Superintendent Steven Cohen addresses parents on Long Island and explains what a great education is. It is the kind of education available to the children of Rahm Emanuel and Barack Obama, Merryl Tisch (the chancellor of the New York State Regents), and other leaders of the “reform” movement. Cohen reads what children do at the University of Chicago Lab School, at the Dalton School in New York, and other excellent private schools, and contrasts them with the punitive mandates imposed on public schools. He denounces the Common Core standards and high-stakes testing. In the elite private schools, children have the opportunity to study subjects in depth, to explore ideas, and to have full programs in the arts and other non-tested subjects. The “reformers” know what is best for their children, but they treat the public’s children as “losers.” They don’t want the public’s children to have what they demand for their own children. In short, he lacerates the “reformers.”
Dr. Cohen is one of a group of superintendents in Long Island who are traveling to school districts to explain why Long Island parents should reject the current “reforms” of high-stakes testing and Common Core standards. The others are David Gamberg of Southold-Greenport, Joe Rella of Comsewogue, and Michael Hynes of Patchogue-Medford. They have inspired parents and educators across the Island.
He faults Bill Gates for foisting the Common Core standards on the nation with Arne Duncan’s help, without ever having testing the standards anywhere to see what effects they have. “Just trust me,” the salesmen of Common Core say. Would you buy a used car without evidence that it actually runs?
He explains how the Common Core was intended to drive the curriculum and testing, for the benefit of vendors and profit-seekers. The claim that it is “just standards, not curriculum,” is nonsense.
He describes the excellent results of the New York Performance Standards Consortium, which does not use high-stakes testing, and wonders why the state refuses to allow other high schools to join it. It works, but admission is closed. Why?
This is an excellent presentation and well worth your time to watch it. Be sure to hear him reading from the MIT catalogue about what MIT considers “college-readiness.”
Dr. Cohen is part of a group of thoughtful and courageous superintendents in Long Island who have been traveling school districts across the Island to explain what good education is–and what it is not.
Dr. Steven Cohen is a hero of public education and of students. He richly deserves to be on the honor roll of the blog.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So Dr. Cohen is protecting teachers which refuse to administer the BS Tests? He supports schools which refuse to evaluate teachers by their students’ test scores? In fact, he has ordered his district to pack up all their Common Core materials and tests and ship them back, right?
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@Dienne: I totally get your drift. I hope he puts his money where his mouth is and evaluates teachers based on hard work and dedication, etc, rather than student test scores.
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Gee, Dienne, I just read almost the same comment by one Duane Swacker! 🙂
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Mamie,
I was taking a nap, ahh the joys of retirement, when Diane posted this but I was going to post the same thing, Dienne just beat me to the punch once again!!! (and that is fine by me)
Because Dienne is right to question and demand that these supposed “heroes” put their jobs on line by refusing to have their districts participate in these UNETHICAL EDUCATIONAL MALPRACTICES. Those of us who have been challenging these malpractices since before NCLB have certainly felt the heel of administration on our throats and have paid the price of being the outcast and of being forced out of a position we didn’t want to leave.
If I may leave you all with a piece of non-fiction to ponder from one of America’s premier writers:
“The mass of men [and women] serves the state [education powers that be] thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailors, constables, posse comitatus, [administrators and teachers], etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt.”- Henry David Thoreau [1817-1862], American author and philosopher
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While they have a long way to go (most of their students come from families that range from the merely well-off to the spectacularly affluent), the Dalton and Lab School communities consider the racial diversity of their student populations to be completely essential to their educational mission. Here’s the diversity statement from Lab, for example: http://www.ucls.uchicago.edu/about-lab/diversity-statement/index.aspx. Depending on the year, about one-third to two-fifths of their student bodies are comprised of children of color.
Contrast that with the Shoreham-Wading River district in notoriously segregated Suffolk County: 6% black and Latino, 90% white, just 5% economically disadvantaged (far less economically diverse than the elite private schools in Manhattan!), 1% ELLs.
The students under Dr. Cohen’s leadership are being denied a world-class education for the 21st century. What meaningful, actionable strategies is he pursuing to integrate his district?
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Tim,
It is not fair to criticize Superintendent Cohen because of the racial composition of his district. That’s not within his control. A low and pointless dig.
