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Fred LeBrun: Charters Schools Are “a Costly Distraction”

By dianeravitch
April 9, 2017 //
8

Fred LeBrun writes a column for the Albany Times-Union on politics. He is one of the most insightful journalists in the nation on the subject of education.

The New York state budget was late this year because of disagreement over a tax break for real estate developers, whether to raise the minimum age for criminal responsibility from 16 to 18, and how much money to throw to charter schools. The State Senate will vote on the budget deal tonight. The Republicans and Governor Cuomo are in love with the charter school lobby, despite the fact that charters in the state capitol of Albany–where the Legislature meets–have been a terrible disappointment. They can see the evidence before their eyes that charters open with grandiose promises and close without a whimper. That doesn’t matter.

LeBrun writes:

In the tentative budget deal announced Friday night, all three made it through. No great surprise there. Charters were enriched by about $50 million, according to the governor. Hardly enough to call it a budget deal breaker, though. Raise the Age will be done in steps, and that’s an excellent outcome. Kudos to the governor. Real estate moguls are smiling.

But what is amusing to consider is that two out of three issues, if you want to call them that, supposedly holding up budget passage have a commonality. Reviving the expired 421-a real estate development tax credit, which admittedly drives growth and affordable housing, is also an unabashed windfall to real estate developers, who themselves are among the most generous political donors to our governor and legislature. The political donors benefit directly from the legislation.

It’s not the charter schools I referenced above that hold the power, and certainly not the 122,000 or so young New Yorkers who attend them, predominantly in New York City. It’s the relative few billionaire hedge fund investors in charters looking for the return on their investment who would have the ability to hold up our budget until they get theirs. Because they in turn have become generous contributors to the governor and the Republican Senate. Again, the political donors benefit directly from the actions the governor and senators take on their behalf.

I can hear the charter crowd screaming that they are also public schools, because it says so in the legislation creating them. That’s a lot of hooey, as Albanians certainly well know. They are private schools masquerading as public schools. And until the day comes, if ever, that you the taxpayer vote on the boards running charters funded in your school district, and yearly vote where every dollar is to be spent, as happens across the state with real public schools, then charters are bogus public schools.

At its peak, Albany taxpayers, without representation on charter school boards or budgets, were shelling out $30 million a year on these bogus public schools. Yet please show me how the charter movement benefited public education in Albany appropriate to the extra money spent.

Charters are under the protection of certain politicians. Why is simple enough, and has not much to do with “ideological” considerations. Just follow the money.

In the last election cycle, according to New York State United Teachers, the state’s powerful teacher’s union, the governor and Senate majority received $4.5 million from the charter school-oriented political action committee, New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany, and more than $11 million since 2014. That’s private dollar contributions to politicians in exchange for directing taxpayer dollars their way.

And as investments go, you can’t beat it. New York taxpayers shell out $2 billion a year to these private charter school investors.

Republican Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan’s one-house revenue bill this year featured a half-billion dollars a year more for charters. Now, granted, there was no real expectation this bill would pass, but it does reveal intentions and a wish list. Flanagan wanted to reward charter contributors. So did the governor, whose “compromise” over charter funding was to throw an additional windfall at charters without lifting a tuition freeze that would lead to an even greater windfall. All of it is money that ought to be going to traditional, chronically underfunded public schools.

Enriching charters schools is not the direction a progressive state like New York should be following, no matter what new pressures in Washington suggest. The developing community school movement, a holistic approach to fighting under performing public schools primarily in impoverished urban districts, is a far more likely candidate. There’s only so much money for public education, and we as a state have to decide where we want to invest. Charters are nothing but an expensive distraction.

The last time state legislators got a pay raise was during Republican Gov. George Pataki’s first term. The raise was in exchange for welcoming charter schools to New York.

That was a black day that has haunted us since. What started as supposedly an “experiment,” that began as an annoyance, has graduated to a genuine irritation. Now charters are unquestionably imbedded across the country in our secondary education system and we have to learn to live with it. Do they have a place? Of course. But let those who want them pay for them, but not with my money.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Funding, New York

New York Opt Out Movement is Alive and Well and Thriving!

