and hedge fund types at the behest of their chief, Bill Gates and his cohorts. The administrators of education from the federal government on down to the local level have been corrupted, and the de-professionalization of our honorable profession is moving ahead at full speed. You must begin to address a change in the culture within the schools to remove the administrative fraud, and replace it with support personnel culled from the senior staff on a rotating basis so that an adversarial condition never arises. We are the brightest and most dedicated professionals in the country, and we don’t need to pay extra money for overseers to berate and abuse us as they have been doing for a very long time now. I could wax on and on, but I’m still hopeful that you will use your enormous talent to articulate the prevailing conditions, and cause the truth to finally come out.
Frustratedly yours,
Ian Kay
“The administrators of education from the federal government on down to the local level have been corrupted, and the de-professionalization of our honorable profession is moving ahead at full speed.”
Speaking of frustration, this is exactly what Diane posts about in post after post, day after day. Darned if I can tell what it is you want.
Here’s an idea: why don’t you write what you want said and send it to Diane, or post it here and ask her to make it its own post? I don’t know if she will or not, but she has a very long track record of posting reader input, so I think the chances are pretty good.
Dienne,
I won’t engage in conversation with you after this retort because I find you’re response to my constructive criticisms excrutiatingly naive. Either you are defending administrative excessive or you have led a sheltered existence as a teacher, and are not aware of conditions that teachers are faced with on a daily basis. By the way, Diane is quite capable of responding if she chooses to. You offer nothing in
response to my remarks, save to make it a personal attack. Why not challenge what I have to say, and say something constructive. My remarks are pointedly direct and synthesized as best as I can, given the brevity that this forum demands. If you can’t tell what I want, you are truly lacking.
Ian
Sigh. No one is challenging you, dear. Your tendency to get all fired up at your potential allies is, again, frustrating. What I’m asking is, what, specifically, is it you would like Diane to say about abusive administration? Specifically, what would you like her to say that she hasn’t already said or that she hasn’t posted from other writers? Nearly everything she posts is about the politics of education “reform” and how that impacts administration of public schools in some way or another. It gets really tiring hearing you rant that she’s not addressing what she, in fact, has been addressing for nearly four years (and where have you been for those four years?).
I’m saying, Diane can’t read your mind. If you have something you want expressed, express it yourself.
I see what you are saying, because I too think Diane is the one who must address the underlying travesty… the war on teachers. http://www.speakingasateacher.com/SPEAKING_AS_A_TEACHER/The_Insane_War_on_Teachers_and_Democracy.html
I hope she will explain to Bernie Sanders what ed policy would be, because SHE IS THE VOICE FOR ALL OF US!
I too, have explained to her here, and privately for years, that the entire debacle began when they discovered how to harass the teachers, and then they hid this process as the media attacked the teachers.The time for politics regarding the union’s malfeasance is OVER!
Although the activists have put the story of abuse OUT THERE FOR YEARS, no one has confronted the enablers… the unions, because we need them.
Yes, but they need to be emptied of those who were complicit in the destruction. We NEED THE UNIONS or we would be …well, what we are now VICTIMS! We need them to ENFORCE THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT THAT UPHOLDS OUR SIXTH AMENDMENT RIGHTS.
I wrote these a decade ago:
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
it isn’t as if the truth is not there… it is and has been,,, but NO ONE has THE VOICE, to say ENOUGH… LIKE DIANE HAS.
