This just in from the group that led New York’s historic opt out movement. One of every five students did not take the state tests last spring, over 220,000 students.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 15, 2015
More information contact:
Lisa Rudley (917) 414-9190; nys.allies@gmail.com
NYS Allies for Public Education http://www.nysape.org
Parents Will Continue to Opt Out Until Ed Law Repealed &
Real Change Seen in the Classrooms
The Governor’s Common Core Task Force released a list of recommendations last Thursday, Dec. 10th. The recommendations while a reflection of the parent and educator voices around the state do not alone restore trust in Albany. How the recommendations and other issues get addressed is the key and parents are watching this very closely.
Until there is a halt of the Common Core standards, repeal of the Education Transformation Act, major changes to the state tests, a reduction of unnecessary testing, protection of data privacy, and local control restored, parents will continue to Opt Out in large numbers.
The recommendations deliberately state that Governor Cuomo’s ‘signature’ legislation that enforces many of these harmful policies doesn’t need to be touched. On the contrary, this law is the prescriptive blueprint to these harmful policies that was passed by the legislature as part of the budget last spring.
One of the recommendations to put a 4-year moratorium on evaluating teachers based on the flawed Common Core state tests was officially voted into emergency regulations by the Board of Regents at today’s board meeting. Until the law is repealed, this moratorium does not reduce testing it actually does the opposite, increases testing and further puts a strain on school districts’ budgets to comply.
NYSAPE is calling on parents to Opt Out of state tests and any local tests that are linked to this corrupt and invalid evaluation system that clearly doesn’t provide value for the students, educators, or schools.
“The task force recommendations have opened the door to change. Much of these harmful policies came in through our legislature when they passed the Education Transformation Act against the will of the people they serve. Our State Assembly and Senate must now reverse this harmful legislation so that changes will be meaningful and substantial. Parents will be vigilant in following these changes every step of the way. We will continue to refuse to allow our children to participate in this system until ALL harmful reforms are removed from our classrooms,” said Jeanette Deutermann, Long Island public school parent and founder of Long Island Opt Out.
“Until specific laws and policies regarding standards, student assessment, teacher evaluation and school ranking are changed, parents will continue to boycott any system that ties high-stakes to standardized assessments.” Chris Cerrone, Erie County public school parent, educator, and school board member.
Jamaal Bowman, Bronx public school parent and middle school principal said, “Although I consider the task force recommendations to be a step in the right direction, it is merely a single step. At this point, there is too much uncertainty to get excited about where we are headed in our public schools. Until we know how the recommendations will be implemented, and by whom, and until the law tying teacher evaluations to test scores is revised or repealed, we will not be able to move forward and properly meet the holistic needs of our children.”
“How the Common Core, testing, and other education policies are revamped to be in the best interest of the children will be watched very closely by parents. I will not be opting my children into any unnecessary tests including local assessments that do not provide important feedback for my children,” said Lisa Rudley, Westchester County public school parent and founding member of NYSAPE.
“While there is much talk of high standards, there is little discussion of the non-curricular resources required to ensure that all students can succeed in the face of poverty and lack of adequate funding. It is disappointing that the task force failed to raise the question, if disadvantaged students were struggling prior to the implementation of the Common Core, how will simply raising the bar increase student achievement,” said Bianca Tanis, Ulster County public school parent, Rethinking Testing member and educator.
“After so much time and money has been wasted in forced implementation of flawed policy, students and educators of New York have been hurt and trust has been broken. We must repeal the APPR imposed by politicians who did not understand the domain. Scholars in schools of education and professional educators should design the best systems to achieve goals for public education,” said Katie Zahedi, Dutchess County, principal.
Marla Kilfoyle, Long Island public school parent, educator and BATS’ executive director said, “Teachers and parents do not trust NYSED, the ‘Tisch’ Regents’ majority, the legislature, or the Governor to be in charge of education. What they have done to our public education system and to our children is unconscionable. I have been an educator in NY for over 25 years and the mass destruction their policies have caused will take years to repair.”
NYSAPE, a grassroots organization with over 50 parent and educator groups across the state, is calling on parents to continue to opt out by refusing high-stakes testing for the 2015-16 school year. Go to http://www.nysape.org for more details on how to affect changes in education policies.