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Diane, I suggest that you (and Dr. Cohen) read the recommendations at the end of Orfield’s/UCLA’s 2014 report on school segregation in New York State. A sampling:
“Wells and colleagues investigated public school segregation and inequality for five school districts on Long Island differing by racial, socioeconomic, and linguistic student enrollment. Their findings documented numerous education inequalities between the school districts and how the boundaries maintained the inequality. The researchers then proposed a number of recommendations for Long Island, which can also generalize to other upstate metros and the inner and outer regions of New York. These include: interdistrict transfers, blurring district boundaries, district collaboration/cooperation through regional BOCES, encouraging the state legislature to support diverse districts.”
No one is claiming that these superintendents are personally responsible for Long Island’s hypersegregation. But there are strategies that can be pursued to remedy it (including consolidation, not listed above). It is completely fair game to ask whether these officials are aware of and addressing the problem.
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Tim
Can you please describe just one “meaningful, actionable strategy”
that YOU would pursue if you were the superintendent of Shoreham-Wading River school district. Just ONE strategy within your purview as superintendent that would have any influence on integrating the district.
You posts are becoming less than pointless here.
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I know, this stuff is uncomfortable to talk about, how these districts got–and remain–non-integrated. Much easier just to throw up our hands and say well I had nothing to do with that!
As a superintendent (not a job I know anything about nor am remotely qualified to do), I would ask my district to set up a task force to explore the recommendations in the Orfield report and work by Richard Kahlejnberg and Paul Tractenberg. I would refer families to articles like “Diversity Makes You Brighter” from yesterday’s NY Times. I would remind them that there are very few workplaces and colleges as homogeneous as this district, and that our students are losing out. I would ask state and local elected officials for assistance. The ultimate goal would be consolidation with nearby segregated districts or a substantial cross-enrollment plan.
Maybe that works, maybe it doesn’t. Awareness and advocacy are first steps.
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Reblogged this on Politicians Are Poody Heads.
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Here’s the US Department of Education vision for learning:
“Continued advances in technology will expand the use of ongoing, formative, and embedded assessments that are less disruptive and more useful for improving learning. These advances also ensure that all students have the best opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills on statewide assessments that increasingly focus on real-world skills and complex demonstrations of understanding. Statewide assessment—coupled with meaningful accountability—is an essential part of ensuring students have equitable access to high-quality educational experiences. At the same time, it is crucial to focus time and effort on tests worth taking—those that reflect the kind of instructional experiences students need and that provide actionable insight.”
That’s something to look forward to. “Embedded” assessments so kids can be tested constantly. It’s great because the constant, daily testing also gets them ready for the big state test. You wonder when kids themselves will rebel- insist on having an unexamined, unmonitored thought or action.
http://tech.ed.gov/netp/assessment/
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Thank you, Diane, for bringing these great people to the public’s attention. Dr. Cohen was a great superintendent to work for, and I always commended him for doing the best he could work the hand he was dealt.
It is a little disturbing to see so many people in this comments section questioning his motives, actions, and messages, as if only certain allies are acceptable, and as if your opinion is only valid if you teach in highly diverse, highly impoverished neighborhoods.
For those of you who think he can simply snap his fingers and disobey the state/federal mandates, you’re living in a fantasy. Many of you who retired did so before this disaster of an education policy really embedded itself into every aspect of the job, so don’t arrogantly tell us what Dr. Cohen should really be doing to legitimize his reform credentials. If he just ignored the state mandates, Shoreham would lose funding, teachers and faculty would be fired, and the students would be left in the lurch.
And yes, Shoreham is a relatively affluent area, but the school district has been in financial disarray for years (to no fault of Dr. Cohen’s). It is a small district with an amazing tradition in education, and it is being lead by an erudite, polite, rational man. We should be helping him to spread his message, and hoping that other districts would hire more like him.
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I love you Dr. Cohen. You hit it right on the nose when you said that these elite school do not implement common core. They let their children be free thinkers! That’s what we need to do with our kids!
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Reblogging on brittanytfields.wordpress.com
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The implication that testing is minimal and inconsequential at private schools is not accurate. I am finding that our children are being tested constantly at their new private school, more so than in their prior public school system. There are no retakes without compelling reason, and no easy marking. State level assessments look like a piece of cake compared to the authentic expectation of learning and mastery they are encountering. Every test seems to be high-stakes.
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It has been my privilege to spend time as a consultant at Shoreham Wading River and to observe first hand Steven Cohen’s passion through his words and his actions, I have been consulting for 25 years. Dr. Cohen is one of the few administrators I’ve met who honestly lives his philosophy-in spite of the whip lash he must have endured as “new and improved reforms” we’re introduced or imposed during his tenure. Thanks for recognizing a true believer.
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