By dianeravitch
April 7, 2017 //
3

The New York Opt Out movement started in Bellmore, on Long Island. The parent leader there, Jeanette Deutermann, opposed the misuse and abuse of standardized tests, as well as Common Core.

Every year, state officials predict the demise of the movement, every year they offer bribes and threats, yet for three years in a row, large numbers of parents have refused their children’s participation in the state testing. The numbers for the state will not be released for weeks by the New York State Education Department, but individual districts have released their data. The Long Island newspaper Newsday called districts and concluded that 51% of students who were supposed to take the state tests did not take them. They opted out.

This sends a powerful message to the state. It is the only way that parents can make their voices heard, by saying NO.

In North Bellmore, three-quarters of students refused the tests.

The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District again had among the highest percentages of students in Nassau County opting out of the state English Language Arts exams last week, with 73 percent of seventh- and eighth-grade students sitting out the exams.

According to Superintendent John DeTommaso, the district had the second-highest percentage of non-participating students.

At the same time, 70 percent of students in the Bellmore Elementary School District opted out of the exam over the three days that it was administered.

As reported by the Herald in 2014, the opt-out movement” began as a small, grass roots social-media campaign in North Bellmore and rapidly spread statewide, with parents demanding that the state scale back the number of exams and their difficulty. Many parents argued that the exams, based on the Common Core State Standards, are one to two grade levels above their children’s abilities.

North Bellmore mother Jeanette Deutermann founded the group Long Island Opt Out, which, along with the New York Alliance for Public Education, the Badass Teachers Association and United Opt Out, sparked much of the national movement, according to a Columbia University study.

Deutermann said this weekthat this year’s opt-out numbers show that parents “are not backing down.”

“It’s not just a test itself,” she said. “It’s what [Common Core] does the entire year. My son was in the grade where everything flooded in at the same time. We saw the changes in our kids. We saw their reactions to it. It was beyond frustration. It was complete shutdown. We watched them struggle through work that was completely grade-level inappropriate.

“The state has an option,” Deutermann added. “They make little tweaks to the tests here and there … but parents are really researching and following and learning what these tests are and what they’re not.”

On Monday, DeTommaso called the Central District’s — and Long Island’s — opt-out numbers “an incredible movement by parents,” and said that Central administrators don’t believe a single assessment can give “the full picture of how a kid is doing throughout the year.

To those who claim that Opt Out is a movement of “white suburban moms,” please don’t overlook Brentwood on Long Island. The district enrollment is 6% white, two-thirds on free-reduced lunch, and 60% of its students opted out.

Categories New York, Opt Out, Parents

New York: 51% of Students on Long Island Opt Out of State Tests

By dianeravitch
April 4, 2017 //
9

The full state count of opt outs has not been released but Newsday, the Long Island newspaper, surveyed the 124 school districts in Nassau and Suffolk counties and concluded that 51.2% of the eligible students did not take the state tests this past week. The story is behind a paywall.

“Last week, the number of students on Long Island in grades three through eight who refused to take the state’s English Language Arts exam topped 97,000, according to a Newsday survey that brought responses from 116 of the 124 school districts in Nassau and Suffolk counties. The number represented 51.2 percent of children eligible for testing — the second consecutive year the boycott has topped 50 percent.

“Some upstate school systems also reported high rates of ELA test refusals, while others have said the numbers were down somewhat. Elia told Newsday on Monday that the department would release official data on opt-out rates after state math tests are completed next month.

“Representatives of the New York State Alliance for Public Education focused much of their ire Monday on Elia’s decision last year to allow students in grades three through eight as much time as they wanted to complete the ELA and math exams.

“The commissioner contended that untimed tests were less stressful than those completed under deadlines. Alliance leaders responded that allowing students to spend entire school days filling in test answers actually heightened stress, and they demanded data on how many pupils engaged in such practices.

“Jeanette Deutermann of North Bellmore, a founder of the coalition and the group Long Island Opt Out, said in the statement issued Monday that the commissioner “has shown utter disregard for the well-being of children and opened the floodgates for abusive testing practices with little to no accountability.”

This will be the third year that large numbers of students–about 20% statewide–have refused the tests. Although the federal ESSA law requires 95% participation in every school, there appear to be zero schools in the state that met that mark.