Lorna Stremcha, whose abuse is the stuff that tells it ALL>
http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2013/10/lorna-stremcha-and-her-rubber-room.htML
http://www.amazon.com/Bravery-Bullies-Blowhards-Lessons-Classroom/dp/0991309936/ref=cm_sw_em_r_dptop_dn1Avb040EW4Q_tt
Karen Horwitz
http://endteacherabuse.org/
http://www.whitechalkcrime.com/wcc/
Betsy Combeir
http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2009/03/gotcha-squad-and-new-york-city-rubber.html
http://parentadvocates.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=7534
Norm Scott http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2011/01/from-lausd-to-new-york-city-public.html
Lenny isenberg http://citywatchla.com/8box-left/6666-lausd-and-utla-complicity-kills-collective-bargaining-and-civil-rights-for-la-s-teachers
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/06/lausds-treacherous-road-from-reed-to-vergara–its-never-been-about-students-just-money.html
http://www.perdaily.com/2013/10/why-does-utla-continue-to-support-lausds-violation-of-california-teacher-dismissal-process.html
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/FINALLY-TARGETED-TEACHERS-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Agenda_America_Corporate_Corruption-150708-830.html#comment553842
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/HAVE-REPORTERS-BECOME-POLI-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Media_Media-Bias_Media-Blackout_Media-Corruption-140322-673.html
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/07/former-ctc-attorney-kathleen-carroll-lays-out-unholy-alliance-between-union-and-public-education-pri.html
The Esquith trial is 2 decades after they came after me… my story which I posted here…find it.
Common sense says that you cannot hold teachers accountable for instructional outcomes when you take away their instructional autonomy.
Now we have Engage New York. So much for common sense!
Of course, but they have been doing this without accountability or TWO DECADES, . VAMis only the latest. It is a civil rights issue, always has been,
http://citywatchla.com/8box-left/6666-lausd-and-utla-complicity-kills-collective-bargaining-and-civil-rights-for-la-s-teachers
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
No accountability gave us the financial debacle.
It works. Top-down destruction in the US> the new WORLD ORDER!
Unfortunately, this is typical of the NY City school system as I have experienced it in my 28 years as a teacher in the high schools here. It only gotten (much) worse during the Bloomberg-Klein era and now this trend is continuing into the Farina one. Teachers are not treated as professionals whose experience should be respected and whose input and feedback should be sought and used.
In LAUSD, we had the joy of being mandated to give the engage, ny tests, without having taught the engage new york curriculum. We had the choice of downloading the modules, or “adapting” our math curriculum to teach those skills. The vocabulary was different, the sequence was different, the emphasis was different. This was of course loads of fun, and the resulting scores could not be fairly used to tell us anything about the level of achievement. Now the district has bought a new series, ahead of our usual adoption cycle. I can see who is making a fortune with all this! So much of this has been for the convenience and profit of the publishing houses.
The EngageNY Math Curriculum has spread far and wide in Washington State. My own school district, Spokane, jumped on board. I am a mathematics specialist/coach and have a heavy heart since its inception. I am a public school advocate and speaking out against common core and the high stakes tests. And… sadly… because there is too much now to opt out of in Spokane School District, SBAC, Amplify Testing (Rupert Murdoch), EngageNY Math, closed reading, etc… My son will be attending a private school next year, beginning in 3rd grade, where the teachers are allowed to teach like this veteran teacher describes. Learning is active and alive and creative in this school. I will continue to fight or our public schools and hope my son can return… I am an indicator species… a public school educator removing my child to a school free from common core, standardization, and the testing. I made this choice with a very heavy heart.
-Raz
http://www.DivineSparkIgnites.com
My heart is heavy ,too. My New Jersey grandkids go to a private academy, and my Texas grandkids are home schooled. How sad.
Why do you find it sad that your grandchildren are homeschooled? Can’t you see any benefits for their family?
Oh, my. Of course. They are receiving an incredible education, and I talk often of their mother’s theater Improved Shakespeare, Shakespeare of kids by kids. https://www.facebook.com/ImprovEdShakespeare
You should hear my grandkids speak. Their vocabulary ,the clarity of their language. No school I know could have done this.
Now, Andee is including a writing component for the girls.
Meet Girl Improved – Zia, Writer, Producer, Director – YouTube(35) ImprovEd Shakespeare
My granddaughter wrote a play, as did others in the troupe, and they got to produce and direct it.
This video opens to with my 11 year old granddaughter; Zia talking about the writing process. How can I be unhappy with her schooling… she is
Thank you for sharing!
