Another public forum in the suburbs of New York City, and another nearly unanimous display of outrage towards the policymakers in New York state.

Commissioner John King has made clear again and again that nothing said at these public forums will change his course of action.

He will stick to the Common Core and the testing no matter what parents and teachers say.

And so will the Board of Regents.

Of course, this display of disdain toward the public only serves to raise the temperature, and speakers were plenty heated by the knowledge that no one was listening.

According to the report linked here,

“They’re mad as hell — and they’re not going to take it anymore.

A Common Core forum held at Eastport-South Manor Tuesday night brought out scores of parents, educators and students who echoed a common refrain of disappointment, despair and anger over a curriculum they said stands to dim the light of learning in their children.”

Many were outspoken:

“Setting up kids to fail is damaging to their self-esteem,” said Kathleen Hedder of the Rocky Point Board of Education. “How can you accurately rate progress if no one understands the rules and the game has changed mid-stream?”

Added Jan Achilich, director of special education at the Remsenburg-Speonk Union Free School District, added, “What you are doing is tantamount to physically throwing them into a rushing river without a life preserver.”

The Blue Ribbon school, she said, where music and dance have long been celebrated, is “now a place where anxiety and stress shadow our days.”

Concerns were raised about special education students who cannot keep up to a cookie-cutter standard.

Achilich asked King to reevaluate the current situation.

Others blasted King.

Julie Lofstad of the Hampton Bays Mothers Association lashed into the commissioner. “Can you explain why our children aren’t as important to you as Mattel?” she asked. The toy company, she said, recalled toys that were “potentially harmful. Why don’t you recall the Common Core? Why aren’t you willing to admit the Common Core is flawed, and needs to be fixed, or the program scrapped?”

A local school board president said,

“This is a program that breaks the children, not educates,” he said. “It is destroying our children. Allow our teachers to teach, not be proctors.”

“Shame on you,” said Chris Tice of the Sag Harbor school board. “Please tell us specifically how you are going to fix this and give us a timeline.”

King responded by saying there was a “great gap” between the evening’s conversation and what is happening in classrooms that he’s visited, where children are writing and reading more challenging texts — his words were met by a loud outcry from the audience.

The standards were adopted in 2010 and would be phased in over seven years.

“They won’t be here in 2017 and neither will you,” one audience member yelled. 

John King again made clear that he disagrees with the public. They are wrong, he is right. Period. ”

He disagreed that Common Core instruction was “less joyful” and said he saw kids happy in their classroom. “Joy and rigor in learning aren’t opposites.”

The article does not mention the appearance of any members of the Tea Party or (as Frank Bruni put it recently in the New York Times) “left-wing paranoiacs.”

The speakers were parents and teachers and school board members in the local communities.

Carol Burris puzzled over a strange phenomenon. Why is the state spending so much money on Common Core-aligned curriculum?

In the past, New York state set standards, and local districts developed their own curriculum, usually at a cost of about $1,000 per grade. Now, teachers are expected to use state-purchased curricula, developed at a cost of millions.

Burris digs deeper, and, of course, discovers the Gates Foundation, helping to create a national curriculum.

Burris asks:

Why do New York State Education Commissioner John King and [Board of Regents’ chair] Tisch refuse to slow down New York’s rushed Core implementation, despite outcry from the public?

If parents, teachers and taxpayers had the time to critically examine the curriculum, they would ask the hard questions that would lead to its unraveling. This is not just a math problem. There are English/Language Arts vendors producing $14 million worth of New York curriculum as well. Recently ELA modules were ridiculed at a local school board meeting in upstate New York.

There are big questions that the press needs to ask about Common Core Inc. and all of the vendors that are receiving public money. There is also an overarching question that should be asked: Is this an attempt to create a national curriculum by having federal tax dollars flow to New York State and then out again to an organization committed to Common Core curriculum development?  And to all of the business leaders who so enthusiastically support the Common Core—do you want your future workers to count like Sally? Is this the best curriculum that more than $28 million can buy? I think not.  It is time we take a look with eyes wide open.

On Monday, my first outing since I was  hospitalized, I went to a meeting of superintendents and school board members on Long Island to discuss the Common Core.

I explained why I was uneasy about the hasty implementation of the Common Core in New York, especially the inappropriate rush to test the Common Core standards before teachers had a chance to learn about them, before resources were available to teach them, and before students had had a chance to learn them.

