To say the least, John King had a rocky tenure as Commissioner of Education in New York. He managed to alienate parents with his abrasive, top-down style and his unwavering commitment to the Common Core.
Reporter Jaime Franchise spoke with leaders of the Opt Out movement, and all expressed astonishment that he was nominated and confirmed for the post as Secretary of Education in light of his performance in New York.
“Jeanette Deutermann, a Long Island parent, founder of the Long Island Opt-Out Info Facebook page, and co-founder of nonprofit New York State Allies for Public Education, blasted King’s ascension Tuesday via her popular Facebook page.
“It is inconceivable that a man synonymous with failed education policies could be promoted to the highest education post in our nation,” she slams. “The incompetence of John King as New York’s SED Commissioner was epic, and New York will be cleaning up the mess he made for years to come. The silver lining may be the igniting of an education uprising across the country the way his leadership, or lack thereof, ignited New York.”
“That “ignition’ is the robust, pro-public education and anti-Common Core movement that sparked parents, educators, and students to organize, protest, and take action against the education reforms they believed were undermining public education.
“Michael Hynes, superintendent of Patchogue-Medford schools, finds the idea of King as U.S. Secretary of Education “beyond appalling.”
“It’s really scary to think that that gentleman, and I’m being kind by saying that, has the potential to reframe or to move forward with what Arnie Duncan has started,” he told the Press in January. “This is a guy who is pro-charter, his kids go to Montessori school. I really believe he doesn’t know anything about public education. And now potentially will set policy nationwide.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Let’s hope that he is not there long enough to do much of anything.
LikeLike
He’ll be out by next January. And why are these folks surprised? After nearly 7 years of Arne Duncan, preceded by GWB’s two turkeys, that office has been held by incompetents for the past 15 years. And there’s little hope that things will improve unless Sanders wins. Prepare for more education policy idiocy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
As a New Yorker, it was heartbreaking to see Sen. Schumer put politics in front of children, with his yes vote. Thanks to Sen. Gillibrand for breaking from her party and voting no, the only vote that protects kids from the harm King has and will continue to inflict.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Obama will be out, but Clinton pledges to continue Obama’s policies. She is also thisclose to charter proponents.
LikeLike
Does anyone actually think President Obama (who I voted for) actually gives a rat’s ass about public education.
He’s just another in a long line of President’s who don’t see it as a priority, which is kind of sad.
LikeLike
More power to you, 30 years and retiring, for making it to 30 years in this viciously punitive climate of old teacher blame! 🙂
LikeLike
“Stunned” “inconceivable” “beyond appalling” “really scary”
Really??
Why is this shocking even a little?
We here in NY did not destroy King. We simply thought that by highlighting and exposing his incompetence, that that was somehow a win. We didn’t do the hard work, the heavy-lift, necessary to actually destroy him politically. We thought, as we always do, that being right was enough….that showing his incompetence was enough. We were only talking to ourselves. We missed the boat with King. The narrative matters. We are making almost no impact on the narrative.
King’s ascension should be a real moment for us to reassess how we approach our fight against the reform movement. The reform movement has captured both the right and the left of the political spectrum by smartly crafting a narrative that appeals to both right and left.
The possibility of King remaining with the next administration is quite high. So lets not set ourselves up for another moment of shock when he is kept on with the next administration. He has the support. The language surrounding him seems to suggest it, and there is a strong precedence for keeping people on from admin to admin. So please, no shock come next January on this.
King’s rise, as I’ve said before, is a big chunk our fault and until we get that and begin changing how we fight this war, I fear that we will do nothing but be shocked and appalled until our pink slips are delivered.
LikeLike
I agree. What we must do is to rally the candidates to ensure that King is removed. I suggest a letter campaign from parents, teachers, and students across the country to each democratic candidate expressing our dissatisfaction with King. I plan to send my letter to both Clinton and Sanders. Are we going to “do the hard work”
LikeLike
I agree as far as not being surprised and the idea that King will be kept on after January.
But I’m curious how you think it’s our fault? What more should/could we do? Most of the people on this blog take any and every opportunity to talk/write/email/tweet/protest anybody who will listen and even those who don’t. But the M$M almost completely block us out. We have no national platform. The politicians are bought and paid for. Even the unions have sold us out. Unless you can get the FBI interested in investigating these rephormers (which is how Chicago got rid of Barbara Byrd-Bennett without simply passing her along), the best we can do with them is to get them out of our own backyards. I would love to find a way to stop the dance of the lemons – if you have any ideas on that, speak up.
LikeLike
“It is inconceivable that a man synonymous with FAILED education policies could be promoted to the highest education post in our nation,”
No Jeanette, it is not only conceivable, but it was completely unavoidable.
Obama could not find a man or woman synonymous with a SUCCESSFUL education policy if his presidential legacy depended on it – for the simple fact that they do not exist.