###
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Lets not forget that NYSUT and the UFT declared this all a “win.”
I can’t articulate the anger and frustration that causes me.
As a vocal and active anti-reform public school teacher, I am willing to say at this point that my absolute main focus….the depths of my anger and what remaining energy I choose to devote to this heretofore losing battle will no longer be focused on the reformers themselves or their stupid ideas (they are a known quantity…..land grabbing capitalists….nothing surprises me or shocks me from their camp.) but rather the sell-out, broken, pathetic, deplorable, shameful teachers’ unions that take our money.
I couldn’t be more angry.
Reformers don’t inspire anger within me…..just that sort of sad pathos that comes with the particularly American ability to watch history repeat itself. Reformers (primitive capitalists) are acting according to their nature. It’s an awful nature, but too predictable to have real anger about.
NYSUT leadership for the past decade and their “thinking,” decisions, policies, and calls….that gets me really really angry.
I wish that was something, at least here in NY, that was a thing that motivated people to call for real change in our union.
I continue to maintain that our fight against the reformers will inevitably fail unless the primal force of real unionized action takes the stage. And no, opt out wont and can’t do that.
Wow! NYSTEACHER – agree, agree, and agree some more!!!!!!
I’ve been emailing NYSUT officers for years. I’ve spoken to one or another person in the office on more than one occasion. The complete and total disconnect from reality that they demonstrate is stunning. and shameful.
It can only be a result of another case of “we know better than you lowly teachers” and arrogance, ignorance, and a cup of “what the hell” thrown in for good measure.
Sadly, I think NYSUT, AFT, and UFT are beyond our influence. If they had the capacity/desire/ability to see truth, to act responsibly in the face of overwhelming credible, undeniable facts, then we wouldn’t be witnessing this devastation with their stamps of approval emblazoned on the heap o’ dung for all to see.
NYSTeacher,
I could not agree with you more.
But I would like to add to the conversation by saying that LOCAL chapters of unions are not always or necessarily of the same mindset as the state and national machinery.
Please let us give credit to local teacher associations within each district and school who do fight the good fight. I am not at all saying they are all fighters, but many of them are and are becoming increasingly so.
As for Weingarten, Mulgrew, Lily, and Van Roekel (who is now out of the picture), I could not possibly comment in this forum as to what they represent and mean to me . . . .
What would Miss Manners say if I let loose?
BTW, I was not referring to Diane Ravitch as “Miss Manners”, FYI.
It was Judith Martin.
I agree with NYSTeacher about needing real union action to fight the good fight.
BUT, I absolutely respectfully disagree that Opt-Out will have no effect.
It will, and it will continue to grow because this is not just a movement against teachers and principals; it is a movement against PARENTS.
It is a movement against democracy locally and at large . . . .
Please try to keep that in mind.
Never underestimate the power of a pissed off parent who witnesses his/her child being harmed, damaged, exploited, or abused.
One would be asking for trouble . . .
We are STILL a democracy, and the will of the populist masses still counts, as long as the populist masses are willing to do the heavy lifting and work to get their advocacy heard and their votes to COUNT!
Diane, if you have a minute, what do you think of that notion? You have always said that we can band together and “vote the rascals out!”
NYSTeacher, how about the notion of parents joining forces together with reinvented unions to form an even more fierce and effective coalition. Would that not be decmoecracy in action?
Nysut had the master plan of doing the nae nae dance… This organization is corrupt!
I share frustrations regarding our cautious and opportunistic union leadership. They are supposed to be defending and promoting the profession not finding the most comfortable way to concede.
Wish I knew the power of a strong local. Sadly, I don’t.
But the truth is, it’s our state (NYSUT) and national union organizations that are the visible face of what a teacher’s union looks like.
In a time when unions everywhere are threatened, and ridiculed, and accused of being “special interest” groups (in the most negative sense) it is our own union leadership that could very well be our undoing.
How do we hold them accountable to a different level of responsiveness, to a different message?
If there is a way, then the time is now…
Alice, it is up to us to reinvent our unions. If not, nothing will ever change.