You are welcome… I love to share… This from the Improved Shakespeare version of winter’s tale, when my little curly-haired grandson has his first long speech…at 6:05 in this clip. He was 7. Now at 9, he brought the house down with his acting skill when he learned that the fair Bianca had chosen someone else.
he also had 4 other small bits.
Once, I worried that without a classroom experience he would not develop the listening skill s and patience to follow directions… no longer.
oops… wrong clip. here is the one with my moppet
these are all HOME-SCHOOLED KIDS… doing their Englsh assignment!
“We, teachers and students, are being set up to fail. It is so sad to think that I hear teachers talk about “the good old days” when we used to be able to create fun and engaging activities that students enjoyed and we loved teaching!”
They were the goog old days, though we had no idea at the time that those days were numbered. When I was first hired to teach, I remember looking at my plan book and thinking, “How the heck am I going to fill up all those boxes?” The difference today is that when I look at my plan book and the binders of lessons sitting on my shelves, I ask myself, “How am I going to get all that done?”
I am hopeful that Obama will sign the ESEA and CC will go away. My district is looking at following Engage NY this year, and I dread it.
UPDATE: Core Knowledge, Amplify, and “Free” Materials
https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2013/09/04/core-knowledge-amplify-and-free-materials/
As always, follow the money as the reformers work together to monetize every child who attends a neighborhood public school.
I have not been impressed with the EngageNY materials. Too scripted, not flexible enough for diverse learners, not supportive enough of peer discourse. Developed too fast and just not that good. More significantly our teacher review committees are unimpressed and it has not been selected for any prelimary pilots.
Susan Ohanian has been uncovering the fraud for years! Stand up and say NO to the scripted for-profit nonsense.
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=437
For the K-2 Common Core curriculum, Engage NY uses materials from E. D. Hirsch’s Core Knowledge storehouse:
Kindergarten
1. Nursery Rhymes and Fables (18 instructional days)
2. Five Senses (16 instructional days)
3. Stories (15 instructional days)
4. Plants (16 instructional days)
5. Farms (14 instructional days)
6. Kings and Queens (14 instructional days)
7. Seasons and Weather (14 instructional days)
8. Colonial Towns (17 instructional days)
9. Taking Care of the Earth (15 instructional days)
Grade 1
1. Different Lands, Similar Stories* (11 instructional days)
2. Fables and Stories* (16 instructional days)
3. The Human Body (14 instructional days)
4. Early World Civilizations (21 days)
5. Early American Civilizations (19 instructional days)
6. Astronomy (14 instructional days)
7. Animals and Habitats (20 instructional days)
8. Fairy Tales (16 instructional days)
9. History of the Earth (16 instructional days)
Grade 2
1. Fighting for a Cause* (18 instructional days)
2. Fairy Tales and Tall Tales* (12 instructional days)
3. Cycles of Nature* (17 instructional days)
4. Insects* (14 instructional days)
5. Ancient Greek Civilizations (16 instructional days)
6. Greek Myths (15 instructional days)
The true farce here, aside from being wildly age inappropriate, is that the infusion of geography, history, and science into ELA instruction is meant to replace actual classes in history, geography, and science.
Good afternoon, You put in your other NY Engage article that Ken Wagner the Raimondo bought commissioner was going to try and implement it here. One of the senators asked me where was my source for Wagner saying he was going to bring it to RI. Do you have that source? This is what was said in that post: EngageNY=Lock-Step Teaching=Dumbing Down Our Kids *This post is a description of EngageNY, the scripted curriculum written for use in New York state and now migrating to other states. Ken Wagner, former deputy commissioner of the New York State Education Department, now Rhode Island state superintendent, promises to import them to Rhode Island*
Thank you/jo ann
Jo, I read in a Providence Journal article that he was praised for his role in developing EngageNY. I assume he will want to bring it with him, but I could be wrong.