A corporate reform group called High Achievement New York ran an expensive ad campaign to entice students to take the tests, ignoring the fact that the tests do not create “high achievement.” HANY’s executive director lives in New Jersey.

If everyone opted out, the legislature and even the Congress would have to back off their obsession with testing. Testing is not teaching. Children need more instruction, less testing.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, New York, Testing

NYSAPE Calls on Board of Regents to Remove Commissioner Elia

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2017 //
24

NYSAPE, the New York State Alliance of Parents and Educators, is a coalition of 50 parent and educator groups across the state. The board of NYSAPE has called on the New York Board of Regents to demand the resignation of State Commissioner MaryEllen Elia.

Here is the statement:

“New Yorkers Call on the Board of Regents to
Remove Commissioner MaryEllen Elia for Failure to Protect Children

“For the past five years, hundreds of thousands of parents, from every corner of New York State, have called for meaningful changes to our damaging test-and-punish accountability system, resulting in the largest opt out movement in the nation.

“When MaryEllen Elia replaced embattled former Commissioner John King as NYS Education Commissioner two years ago, New York’s families and educators hoped to see improvements. Instead, as Commissioner, Elia doubled down on King’s speculative reforms, and children continue to suffer. Elia further compounded the testing debacle by implementing untimed tests in New York, resulting in substantial numbers of children testing for the entire school day for days on end.

“Elia’s willingness to expand controversial testing, disregard student privacy rights, ignore best practices, and condone the unethical treatment of students has worsened New York’s toxic educational environment and further outraged parents. The Commissioner’s recent defense of a high school assignment requiring students to write an essay in support of Nazi viewpoints has only widened the divide between Elia and the parents and students she is supposed to serve.

“The MaryEllen Elia experiment in New York has failed. It is time for the Board of Regents to remove Commissioner Elia and substantially change course.

“Eileen Graham, Rochester public school parent and founder of the Black Student Leadership said, “When a school resorts to bribing students to take a test, it says more about our dysfunctional education system than any test score. Unfortunately, Commissioner Elia’s lack of leadership has created a corrupt learning environment in which administrators feel pressured to compromise their integrity by promising pizza parties and field trips in exchange for test participation. Not surprisingly, Commissioner Elia has done nothing to publicly discourage this unethical behavior, and in fact seems to encourage it. The exclusion and shaming of students whose families exercise their right to opt out is undemocratic and unconscionable. Our schools and our children deserve better.”

“It is disturbing that Commissioner Elia has gone to such great lengths to convince parents of significant improvements to the NYS tests when students actually take longer than ever to complete them. The Commissioner will stop at nothing to artificially increase test scores including allowing young students to sit for 6 hours of testing for (3) three consecutive days through her unilateral untimed testing policy. These abusive policies must stop and the Commissioner must go!” stated Lisa Rudley, Westchester County public school parent and founding member of NYSAPE. She went on to say, “Elia’s recent actions defending assignments supporting Nazi viewpoints are indefensible.”

“Commissioner Elia’s failure to keep accurate data on untimed testing is incompetent at best and deceitful at worst. By refusing to ensure that schools are complying with New York State’s 1% cap on the number of instructional hours devoted to the state tests, the Commissioner has shown utter disregard for the well-being of children and opened the floodgates for abusive testing practices with little to no accountability. It’s time to completely remove the Tisch era from SED and remove Commissioner Elia,” said Jeanette Deutermann, Long Island public school parent, and founder of Long Island Opt Out and NYSAPE.

“New York’s student body is incredibly diverse,” said Chris Cerrone, School Board member from Erie County, “Our students deserve a commissioner who is sensitive, principled, and unwaveringly dedicated to rooting out prejudice and bigotry. Elia’s lack of a timely ruling to deal with the racist comments made by Buffalo School Board member Carl Paladino shows an inability to stand up forcefully for the dignity of all students.”