Yay! Parents and the community can have a say in how the schools are run and how children are educated….refuse to comply with stupidity. May New York and the Opt Out parents lead the way!
Congrats to NYSAPE for standing tall! Thank you!
NYS teacher, well said. NYSUT decide a place at the table was a good strategy, unfortunately it doesn’t work when you are on the menu.
NYSAPE has got it right. There is no massaging this turd of a law, it must be flushed. Re-boot means delayed execution. Opt out or better framed intelligent disobedience is the only thing that can and will stop this nightmare.
So, looks like NY parents are not falling for The Mywayman’s “Commission” ruse.
Looks like he will really be in a rage tonight.
Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,
With Elia caving behind him and his testing vanquished nigh!
Wide-read- were his slurs on the Twitter; wide-spread was the parents’ vote,
When they opted out on the test day,
In droves and droves on the test day,
And he lay in the flood on the test day, with a bunch of ‘rents at his throat
Unfortunately we teachers in NYC can’t speak out, we have a gag order imposed on us by Mike the genius Mulgrew and Grandma Farina. I do know 12 kids opted out in my school, 1/6th of them were my own and I caught a lot of flack by my principal.
The removal of stakes now begs the question – why are we still giving the tests? This absurdity points back to ESSA requirements to test or lose funding. So perhaps the final compromise should be agreeing to pay the privatized testing firms their millions anyway if we can stop the destructive testing?
The fight in NY State and the country is FAR from over, but it IS evolving, no doubt . . . .
Robert,
Absolutely agree about locals. Locals are the organizations trying to make and maintain real protections for us, for the most part. They are the entities that NYSUT’s leadership ignores first. The possibility of one day being able to deselect payment to NYSUT and maintain my dues to my local brings a smile to my face, even though that Supreme Court loss would be a notable and deep disaster to the labor movement as a whole.
Union leadership, from WEINGARTEN, to Mulgrew, to McGee, to Palotta , Etc etc, are an abhoration and insult to the labor history of our country. It’s our collective fault that they rose to their positions. Disgusting jackal pack they are.
NYSUT,
I could not agree with you more. “Collective fault” shows what a critical thinker you are.
Well put.
I am all for opt-outs … and I hope they top 500,000 this spring. But it is but one tactic … and it’s a tactic that has been danced around and ignored at times by folks in power.
We should not be wooed into laying down our different weapons because we have one mighty tool of the moment. We need EVERY weapon in play … and those are all of the tactics and ideas that have been employed over the last few years.
We have had successes. And out successes have alarmed lots of folks. But to think that they’ll slam on the reform brakes because we have several hundred thousand kids refusing tests isn’t savvy enough.
We are all up against a mighty Goliath. We need our best arsenal …
Denis Ian,
You are RIGHT!!!!!
Denis Ian,
The powers in Albany are terrified of the opt outs.
Robert,
I fully agree on your point about the locals. They are the ones left holding the real responsibility of making and maintaining our protections down in the trenches, ABSOLUTELY. I would never mean to imply that the thousands of hard working local union people are part of the NYSUT leadership that I loathe.
Now, as far as opt out, I also agree with you that they are a potent, powerful, and deeply hopeful opposition to the reformers agenda. They are our key. They are carrying the entirety of the fight. My comment in no way was a jab at opt out. I was simply trying to articulate that opt out CANNOT be expected to carry teachers water in this fight. Its simply too much to ask of them and at some point, too much philosophically.