Here is a sample of what Rhode Island has in store. My condolences.
https://www.engageny.org/resource/deputy-commissioner-wagners-february-2014-network-team-institute-speech
Does Fido fetch with Fidelity?
Ah, “fidelity”. That word seems to crop up more and more as “reform” takes root. I believe it means: “You will do as you are told and will not ask any questions or offer any comments or opinions.”
Here are the results of edreports.org (Bill Gates funded??) rating of K-8 common core math programs. Guess who came in first across the board?
Click to access EdReports-Master-Exhibit.pdf
Entering into it’s 4th school year, this garbage (CC and insane testing) is still required. We have been to rallies, attended meetings, written numerous comments, blogs, and letters to our representatives in local, state and national levels For years! Opt outs are reaching record levels. Tthey noticed, but still, nothing has changed. Now what?
Eileen, double your efforts. Double the opt outs. Triple them. They will notice. Defeat legislators who support insane testing. Run against them. Don’t give up. This is a long battle and we will win.
I’m reminded of the movie The Shawshank Redemption. The character Andy DuFresne wants to get a prison library going, so he writes a letter to some elected official every single day. Finally after about a year said official sends him a small check and a letter basically telling him now go away. So he starts writing *two* letters a day.
As time goes on I find myself more and more by President Obama regarding education. I think his connections to Rahm Emanuel and Arne Duncan send a very different message about his views on education than I would have expected. I am getting so cynical about our politicians – they rarely accomplish what they promise and “talk is cheap” certainly applies. It is clear that money is what talks and the Koch Brothers certainly have a loud voice. In Iowa the lack of funding our government is spending on education is so disappointing. Education was our highest priority and schools are going to fail here if they don’t start getting more support from our state government. We have also been told many times to use programs “with fidelity” even though the quality of the programs is mediocre at best and we have wonderful, talented, intelligent and creative teachers with lots of experience and expertise who are capable of writing much better curriculum that meets the needs of the students that they know so well.
Who are these people whiled my comment.?
I taught Kindergarten math using the Modules for the last 2 years. I must say that in my opinion, it is a solid curriculum. The problem I found with it, is the way the paper, print, graphics, etc is laid out. It ignores everything we know about how children learn. I know that in K we rely heavily on the use of concrete materials to solidify the concepts of numbers and numeration, but the material provided to use for practice is just not developmentally appropriate. I was very fortunate to have an Eno Board which helped me present that particular material to the Ss. Additionally, the pacing and the need to push the concepts so fast is another downfall. For most of my Ss, this was their first experience in a school setting. I had to make sure their knowledge was solid before I could move on. Finally, the one-to-one assessments look great on paper, but are an unrealistic expectation, when you have a class of 27 students. There’s got to be a better way. I am a fan of Singapore Math, and if you know any of their materials, you know, simplicity is key.
I would also like to point out that, while using EngageNY in the primary grades, there isn’t really any way to allow for differentiation. With the pacing as it is, there isn’t any plan – or time – to address students with needs. The sentiment seems to be, “They get it, or they don’t. Just keep moving.” This is especially true if you are like me, a teacher with literally half of my class needing remedial services, but no additional help in the classroom during presentation of these lessons. (Why aren’t the remedial teachers in the classroom during this time to aid instruction you ask? That is an additional struggle in our district due to scheduling directly dictated by our administration and APPR guidelines.) I have found myself supplementing often with more developmentally appropriate materials that address the content presented in EngageNY and engage my students more actively. This goes for the included assessments as well. The “smiley/frowny face” assessments are tedious and tell very little about a student’s depth of understanding of the material.
Lastly, I wholeheartedly agree with the previous comment that cites the lack of “student-friendly” designs of the required materials. In math especially, I find myself frustrated (along with my students) with the obvious fact that the individuals that designed the worksheets have never worked with elementary school students. To highlight just a few issues: the fonts used are much too small, the wording is unnecessarily confusing, and the spaces allowed for working out the problems are inadequate. There are also similar concerns with many of the ELA materials as well. These are all things we’ve pointed out in the two years using EngageNY, yet no one there seems to care to address them.