“Commissioner Elia’s ESSA Think Tank and its related surveys and regional meetings have been an exercise in futility—and deception,” says New York City public school parent Kemala Karmen, who serves on the purportedly advisory body. “Instead of allowing for ground-up ideas from stakeholders, the Think Tank leadership, under Elia’s guidance, summarily dismisses any proposals that do not conform to their same-old, same-old Merryl Tisch-John King era notions, effectively squandering the ability of the state to create an accountability system that might actually help schools improve. It makes me wonder what boss or bosses the Commissioner is actually answering to.”

“While Commissioner Elia is required to ensure that NYS tests are offered to all students, it is not the job of NYSED to persuade parents to subject their children to tests they deem harmful and meaningless. Commissioner Elia’s failure to provide parents with straightforward facts and information is shameful. We need a Commissioner of Education who values research-based practices and will advocate for students. Unfortunately, Commissioner Elia seems more committed to test compliance than to the children she serves,” said Marla Kilfoyle, Long Island public school parent, educator and Executive Director of BATs.

“Until our education leaders and lawmakers understand that high standards are best evidenced by equitable learning opportunities and not a fetishistic commitment to corporate learning standards and politicized test scores, the opportunity gap will continue to widen. New York State deserves an education leader who values student-centered and developmentally appropriate practices. Now, more than ever, our schools need a transformative leader who will change the conversation from one about test scores to one about equitable resources and research-driven supports. Sadly, Commissioner Elia has fallen far short of the mark,” said Bianca Tanis, Ulster County public school parent and special education teacher.

“Dr. Michael Hynes, Superintendent of Patchogue-Medford in Long Island said, “The Commissioner’s goal should be to focus on the whole child. Schools should be drawing out the talents of children and maximizing their potential. Thus far, Commissioner Elia’s agenda has been the complete opposite. She has failed to show the educators and parents of New York State that the physical, emotional, academic and social growth in children is her number one priority.”

“The Board of Regents must act to remove Commissioner MaryEllen Elia. We deserve a leader who will institute best practices and dignity for all, as opposed to one who continues to undermine the well-being of our children.”

NYSAPE is a grassroots coalition with over 50 parent and educator groups across the state.

###

Categories Administrators, superintendents, New York

To New York Parents: A Warning about the Common Core Tests

By dianeravitch
March 29, 2017 //
14

Students in New York sat for the ELA Comin Core tests on Tuesday. The test will continue for three days, an ordeal lengthier than graduate school exams.

Leonie Haimson invited teachers and parents to share their stories about the test, which is otherwise blanketed in deep secrecy.

Testing expert Fred Smith sent this comment:

Thank you, Leonie for inviting the comments of observers who otherwise have been silenced by SED and DOE from breathing a word about the exams.

I’m sure we will find that the improved 2017 ELA exams have the same flaws as the ones Pearson has produced since 2012.

To me, the following exchange on your blog concerning field testing is particularly important because it succinctly describes what is wrong with field testing—both embedded and stand-alone field testing—which continue to plant the seeds that perpetuate bad exams. Yet, SED has run interference for the publisher, selling our kids out so tests can be developed on their backs.

”

Anonymous said…

Field testing questions embedded within today’s test hurt students. Fifth grade students deal with 5 passages. The entire third passage and the seven questions that followed were different across the various test forms, indicating that the whole text and question set will not count towards student scores. Why waste students’ time with it on an ACTUAL exam? Field test questions are notoriously ambiguous because their validity is still being assessed. My students struggled with the third passage and expended a lot of stamina on it, which hurt them on the last two passages. If we must field test passages, can we not at least place those questions LAST. I had a boy still testing at 2 pm. He spent an hour on the third text (which gained him no points) and was forced to randomly fill in bubbles for the last two stories (which do count!) in order to finish by day’s end. Where’s the logic? Why don’t we do separate field testing like a few years ago?”

Blogger Leonie Haimson said…

“The problem with separate field testing is that students don’t take it seriously and thus the results aren’t as reliable. However, having really hard questions as embedded field test questions on some exams and others easier is unfair to the students struggling with the hard questions. And the tests shouldn’t be so long! This tests endurance more than comprehension.”

Fred Smith continues:

Each year since 2012, the core-aligned test years, questions have been tried out without informing parents that their children were being used as unknowing subjects for commercial purposes. SED and DOE have gone out of their way to leave parents out of the loop for fear they would object—and say NO! And they might exercise their right to OPT OUT.