I warned that the Common Core testing was designed to fail 70% of the students. New York Commissioner of Education John King predicted with uncanny accuracy before the tests were given that only 30% or so would pass. He knew this because he wrongly chose the NAEP “proficient” level as a pass-fail mark. On NAEP, 30% of New York students are at the “proficient” level, he figured, so that is what the state tests should show. But NAEP proficient was not designed to be a pass-fail mark; it represents “solid academic performance.” I was a board member of the National Assessment Governing Board for seven years. I know the achievement levels and the kind of student work they represent. On NAEP, “advanced” is extraordinary achievement (sort of like an A+). The next level, NAEP “proficient” is equivalent to an A or at least a strong B+ (the NAEP guidelines don’t say so), but it is certainly an indication of high academic achievement, not a pass-fail mark. There is only one state in the nation–Massachusetts–where 50% of the students have reached proficient.

The “cut score” (or passing mark) was set so high that only 31% of New York students passed (including only 3% of English learners, only 5% of students with disabilities, only 15-18% of black and Hispanic students). Consequently, the New York State Education Department ignited a firestorm of outrage from parents. Arne Duncan said this indicated the disappointment of “white suburban moms,” but the New York Regents have yet to hold a hearing in New York City or any other urban district. I expect the Regents will get an earful from moms and dads of all races, not because they consider their child to be “brilliant,” but because they don’t consider them to be failures.

I asked the leaders on Long Island: What will happen if 50-60-or 70% of students can’t pass the Common Core tests and can’t get a diploma? Has anyone thought about them? Will they be able to get any kind of job without a high school diploma? What exactly is the point of making the tests so hard that 70% will fail?

Newsday reported that I said “Boycott the Common Core.”

This was not entirely correct.

What I said to the leaders was: Boycott the tests, and let your teachers revise the Common Core standards. The K-2 standards are developmentally inappropriate. K-2 teachers should revise them so that children of that tender age have plenty of time to learn through play, imaginative activities, and social interaction. The standards for 3-12 should be reviewed and revised by teachers to make sure that they are cognitively appropriate.

I said that if one district boycotted the tests, it might be subject to sanctions. But if many districts boycotted the tests, the State Education Department would back down. This is a democracy. A state agency cannot impose its will on the public, without regard to the consequences.

Teachers should write their own tests so they get instant feedback and give each students the help he or she needs.

The goal of the Common Core standards is to teach students to think critically, to act deliberately, and to reason through their decisions.

Our leaders should model those behaviors. The implementation of Common Core in New York has been a disaster. Parents know it, but our state leaders have thus far refused to concede that they were hasty and reckless in their rush to test. It is time for the Board of Regents and Commissioner King to step back, demonstrate critical thinking, and reassess their plans for the rollout.

It appears that legislators are hearing the parents, even if the Regents are not. If the Regents and Commissioner King continue to be intransigent, they may find their powers curtailed by the Legislature. This is still a democracy, and the legislators understand that government requires the consent of the governed.

The New York Times summed up the universally hostile response that Commissioner King has received from parents and educators in New York at an ongoing series of forums about Common Core and its botched implementation.

King should use these meetings to apologize for setting absurd cut scores (passing marks), aligned with “proficient” on NAEP, which is not a pass-fail mark, but represents solid achievement of a high order. He should have apologized for testing students on material they had not been taught. He should have apologized to teachers for threatening to evaluate them on the new scores when they had not been prepared to teach the Common Core.

Instead he made clear that he has no intention to change course.

Out comes the usual charge that the critics are led and manipulated by the teachers’ union, even though the union supports the Common Core. This is a variation on Arne Duncan’s claim that “white suburban moms” are disappointed that their child is not so brilliant after all.

The subtext is that suburban parents are dumb and are easily led by “outside agitators,” they don’t know what’s good for their children, they are being used, they don’t want high standards, etc.

Really, people in high public office should show respect for the public, not disdain. They should remember they are public servants, not bosses with unlimited power.

New York is not known as a Tea Party state, but it does have large numbers of suburban moms and dads who care about their children and who are well-educated.

Here is an account of State Commissioner John King’s public forum in Mineola, Long Island, where hundreds of angry parents and educators turned out to reject the state’s Common Core testing.

How many more public beatings will John King subject himself to before he begins to admit he might be wrong? Is that possible? He listens but he does not hear.