When I was the COHORT in NYC, chosen by Pew to be observed during the real National Standards research on THE PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING, every day we talked about WLLL What Learning Looks Like, because most folks don’t know what it really takes to meet the needs of HUMAN CHILDREN or what the ACQUISITION of THINKING SKILLS resembles.. in a classroom.
Thus, people a the top, and not teachers at the bottom IN the classroom WITH THE KIDS, should not create ore mandates anti-learning crap.
I could not ‘teach’ today.
You’re not alone. I have to teach the 10th grade and 12th grade modules of engage. The units are ridiculously long and boring. It took me 5 months to teach Malcolm X and that was only one unit. My Seniors have not read any fiction or poetry and have not done a much needed research project which they need to be able to do for college. I feel like I’m sending my Seniors into battle without a sword or shield The literature in 10th grade was a little better in that it started with fiction, but module 2 requires us to teach Letters from Birmingham. The Unit is 20 lessons which in engage time is 60 lessons. We also were given little to no training on this and we didn’t get the materials until October. This was rolled out very poorly and whoever thought of this was not thinking of the kids. I know for a fact because I’m an A.P. teacher that students struggle more with fiction than non-fiction yet there’s this enormous push for non-fiction.
Thank you for putting this out for others. I am saddened each day when I go to work knowing I have to teach this way. I know in my heart this is not good and no longer feel like the teacher I know I can be. I feel my hands are tied and my students are suffering by not experiencing the multiple teaching strategies and styles I’d like to use.
Hi All,
I hear you! I’m in my 8th year of teaching third grade and have taught with EngageNY’s math and reading curriculum (and have taught it in two different states on two different sides of the country)! I at first found the curriculum to be overwhelming (I hear you, 700 page curriculum comment), but here’s what I found that was a big secret to success:
I went onto teacherspayteacher.com and looked up powerpoints to go with each section of the lesson. It kept me on target with my timing (I hear you, person that said it took them two hours to get through) — by the way I WISH I had been the person to put these powerpoints together, she must be making a killing on these items, but it was well worth the money for an entire year’s worth of powerpoints.
The next thing I did that helped me immensely was to adapt the curriculum performance tasks to make them fit my style — instead of a simple paragraph for the end of module Peter Pan unit, I had my students write a journal throughout the unit from the point of view of their favorite character. The end of module assessment was re-writing a chapter from another character’s perspective.
You just need to spend a year working through the skeleton of the curriculum and then the next year, make it work for you! I know it can be daunting getting something new, and my mother has taught for 34 years (I had to sit down with her and work through her curriculum, too), but really… it all comes down to making it yours while still staying true to the rigor and flow of the curriculum.
I hope this helps!
Jillian
My children’s school has decided to use EngageNY this school year! I teach math at the high school level and I am very concerned about the future students that I am going to teach. Is your school still using EngageNY? Do you feel any differently about it now? Is it helping improve test scores in your state?
You’re absolutely right. They’re not looking for teachers who can think and be creative. They’re not looking for teachers who know how to ask those naughty little questions. They’re looking for people to offer “gift support” (a nice way of saying agree with us or else).
Is there anyone who has had a good experience with Engage NY?
Curriculum gives misinformation about vocabulary. Answer sheets are wrong. No one checks these things before publishing?
Examples
7th grade the definition of rate/unit rate is wrong.
1st grade module 1 lesson 18 answers to page 231 is also wrong.
This is so close to my own situation that I could have written it myself!! This program is both ineffective and disappointing, to educators and students, across the board!!
