Robert Rendo, educator and citizen, sent the following email to the New York Board of Regents:
Dear Honorable Regents,
As a private citizen and taxpayer, I urgently call upon you to reconsider Mary Ellen Elia’s position and to demand her resignation with a replacement that will truly advocate for children, families, taxpayers, and do what is right empirically and non-politicized for public education; that includes promulgating strict laws to prevent data mining and to protect student privacy, as well as increased funding to reduce class sizes and supplement far more greatly populations at risk.
As it stands to date, Commissioner Elia:
1. Has ignored parents: Even though more than 1 in 5 NYS parents have refused the state’s tests, the tests and the standards on which they are based remain largely unchanged.
2. Has deceived parents: Under her guidance, the state education department has misrepresented minor changes in the standards and tests as more significant than they really are.
3. Has formulated and implemented polices that are damaging to children and teachers: Rather than championing developmentally-appropriate practices based in research, Elia’s State Education Department has pushed policies like untimed testing (which may actually be illegal as well as abusive) and canned curriculum (which stifles creativity and engagement for students and teachers alike).
4. Has misplaced priorities: The state should be focused on insuring equity of resources, not on punishing schools.
5. Has not shown the will to forcefully protect all children–whether from racist school board members, data-mining corporations, or indefensible assignments (like the one where students were asked to make arguments in defense of the Holocaust).
I, along with dramatically and rapidly growing numbers other state residents and taxpayers, vehemently call for Ms. Elia’s immediate removal and replacement, and I hold you, along with our state legislators, accountable and will continue to watch hawkishly your governance as you continue in your noble and critical path for public education and our precious children and families of NY State.
Thank you for taking this under your careful review.
Sincerely,
Robert Rendo
Ossining, NY
cc: NYS Allies for Public Education Steering Committee
Jamaal Bowman
Deborah Abramson-Brooks
Chris Cerrone
Jeanette Deutermann
Amy Gropp Forbes
Johanna Garcia
Kevin Glynn
Eileen Graham
Leonie Haimson
Michael Hynes, Ed.D
Jake Jacobs
Kemala Karmen
Marla Kilfoyle
Jessica McNair
Lisa Rudley
Janine Sopp
Bianca Tanis
Katie Zahedi, Ph.D
cc:
Diane Ravitch
Carol Burris
Susan Lee Schwartz
Leonie Haimson
Assembly Woman Sandra Galef
State Senator David Carlucci
Diane Ravitch's blog 
how did this woman get hired? I remember you all had hopes for her, right? ditto Carranzo who already had a murky past of fighting with parents and teachers….
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I didn’t express hope for her, although I surely hoped for the best. She was fired from her last superintendency because she exhausted the district’s cash reserves ($270 million) in a vain effort to do the Gates’ evaluation plan (he put up $80 million), which failed.
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New York can do better than an old brainwashed Florida hand-me-down. New York should be seeking more progressive education leadership for the state. Prior to NCLB New York always seemed to be ahead of the curve with student centered learning and teacher empowerment. The great state of New York should cut its alliance with half baked “reform” policies that only benefit Wall St and testing companies. Elia cannot provide the type of leadership needed to move New York forward.
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Retired,
I am in agreement with you about bringing in more progressive-oriented types to the NYS BoR and elsewhere. Speaking along state government lines, we are in a position legislatively to do just that–HOWEVER…..I’m going to wait and see what this next session brings. Remember, on a national scale, when Obama was elected, public education breathed a sigh of relief and thought the NCLB madness would subside if not disappear altogether. Well, the election of Obama turned out to be a Trojan horse for ruling elites to enact the neoliberal policies personal enrichment for themselves as well as to create a politically neutered underclass that is educated only so far as to “read instructions and advertisements” (Nick Tempio’s book on Common Core nails it). 2008 to 2015 showed me that teachers had NO political allies anywhere. Examining pernicious, vulture-like organizations that popped up during Obama’s time, with innocent “for-the-children” sounding names (like DFER or Partnership for Educational Justice) that borrow the language of the democratic party, civil rights movement, and liberalism in general, exposed these organizations for what they truly were: topdown, class-based, elite-run boosters-for-neoliberalization, hellbent on enrichment through taxpayer money at the expense of taxpayers themselves, students, parents, teachers, and public space in general. So, in short, I’m leery and skeptical but can you blame me? It was the ramped up, amplified War on Public Education that emboldened my convictions that there are no “republicans”, no “democrats”, no “conservatives”, and no “liberals”. It’s all about money. As reductive and overly simplistic as that may be, the war reminded me of Woodward-and-Bernstein’s approach to Follow the Money….and you’ll find the reason….and to never lose that approach ( #FoTheMo). People outside of education constantly ask me so many ‘why’s’ and ‘how’s’ of all the reform-minded (read: neoliberal) policies and I tell them look who stands to benefit financially first, then politically. Let’s hope this new legislative session in NYS brings some sanity and common sense to the table.
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Well put, Youssarian. But Obama and company did not borrow the language of civil rights. Instead, he stole it, corrupted it, co-pted it, skewered it, and ultimately perverted it. Obama, for whom I voted, was and is an enemy of teaching and learning.
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She did work in the Sweet Home District in her early years which is a suburb outside of Buffalo, NY.
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Bien dicho, Roberto.
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To NYSAPE’s complete credit, I borrowed much of their wording because I could not have expressed the intention and sentiment better myself. Thank you, NYSAPE, for everything you are! We true educators will prevail.