Fifteen years of unmitigated, abject, and inarguable FAILURE is all the test-based reform movement has to show for all there wasted efforts. The test-based reform hypothesis has been disproved at every turn.
LikeLike
Dienne,
When I talked about King’s rise to Sec of Ed. being our fault, here’s what I meant:
Here in NY, the main apparatus to fight the reform movement was NYSUT….once perhaps the strongest teachers’ union in the nation. As teachers and membership, we allowed a known weak and not-up-to-the-task leadership to stay in place.
More importantly, neither the union, it’s membership, or anyone resisting the reform movement did anything except allow King to make a fool of himself. We then talked among ourselves about how he was proving his incompetence. Never once did any major effort arise to politically destroy King. This would have involved mass union-based actions to highlight his incompetence and make it known nationwide. Instead, what occurred was the usual response on our side: much conversation among ourselves, assuredly talking about how obvious King’s incompetence was….us as usual comfortable knowing we were right. We had no sense that our job was to actually explode this guy. Why not have a teacher opt-out a few days after his Poughkeepsie debacle? Where was NYSUT? Where was the membership screaming bloody-murder for NYSUT to act or step down.
We seem to think that if we use the established and known paths within our unions and within our politics, we are doing all we can. This is wrongheaded. We also think that being right in and of itself matters. Being right is wonderful and all that, but it doesn’t matter. Wedding being right with fighting a smart fight is what we should be after. I also have no faith in some vague empty belief that the wrong side of things will ultimately lose. Nonsense…..wrong stuff wins all the time. I’m also not willing to wait. My career and paycheck are on the line. Talking among ourselves about King’s awfulness was wrong. We thought other people were taking note. They weren’t.
The fact is that King’s embarrassing tenure was only noted by us. The rest of the political establishment, obviously, knew nothing of it….and if they did, they were assured that there was no political risk in confirming him. That is our fault.
We will continue to be shocked at every moment all the way until we lose the whole ball game. That’s my fear.
LikeLike
They’re “stunned”? How long has the fix been in? How long have the billionaires been pushing the buttons? The federal government has been illegally taxing and funding a “US Department of Education” office for decades despite the fact that education is clearly a states’ right in the US Constitutions. Where does it state in the Constitution that the federal government has the right to pool tax payers’ money to institute a “race to the top” where discrete states compete against one another to give up their Constitutional rights to education first?
The question should be, for what nefarious purpose was a Dept. of Ed. created in the first place and why are they so quick to give up people’s children to corporations?
LikeLike
I’d give it better than 50% odds that Hillary is the next president and King is in there for four years as Secretary of Ed. But hopefully I’ll be pleasantly surprised and she’ll name somebody more moderate. Also female, since education is mostly women. How many female secretaries of ed have there been?
LikeLike
The only female Secretary of Ed was Shirley Hufstetler, a judge, the very first one, appointed by Jimmy Carter.
LikeLike
Also, Margaret Spellings, now busy “disrupting” the University of North Carolina, who was appointed by George W. Bush.
LikeLike
Yes, I guess I could have looked that up. But I would say there is a worse glass ceiling in education for women, than in technology or business. Based on statistics of gender in the field, and then percentage moving to higher positions.
LikeLike
When I was writing about my experiences with test-score reform abuse, it didn’t take long for me to see the larger modern-day picture where, now, a new top-down, don’t-talk-back theory of educational management has been giving power to male after male…while the 80% female teaching force has been forced into an ever-more-obvious submission. I even came to recognize my own specific experience with a viciously intentional emotional abuse: ciedieaech.wordpress.com: Recycling The Cycle Of Abuse
LikeLike
How much direct additional support have public schools received to put in the Common Core? Not the testing- I know the testing was the first priority- but the Common Core itself?
This is exactly what happened with NCLB, right? The “accountability” piece was put in and then the “support” never arrived?
One would think public schools would figure this scam out after 20 years and get the money up front. Once schools accept the testing ed reform reneges on the support, because the testing is the only thing ed reform cares about.
They say it themselves, 20 times a day: “accountability and choice”. Does anyone see “support” in either of those two words? They’re telling you what they value- tests and charters.
LikeLike
“Outcomes only policies” have ruled the day for so-called accountability since the banishment of “opportunity to learn standards” around 1987.
In effect, legislators and appointed officials can pile on mandates at the state and federal level, and none of them need to be fully funded.
At some point, you realize you can no longer do the impossible. In addition, these “outcomes only affectionistos” have created an ethos for education with ends totally separated from means for achieving them. That is one way that this system creates perverse incentives to cheat–get the job done (or seem to) by any means possible. Change the test scores is all that matters are those scores.