Note: Educational Testing Service, a testing giant, recently acquired Questor which had been awarded a 5-year contract in 2016 to succeed Pearson in furnishing the statewide exams. It now appears that Questor merely served as a pass-through window, allowing Pearson to exit and be replaced by ETS. Both companies have played a major role in promoting the Common Core and the riches it opens up to them in marketing related educational material. (Yet, even ETS, which administers the SAT, makes test-takers aware that parts of that exam are experimental.)

Leonie, please include the following link to an opinion piece I wrote on the grim reality of a state testing program that has been abetted by SED and DOE through their efforts to suppress information. They treat parents with disdain. Diane Ravitch ran it yesterday.

Fred Smith: The Pathetic Lies of the New York State Education Department, in Service of the Testing Regime

It expands on the above.

Fred

__,_._,___

Categories Common Core, New York, Testing

New York: Victory for Parents and Children in Court!

By dianeravitch
March 27, 2017 //
6

EDUCATION LAW CENTER

NEW YORK APPEALS COURT ORDERS CUOMO ADMINISTRATION TO RELEASE SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT GRANTS

In a major victory for parents, a New York appeals court has ordered the State Division of Budget to immediately release over $37 million in improvement grants to 20 needy schools across the state. A year ago, the grants were frozen by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Budget Director, Robert Mujica, triggering a lawsuit by parents of students in three of the affected schools.

“I am most happy for the children who would benefit from these funds as it shows them that there are people other than their parents who care about their future,” said Curtis Witters, a parent plaintiff in the lawsuit. “I hope the schools will utilize these funds to help our students be as successful and progressive as possible.”

Education Law Center represents the parents of students in the three schools: Hackett Middle School in Albany, Roosevelt High School in Yonkers, and JHS 80 Moshulo Parkway Middle School in the Bronx.

In an order issued today, the appeals court “vacated,” or lifted, a “stay” of a December 28, 2016, decision by Judge Kimberly O’Connor in Albany finding Mr. Mujica had acted illegally in withholding the grants. Judge O’Connor directed the Budget Director to immediately release the impounded grant funds.

An appeal of by the Cuomo Administration triggered an automatic stay of Judge O’Connor’s ruling. The parents then asked the appeals court to lift the stay, citing the urgent need to release the funds so needed programs could be implemented in the upcoming (2017-18) school year. Today’s order clears the way for the funds to be released so the schools can begin their planning process.

“We are pleased the Appellate Division ordered the immediate release of the grant funds,” said Wendy Lecker, ELC Senior Attorney. “These grants were frozen illegally, forcing the schools to discontinue vital academic and support services in the current school year. These schools can now plan to restore these programs to improve performance and help their students succeed.”

“Mr. Mujica had no legal basis for impounding these grants in the first place,” said ELC Executive Director David Sciarra. “It’s tragic that the Cuomo Administration would waste time and money to defend their illegal action in court, rather than working cooperatively with local educators to improve outcomes for vulnerable children.”

In addition to vacating the stay, the appeals court also granted the parents’ motion to expedite consideration of the merits of the appeal, placing it on the court’s May 2017 calendar.

For more information about Cortes v. Mujica, visit these pages on the Education Law Center website.

Education Law Center Press Contact:
Sharon Krengel
Policy and Outreach Director
skrengel@edlawcenter.org
973-624-1815, x 24

Categories Accountability, Cuomo, Andrew, Funding, New York

New York Opt Out Leaders Prepare for Renewal of Common Core Test Boycotts

By dianeravitch
March 26, 2017 //
6

The epicenter of New York’s historic test refusal movement is gearing up for a repeat performance when testing begins on Monday.

The state is hoping that the introduction of computer-based testing will mollify parents but it shouldn’t. Numerous studies have shown that students get lower scores on computer-based tests than on tests that require pencils. Some children–especially in younger grades–are not adept with keyboard skills. Others find that scrolling up and down the online format is confusing as compared to using pencil-and-paper.

But the fundamental problems remain. Many parents and educators don’t like the Common Core. The results are reported far too late to help teachers because their students have moved to another grade. Students are not allowed to discuss the test questions or to learn what they answered right or wrong. In short, the tests have no instructional value. They are simply a way of ranking students without helping them.