And at the same time, the big picture I walk away with, as both a private citizen and as an assistant principal of a public school, is that we educators are not only protecting public education, but we are also advocating for social and government policies that will quickly, dramatically, and long-term reduce poverty before it ever sets foot into the schools, making children and familie far less stressed and ready to learn the second a student steps into a classroom.
I believe as a political advocate, that we MUST shape our society to redistribute wealth towards the public commons more evenly in order to protect not only public education, but democracy at large. We can and will do this!
We already are, and none of us will ever relent on the heavy lifting and passion it takes to heal our society . . . We ordinary citizens and residents are worth it always. It is our birth and civil right to not live in a classist and oppressive society.
I beseech everyone in NY State to support NYSAPE and become a member.
Politics is never a spectator sport. For the man and woman who “mind their own business” when it comes to politics, I have to say that they have no business living in the States.
As Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said months ago: “When we talk about the word ‘socialism,’ I think what it really means is just democratic participation in our economic dignity and our economic, social, and racial dignity. It is about direct representation and people actually having power and stake over their economic and social wellness, at the end of the day.”
I agree.
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Can we also ask the Board of Regents to rescind the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards? These Common Core-based science standards are nothing more than developmentally misaligned “performance tasks” which demand the use of the discredited and debunked “discovery” method. Asking children to “re-discover” already known and well understood science facts, laws, concepts, explanations, and theories is a wildly reckless and ridiculous approach that will confuse, frustrate, and misinform our students.
Here are a few sample “learning standards” for grades K to 4:
Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.
Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard.
Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.
Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
Compare multiple solutions designed to slow or prevent wind or water from changing the shape of the land.
Analyze data to determine if a design solution works as intended to change the speed or direction of an object with a push or a pull
Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.
Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs.
Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on living organisms and non-living things in the local environment.
Analyze data obtained from testing different materials to determine which materials have the properties that are best suited for an intended purpose
Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.
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And yes! NGSS science tests in grades 5 and 8 are being developed to help prove that 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 year old brains cannot complete sophisticated performance tasks without a sufficient foundation of science knowledge – and an extra 10 to 20 years of adult brain development.
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Rage, once more you’ve hooked me on looking into NGSS (diff field here– I provide wkly Span lesson in various PreK/K’s). I hope we will discuss them on the blog here at some length eventually.
This time I dove a little deeper, but mostly focused on K-2 stds). There’s a master plan of 3 dimensions [really, ways of thinking– Sci& Eng Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, Disc Core Ideas] into which every bit of science fits, sez somebody, & teachers must make sure every lesson-unit draws upon all 3. The dimensions strike me as probably debatable, & definitely intellectualized concepts that might be appropriate to consider in 12th-gr [if ever], after many yrs of imbibing info & practicing lab applications.
Under the 3 ways of thinking, all science is herded into Life/ Earth& Space/ Physical, followed by hands-on application called Engrg& Design. That’s OK I think, but under that we get the stds themselves (you’ve provided examples) which supposedly guide planning/ learning. Dense, almost impenetrable; written from an airy, grad-course-level view, reqg considerable bkdn to glean K-2 appropriate lessons.
The whole approach seems upside-down & reminds me of Chinese critiques of US math-instruction. They engage class groups in an activity & ask them to derive a formula from the data devpd– then class critiques proposed formulas, finds best one. US imparts best formulas a priori & asks kids to practice them repeatedly on data sets.
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I am on winter break so I dread hearing the words – performance task – as one reads those standards above, how can you not get a headache trying to figure out how to get your students to do them, get it, understand it ? Such a waste of instructional time. I realize it is all in the name of higher learning and critical thinking … but at this point I think the average American would do better if he or she just plain knew more about a subject matter before spouting off on it … It seems to me to be a national pastime to opine without knowledge, wisdom or facts.
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Those who care about America’s future and about the lives of the children of the middle class and poor, as Rendo does, understand it is imperative to stop the people who are the political front for Gates, Waltons, Wall Street, Charles and David Koch, Art Pope, Doris Fisher,,,,,
Share Blue media identified a newly-elected congresswoman they think will be an influencer in the House, Katie Hill from California. She beat a fellow Democrat who was a charter supporter.
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This sounds like it offers hope, Linda. It is unacceptable that any Democrat would support any form of privatization of public schools.
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Agree, Robert.
Thanks for showing, by example, what a good citizen in a democracy does and, what humanity demands.
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US Corporations Are Micromanaging Curricula to Miseducate Students
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/garry-kasparov-says-we-are-living-in-chaos-but-remains-an-incorrigible-optimist?mbid=nl_Daily%20120418&CNDID=24457067&utm_source=nl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20120418&utm_content=&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=Daily%20120418&hasha=ab3178722e644a5ea1b695f8d9dcd1b1&hashb=c2c3b8e1c179ce09742361143011b09229279347&spMailingID=14732388&spUserID=MTMzMTgyNDgxNjMzS0&spJobID=1540308293&spReportId=MTU0MDMwODI5MwS2
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Elia is just doing Cuomos bidding.
And Democrats love Cuomo, so things will not change any time soon.
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Cuomo, however, is a political being who might be persuaded to “change” his mind.
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Cuomo would change his mind under two circumstances: One, if he gets big campaign contributions; or two, if he is potentially embarrassed by protests.
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