When officials who have put out these absurd mandates are called out, they may say, “Well, maybe the ends do not justify just any old means.” In order to address the problem, they tack on stipulations, conditions, and outsource solutions to “technical service providers,” who pull out their dog and pony shows, professional development packages of power-points, webinars, trainings, chat rooms, tomes tailored for “differentiated” groups (principals, teachers, parents) for these basically unchanged and poorly thought out often screwy initiatives. These “technical service providers” get grants, freeing the officials from serious thinking, allowing them to wash their hands of the problems they have created.
How did I become so cynical? I followed everything created by USDE, or under contract to USDE, in order to justify the use of SLOs (Student Learning Objectives) as an alternative to VAM for evaluating teachers. There was nothing there except very expensive and heavy-handed marketing by professional sub-contractors who were thriving on that bumbling, half-baked, and unnecessary initiative. The initiative to evaluate teachers by test scores set up VAM as the quasi-official tool for evaluating teachers based on statewide tests. VAM, so-called value-added measures) were marketed as reliable, valid and useful in rating the productivity of teachers–accountability as in business, test scores like meeting or exceeding some sales quota.
Then oops– not every teacher has a job assignment that produced scores on statewide tests. What can be done with evaluations of the estimated 69% of teachers who do not have assignments that implicate such tests?
You outsource the problem. Why? Not one bit of research supported the use of SLOs other than as a tool for managing and rating teachers in the context of pay-for-performance. All SLO studies pointed to one person as the marketer of SLOs –a warmed over version of mid-1950s Management by Objectives (a failed business strategy) as if it was reliable, valid and the rest for measuring the productivity of teachers.
Name of the SLO purveyor: William J. Slotnick, Founder and Director of Boston-based consulting firm, Community Training and Assistance Center. Slotnik managed the 1999 Denver trial program, funded by the California-based Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and two regional foundations.
So for value-added accountability, follow the money spent on covering up for really bad policies and hiring more staff and/or outsourcing the problems created by politicians who are too rarely held accountable for messing up…and on a grand scale.
LikeLike
John King failing upward.
This is the default setting for the chief beneficiaries and promoters of self-styled “education reform.”
After all, this is the same person that thinks Montessori and Common Core, are, well, from this blog, the first part of a posting—
[start]
I received an email from a Montessori teacher in Wisconsin. She asked me to publish this so that Dr. John King, State Commissioner of Education in New York, understands that the Montessori school to which he sends his own children does not have a philosophy aligned with what he proposes for Other People’s Children.
Dear Diane,
John King keeps on saying that Common Core is a lot like Montessori education. I am an upper-level teacher (1st-6th grade) at a private Montessori school in Kenosha, Wisconsin. I have read the CC standards and researched it. Many of our parents are teachers in the public school district and I discuss CC with them. I am reading your book and I can tell you that Common Core is nothing like the Montessori method. There are many differences, but I’ve limited my explanation to how we view homework and assessment in the Montessori classroom. This is also how I explain the differences to parents.
[end]
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2013/11/03/montessori-teacher-to-john-king-montessori-is-not-about-testing-and-common-core/
Anything I might add would be superfluous.
Although a very dead and very old and very French guy gives us a hint of how John King makes John King “Rheephormster Extraordinaire” look:
“Ridicule dishonors a man more than dishonor does.”
And what would he say about self-ridicule?
😎
LikeLike
The failure of so-called reformers is also their covert/stealth “success.”
Every school district that is taken away from local voters, every public school that is closed because of bogus exams, every career teacher who is driven out of the profession, every money and blood-sucking boot camp charter school that opens at the expense of the local public schools, is a form of “success” for these predators and parasites.
LikeLike
Today, Credo Action circulated an online petition, addressed to the US Dept. of Ed., titled,
“Come Clean About Student Loan Scandal”.
And, the punch line, ahead of April’s Fools Day – Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who voted FOR John King, is author of the quote and, is fronting the initiative.
LikeLike
In a world where logic had meaning, John King would never have failed up. But back in his old stomping grounds of New York-tucky, high school Regents teachers are being subjected to a new Hunger Games. Now that tests for grades 3-8 can no longer be used to evaluate teachers, Regents exam scores can be used–for more than high school teachers. Regents exams have served as graduation requirements for certain students for about 100 years, Now anyone without a state test can receive 50 percent of their evaluation based on Regents exam scores of other teachers’ students. And schools can “cherry pick” the tests with the highest pass rates. Just another brilliant idea from Cuomo and the NYS legislature. Just waiting for Johnny King to bring that to a national stage.
LikeLike
No surprise here. Successfully disrupting a state of unionized professionals and ignoring concerned and aware parents in order to turn an obligation to citizens into an opportunity for a market? Cha-ching, baby. Golden boy material. The best part is the promotional material preceding his approval.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on stopcommoncorenys.
LikeLike