They are pointless.

Enough parents understand this, which feeds the opt out movement.

If the Regents and the State Education Department can’t address the genuine concerns of parents, they should stop the testing. Until they do, parents should not allow their children to take the tests.

“Public school districts across Long Island and the state are bracing for what many educators and parents expect to be a fifth consecutive year of Common Core test boycotts in grades three through eight, even as eight districts in Nassau and Suffolk counties and dozens elsewhere introduce computerized versions of the exams.

“The state’s time window for the English language arts test starts Monday and closes a week later, both on the Island and statewide. Extra days were added, as compared with last year’s schedule, to allow flexibility in giving the computer-based exams. The traditional pencil-and-paper tests will be given Tuesday through Thursday.

“Officials in some Long Island districts put estimates of opt-outs at 40 percent to 70 percent of their eligible students.

“Brian Conboy, superintendent of Seaford schools, said he expects the boycott of English exams in his district to run close to last year’s 67.8 percent.

“I’m a firm believer in assessment,” Conboy said. “However, assessment has to be developmentally appropriate for students. In the case of how these assessments rolled out, all trust was lost.”

“Cheryl Haas, who lives in the Hauppauge district and is keeping her twin daughters out of the eighth-grade English test, also predicted that refusals would equal last year’s local rate of 71.9 percent. Haas, a former teacher, agreed that tests must be developmentally appropriate — that is, not beyond students’ age and skill levels.

“Until then, parents will stand united to do what is best for their children,” Haas said.

“Some boycott organizers noted that opt-out rates are difficult to project in advance, because many parents wait until the first week of testing to file refusal forms with their districts.

“More than a year has passed since the state Board of Regents moved to ease anxieties over testing by declaring a moratorium, until the 2019-20 school year, on using test scores in any way that might reflect poorly on students’ academic records or as a component in teachers’ job evaluations.

“The nation’s largest test-resistance movement, with Long Island as its epicenter, has emerged in New York State since 2013. Last April, the number of students in grades three through eight in the two-county region who skipped the English assessment reached 89,036, or 51.6 percent of the total eligible, based on data from 108 districts that responded to a Newsday survey.

“Reasons behind the phenomenon: outrage and anxiety among teachers, parents and students over a series of educational reforms pushed by state and federal authorities, without adequate time for teachers and students to prepare.

“Into the mixture this year add the introduction of computer-based tests.

“Schools in five districts in Suffolk County and three in Nassau are going with the electronic versions: Bridgehampton, Franklin Square, Islip, Massapequa, Mineola, Mount Sinai, Longwood and Remsenburg-Speonk.

“Districts on the Island that are administering tests electronically will do so only in selected schools or on selected grade levels. Other students in those districts will take traditional paper-and-pencil tests, as will students elsewhere.

“Computer-based testing also is scheduled in three nonpublic schools — Our Lady of Lourdes in West Islip, St. Patrick’s in Huntington and St. William the Abbot in Seaford — as well as in three special-education centers run by Eastern Suffolk BOCES.

“State math tests for grades three through eight are scheduled May 1-8.
Both kinds of tests, computer-based and paper-based, require three consecutive days for completion within the Education Department’s specified time periods.

“Statewide, about 150 districts will offer computerized testing in English, and 136 will do the same in math, according to the state Education Department. The state has about 700 districts in all.”

Categories Accountability, Common Core, Education Industry, New York, Opt Out, Parents, Technology, Computers, Testing

New York: Parents and Educators Call for a New Round of Opt Out to Protest Flawed Tests

By dianeravitch
March 20, 2017 //
14

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 20, 2017
More information contact:
Lisa Rudley (917) 414-9190; nys.allies@gmail.com
NYS Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) http://www.nysape.org

Link to Press Release

New York’s Largest Grassroots Education Advocacy Organizations Join Forces to
Urge Parents to Opt Out of NYS Common Core State Tests

Across the state, grassroots education advocacy organizations including New York State Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE), Long Island Opt Out, New York BATs, NYC Opt Out and Stronger Together, are urging parents to opt out of the NYS Common Core state tests.