Of course, Sherri, it resembles what happened to you. There are 15,880 separate school systems in 50 states… a situation rife with possibilities to end public education while the public is clueless as to the plot by the cronies of the Educational Industrial Complex https://greatschoolwars.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/eic-oct_11.pdf
The “”PLOY”” in the plot is so simple.. If you take the professional OUT of the PRACTICE — be it medicine, law, education, oceanography etc. — then the failure is ensured. The hospitals would go down, just as the schools did, when charlatans like Gates tell the practitioner what must be used in the PRACTICE. I use that word often, because teachers are treated like trained civil servants, BUT they are also educated, experienced PROFESSIONALS, who know what THEY MUST OFFER EACH of the emergent MINDS of the little human beings who sit in front of them for TEN months.
We know the established OBJECTIVES for LEARNING the SKILLS.
Skills are acquired through genuine and authentic methods and practice.
“Ineffective ‘curriculum crap is more than “disappointing!” It is tragedy.
SEVEN YEARS AGO, I wrote: “Magic Elixirs”: https://www.opednews.com/populum/page.php?f=Magic-Elixir-No-Evidence-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-130312-433.htmlhttps://www.opednews.com/populum/page.php?f=Magic-Elixir-No-Evidence-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-130312-433.html
I wrote it after reading Daniel Willingham’s wonderful piece: “Measured Approach or Magical Elixir? how to Tell Good Science from Bad, ” in “The American Educator” https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/Willingham_2.pdf
It discussed how magical’ elixirs –curricular and technology — are sold to school districts because no one demands EVIDENCE.
BTW, I was chosen to be the NYS Educator of Excellence, in 1998, after I had been the NYC cohort for the Harvard PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING, which Pew researched for the New Standards!
My successful curriculum not only matched every essential principle that a teacher must use, it did it in a unique way.
MY work (and that of 6 other teachers among the tens OF thousands whose PRACTICE the Pew researchers studied) was featured in seminars at the Univ. of Pittsburgh; these seminars that showed what practice was in place in ALL classrooms where LEARNING was facilitated, were held at the end of the Pew research PERFORMANCE STANDARDS. to show superintendents and staff developers were conducted
DIANE HAS SEEN THE HUGE VOLUMES that were produced at the end of the research — and which HAS DISAPPEARED — so that bogus curricula could be foisted on teachers.
In my case, becausePew had been in my room and documented and FILMED my practice, AND because the scores of my students (on the new ELA Writing component) were 3rd in the state as 3/4 of NYC sids failed, it was impossible to force me to use anything but that which I had created over the 8 years in that seventh grade practice, at East Side Middle School.
So, they alleged that I had been “found guilty corporal punishment” and they remoed me from my famous practice, and put me in a rubber room!
My attorney proved that there had been no such allegations AND no hearing, and that the superintendent of district 2, Elaine Fink, had falsely created that verdict…I was returned…to a closet, where 8 students were ‘pulled out’ to be with me. My practice had been dismantled.
When that failed to send me packing, they sent me back to the district office, now alleging that I had “threatened to kill the principal.”
Yeah. it makes people laugh… but these corrupt entities run public education .Look what thye are doing in the second largest school district of the 15,880—Los Angeles!!
Randi Weingarten came to my ‘rescue,’ and ‘helped’ me to retire with my pension and benefits , which would have been significant if I had only taught a few more years in the classroom I had made famous!
.Yes, I was now retired, and what I had done in that classroom is remembered by the. students who find me on the internet, and tell me how I was the most significant teacher of their school years.
THAT is my reward for the curriculum that facetted and enabled them to THINK and thus to write..
THE profit-making curricula sellers, and their cronies on the boards of education – MUST GET RID OF Teachers like you and me, who know “”WLLL–What Learning Looks Like!””
‘What Learning Looks Like; ‘was the CENTER of all the seminars that THE STAFF DEVELOPERS FROM U. of Pittsburgh delivered when they ran the New Standards research FOR PEW,IN 12 districts across the US. (more about me at the OEN news-site, where I write; https://www.opednews.com/author/author40790.html?sid=40790
I write about education in my series at OEN. I OFTEN FEATURE THE BLOGS OF Diane Ravitch and I post the articles from the many educators and writers whom she features o her extraordinary blog.
MY series is here:
https://www.opednews.com/author/series/author40790.html