Opt out’s interests are parent-centered and parent-based. This is wonderful and it is where they derive not only their strength but also their authority. BUT, we must acknowledge that their interests and ours, as working teachers, cannot always run parallel. At some point they, fully understandably, will diverge. We cannot expect the full throated opposition to VAM-APPR to come from parents….inevitably its not their ass and their careers. They have some skin in that game, but not like we do. More clearly and more severely stated, there is a point (I don’t know where) that opt out will be satisfied and we will not be. Lets not forget, WE ARE THE FIRST AND PRIMARY TARGET of the reform movement. We need to be ushered off the stage in order for the reform agenda (which is an old-school capitalist land grab) to truly play out. The testing insanity is NOT THE REFORMERS AGENDA…..it is a simple and inevitably disposable TOOL for the reformers to get at teachers. The parents are fundamentally concerned with testing and the other TOOLS of reformers. For us as teachers, ours is an existential fight, running much deeper than that. The reformers REQUIRE THE DESTRUCTION OF UNIONIZED TEACHERS. Its the thing they are after. Now I get it, parents don’t want us teachers to go away, but we cannot expect them to carry this fight to where it needs to be brought. We must understand, at long last, that for teachers, the fight against the reformers is the whole show….the main event. We cannot win by taking down their programs and ideas one at a time. We can only win by removing from public discourse the very basis of their awful, primitive, deeply anti-democratic scheme to privatize the public space of education. We have to win this thing philosophically. We have to win the whole argument. For teachers, we lose every single second until the entire reform agenda is rendered garbage as an idea in civil discourse. That can’t be opt out’s fight….especially considering that even the most strident, hard-core opt-out parent is in the game fully for only a certain number of years (their kids eventually graduate.)
Yes, we need to partner aggressively with opt out. We need to work with them at every level. But don’t think for a second that its their job to carry this fight the whole way.
NYSTeacher,
AGREE 100%!!!
I am not saying it is the parents’ responsibility; I just see it as a joint responsibility and a potental partnership.
Most teachers are parents. Most parents like their children’s teachers.
But you make many, many excellent points and create an excellent persuasion.
Opt out is at its best and most potent when its maintains the AUTHORITY of its arguments…..that authority is the authority of a parent protecting their kid from insane testing and nonsensical curriculum. Opt out should be allowed to be lean and maintain that authority purely without having to try and carry other fights that aren’t deeply theirs. We burden opt out by expecting them to fight a teachers’ fight.
What I’m interested in is our side of the coin.,..the teachers fight and trying to harness our AUTHORITY so we can be lean and pure. Our authority is that of a teacher and worker not only protecting their profession, but also dispatching any bumbling capitalist’s notion to grab the public sphere of education. Thats our fight and one we should want to lock up and engage and win. The natural, proper, and pure expression of this is via our unions.
We do nobody any favors when we ask groups to dilute their authority and their anger by having them also carry the burden of other groups’ arguments. Lets work together but with maintaining our own fights.
I’ve said it before…this isn’t a fight for education Ph.Ds (barf). This isn’t even about education. We make many mistakes assuming that. But, counter-intuitively to many, this is actually a labor fight against labors’ real old enemy….raw, primitive, land-grabbing capitalism. We won’t win this with strong pedagogically-sound arguments from an inside-education perspective. We’ll win it, if we actually do, the exact same way (and only way) others have beat back raw, primitive capitalism before: a right and proper labor fight where winning public narratives matter, and with people putting themselves in front of things.
Superb, truthful points!
Labor still counts heavily, and it always should!
I am a 5th grade teacher and a parent of 5th and 8th grade boys. I had a regular parent teacher conference today. During the conversation I informed the teacher that I would be opting out my son once again. I am absolutely disgusted by the actions of NYSUT in praising the recommendations of the task force. I will continue to speak out. I just hope many others continue to follow the opt out movement from last year and not become complacent.
I agree with all sentiments above. Just a citizen here, a freelance (non-union) educator whose kids are already done w/public schools. My only slight disagreement is that I think judging from polls & article comment threads, there are plenty of parents out there– at least Dems & otherwise politically liberal– who not only buy into Opt-Out for their kids, but also disagree strongly with VAM based on test results. Most thinking parents recognize that they will lose good teachers to the nonsensical illogic of VAM policies.
As to the union issue… what will it take to divorce union leadership from the anti-democratic ed policies of neoliberal Democrats? I don’t understand a lot about how unions work– other than I’ve noted that once workers’ backs are really to the wall, they will unionize (we’re seeing suggestions of a tipping point, even among charter-school teachers). The main thrust has to be finding & electing pro-public-good Democrats. Because the central problem is that unions are tied to the Democratic Party, which has been usurped by pro-privatizing neoliberals. Another front is campaign reform & supporting anti-Citizens’-United legislation. And another, supporting the development of a strong pro-common-goods third party.
Well put!