With New York State Common Core state tests in grades 3-8 set to begin this month, hundreds of thousands of parents have notified school officials that they will refuse these flawed and harmful tests. Despite Commissioner Elia’s claims that significant changes to these tests have been made in response to the concerns of the public, parents and educators know that nothing could be further from the truth.

Jeanette Deutermann, Long Island public school parent, founder of Long Island Opt Out and NYSAPE said, “We have made great strides over the past few years. As a result of the opt out movement, many agencies, organizations, and state leaders connected to education have either willingly or forcibly shifted towards a philosophy of whole child teaching and learning, recognizing the voting power that this movement possesses. However, this shift has not resulted in the legislative changes required to stop the misuse of test scores to rank, sort, and punish our schools. We must continue to refuse the tests until the NYS education law is amended.”

New York City schools are resorting to misinformation and scare tactics to discourage opt out in communities that have less access to information, especially in Title I schools. While our schools should be empowering parents to make thoughtful decisions on behalf of their children, what we are seeing instead is the usurpation of parental rights. To be clear, every parent has the right to refuse the state tests simply by notifying their child’s school officials.” said Johanna Garcia, NYC public school parent and Co-President of District 6 President’s Council.

“As always, there are those who wish to contain our influence and weaken our resolve. Sadly, misinformation meant to strip the rights of parents and quell opt out has been disseminated by organizations and school leaders charged with overseeing the education our children. Facts are our weapon. Information is our strength.” Eileen Graham, Rochester public school parent and founder of the Black Student Leadership Organization.

Nate Morgan, President of Hastings Teachers Association and Vice Chair of Stronger Together Caucus said, “The tests are longer than ever with young students sitting for up to five hours per day for 6 days of testing and even longer now with the Commissioner’s untimed testing policy. The common core standards remain essentially unchanged and the benchmarks used to determine proficiency continue mislabel hundreds of thousands of students as failures. Teachers continue to have minimal input in test construction and in fact, are not even permitted to read the tests they are compelled to administer! Parents and educators recognize the failure of both Commissioner Elia and Governor Cuomo to respond to our concerns. The opt out movement will continue.”

“While Governor Cuomo is desperate to present himself as a progressive champion of education, his actions prove that his education platform is most closely aligned with that of federal Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Coupled with his failure to fully fund our public schools, Governor Cuomo’s refusal to amend the Education Transformation Act–a law that requires the use of junk science, unfairly punishes schools serving the most vulnerable students, and supports privatization efforts–proves that he cares little for our children and the well-being of our schools,” emphasized Marla Kilfoyle, Executive Director of BATs, NYS public school teacher, and parent of a NYS public school child.

We are encouraging parents to reject harmful and developmentally inappropriate tests along with non-researched standards, the continued misuse of assessment data, and efforts to punish and privatize the most under-funded schools by opt outing out of the 2017 NYS Common Core state tests.

NYSAPE is a grassroots coalition with over 50 parent and educator groups across the state.

###

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, New York, Opt Out, Parent Groups, Testing

New York: State Regents Consider Eliminating a Redundant Standardized Exam for Future Teachers: Do It!

By dianeravitch
March 19, 2017 //
52

It is rare to report that any state has eliminated any standardized test at all, but that is exactly what may be about to happen in New York.

A committee of the New York Board of Regents has proposed to eliminate the “Academic Literacy Skills Test for Teachers,” which is a useless hurdle. For now, the test has been suspended. Its future will be decided in July at a meeting of the full Board of Regents.

The test was adopted in 2014. It has a disparately negative impact on minorities. But that alone is not the reason to eliminate it. It should be eliminated because it has no predictive value about good teaching.

Critics complain that the Regents are “lowering standards,” but that is nonsense.

To get a license to teach in New York State, applicants must take and pass four exams. In the contemporary mania for testing, policymakers decided that one test was not enough; two tests were not enough; three tests were not enough. No, future teachers had to take and pass four tests, all of them at the expense of those who want to teach.

The Regents, led by Regent Kathleen Cashin–a former teacher, principal, and superintendent–conducted a review of the tests. The Cashin committee concluded that the most useless of the four tests was the ALST. It is a 43-question exam that costs future teachers $118, takes about three-and-a-half hours, and has no predictive value whatever as to who will be a good teacher. Here are sample questions. Like all standardized tests, some questions have more than one right answer. If anyone can explain how this test shows the qualities of a good teacher, please let me know.

Like all standardized tests, the ALST has a disproportionately negative impact on people of color. There is a higher failure rate among blacks, Hispanics, and Asians.

If the test actually predicted who would be a good teacher, maybe the state could ignore the disparate harm to racial minorities.

But nothing about the test has any relationship to teaching. It is a test that weeds out anyone who can’t think like test makers think. It does not predict who has the knowledge and skills to teach well. It does not predict who has the sensitivity and concern to be an effective teacher for children with disabilities. It does not predict who will succeed as a teacher of students with limited English skills. It does not predict who will be successful in any kind of classroom.

Perhaps Harvard or Yale might find it to be a good substitute for the SAT, to weed out all but the most advantaged students. Perhaps law schools might find it useful to gauge reasoning skills.

But it is not a test of the skills of teachers and should be eliminated as a requirement for teaching in New York state.

Categories New York, Teacher Education, Teachers, Testing

New York: Parents Sue Cuomo to Release “Frozen” Funds for Neediest Schools

By dianeravitch
March 12, 2017 //
7

The Education Law Center is suing Governor Cuomo on behalf of parents at some of New York state’s neediest schools, seeking the release of $37 million the state owes these schools. :


PARENTS ASK NY APPEALS COURT TO RELEASE ILLEGALLY FROZEN SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FUNDS

Parents of students in three public schools are asking a New York appeals court to immediately release over $37 million in improvement grant funds frozen a year ago by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

The latest request comes in a lawsuit filed by the parents charging the Cuomo Administration’s budget director, Robert Mujica, with violating the law when he refused to release grants previously appropriated by the Legislature to boost programs and services in twenty, high need schools across the state. Education Law Center represents the plaintiff parents and students.

On December 28, 2016, Judge Kimberly O’Connor in Albany found that the budget director exceeded his legal authority in withholding the grants and ordered the funds be immediately released to the NY State Education Department for distribution to support vital programs in the schools.

Governor Cuomo decided to appeal Judge O’Connor’s ruling last month. Under New York law, the appeal triggers an automatic stay of the order to release the funds. The parents are now asking the appeals court to lift the stay, citing the irreparable harm to students if the schools are unable to implement the programs supported by the grant funds.

“If the grant money is not released pending this appeal, hundreds of children in New York’s neediest schools will lose educational opportunities that they cannot regain,” said Wendy Lecker, ELC senior attorney. “Education is cumulative, so when students are deprived of the support needed for learning that not only limits their achievement this year, but impedes progress as they move to subsequent grades.”

In affidavits filed in support of the parents’ request to the appeals court, administrators from three of the schools deprived of the grant funds – Hackett Middle School in Albany, Roosevelt High School in Yonkers, and JHS 80 Mosholu Parkway Middle School in the Bronx – detailed the essential programs they can no longer provide without the grants. These include extended learning time, social work and counseling, family outreach, academic intervention and professional development. The programs were implemented in 2015-16 with the first year of grant funds, but are on hold since the Governor decided to withhold the second year of funding.

Numerous programs have been held up by the Governor’s action:

Hackett Middle School discontinued extended instructional time to provide students with additional academic assistance and professional development for teachers.

Roosevelt High School cut a literacy/math coach and parent coordinator; discontinued professional development opportunities for teachers; and eliminated or sharply curtailed weekend and after-school extended learning time, college visits and CTE pathways.

JHS 80 Mosholu Parkway Middle School could not implement any of its proposed programs, including mentoring for at-risk students, social workers and guidance counselors for their extended day program, and professional development for teachers.

The appropriation for the grants will lapse in March 2018. If the funds are not released pending the appeal, the schools may lose access to the remainder of the funds, permanently depriving students of the opportunity to benefit from the programs and services the grants were intended to support.

Education Law Center Press Contact:
Sharon Krengel
Policy and Outreach Director
skrengel@edlawcenter.org
973-624-1815, x 24

Categories Accountability, Funding, Inequity, Injustice, New York, New York City
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