It is clear that parents of students in grades 3-8 will continue to opt out. But what will happen at the high school level where students are required to pass Algebra 1 and English 11 common core exams to graduate? The English exam is particularly thorny in that it occurs junior year when students are deluged with testing from Regents exams to SATs and ACTs and APs.Yet now they may face an additional “local” exam to score a teacher?? This is one way to force the CC test to be used to evaluate teachers. No one is really talking about this but it is an issue especially since this is the first year all students must pass this test to graduate. last year schools could still administer the Comprehensive exam. We know that algebra 1 was a disaster last year. Graduation for thousands of students, and if his exam is calibrated to the SAT 1650 then millions of students, may not graduate.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
Opting Out is critical because with corrupt charters, Pearson Publishing for profit and ideology over education, Common Core, the Gates Foundation, Broad Foundation, Kochs, Murdoch, and the politicians who buy into this, the goal is total privatization of our schools for profit, ending collective bargaining rights for teachers, control of our children’s minds, refusal by most corporatists to care about truly educating our children over their profit, teaching all day to their idiotic tests. These are all reasons to expand the national Opt-Out movement as quickly as possible. As always, we first have to educate parents as to what’s going on inside those schools.
We also have to get these parents ready to fight at the college as level as well when their kids reach that age We need to boycott universities that charge $40,000 to $60,000 for “education” in which the money goes to the top of the administrative pyramid and to sports teams at the expense of families who incur lifetime debts only to find their may be no jobs available for their children when they leave colleges and universities. At a time the banks and loan companies are receiving our tax money from the Fed at zero to one percent, they are charging families compounding interest at an average rate of 8%–usury rates. To add to that, the professors are being made into adjuncts before they can get tenure, they are given only a few classes to teach, no benefits, and they have to get second jobs to feed their families. The ratios are getting larger and larger of teacher to students at the college level. Also, in Illinois, where I live, Pearson has convinced our corrupt government to allow them to charge a $300 fee to student teachers for being videotaped and evaluated by Pearson. It’s a shocking scam.
Point being, the oligarchs have taken over our educational system, from pre-K through college, dumbed down our kids with their ridiculous Common Core standards in math, and rote reading skills. In most cases, they aren’t taught critical thinking skills, or appreciation of the arts, science, real history (not rewritten history), civics, current events, they have no time for hands-on projects, and in certain parts of the country, biblical teachings are snuck in as well.
So, we can break the fight into components, but it’s all the same fight. We all have to help parents do battle with these free marketeers who are working so hard to convince the public that privatizing everything is better than working towards an excellent public education for all our students at at all levels of schooling. And I agree, both parties are working for their own self-interest over ours. It’s time to call out those at the top by name, force them to disclose how much they’re earning with our tax dollars and how much is being spent per child. Charters disclose nothing while receiving our taxes that Illinois claims they don’t have. I’m outraged at all times as to what we have allowed happen to this country.
NOTE: I am a former special education teacher and the grandparent of eight.The youngest are in Common Core schools, and I’m outraged. One who lives in Illinois is a fourth grader whose district has totally bought into it, and as far as I’m concerned, she isn’t getting an education worth two cents–and it breaks my heart; one grandchild in California is also a fourth grader, they use the test but don’t prepare kids for it and don’t take it seriously, leaving them time to give the kids a great education with parental input. Two of my grandchildren are “killing” themselves to get scholarships for college because they can’t afford $60,000 a year so they will be saddled with massive loans the rest of their lives–and for what.
a huge problem in NY State is that three organizations that should have genuine clout (NYSUT/AFT, NY State School Boards Association, and the NY Superintendent’s organization) have sold out. These organizations have been steamrolled because rather than standing up for the people they represent–they are content to merely “have a seat at the table.” The leaders of these groups are content to hang around the capital with power brokers. They want nothing more than to take the dues of members and be an Albany insider. Look at the nonsense that has been forced onto schools in NY State over the past five years and you must conclude that the leadership of these groups has been co-opted–or is simply inept! Look at the newsletters of these groups and you cannot help but conclude they are content pursuing their organization’s entrepreneurial agenda allowing them to expand their staffs and to be housed in high priced offices. Members need to ask themselves–are your interests being represented by any of these groups? The logical second question is do they deserve your dues?