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A Mother Writes to the New York Board of Regents

By dianeravitch
October 17, 2013 //
134

This comment was posted and signed by a mother of a ten-year-old child who doesn’t want to go to school. Ever.

 

This is the message I recently sent to the Board of Regents and my state representatives:
I have been very vocal about my concerns regarding the implementation of the Common Core Standards, testing, and curriculum in NYS. I have written letters and emails to my NYS representatives and made phone calls. I organized a rally which drew over 2000 people to Comsewogue High School to remind everyone that our students are not defined by their state test scores. I’ve been involved and aware. I joined with other concerned community members to create the group Students, Not Scores.

Tonight this fight became very, very personal.

My ten year old daughter asked me what it would take for me to let her stay home from school forever.

Forever. Not tomorrow… not this week. Forever.

Isabella is very well spoken; very bright. She describes herself as a feminist, and loves to debate adults about the inequity of womens’ pay for equal work. She is committed to calling out bullies in school and helping those people she sees that need a little boost. She can carry on conversations about interesting points and people in American history most kids have never heard of. She can tell you all about the Women’s Suffrage Movement. However, Bella doesn’t learn some things as quickly as other kids do. She struggles with reading at grade level, and has difficulty memorizing math facts. Math word problems are confusing to her, and take her longer than her peers. She has to work really hard to be successful academically. And she does work very hard.

But tonight Isabella decided she has had enough. “School is too hard now.” She said. “I’m too stupid to do this math.” I can assure you we do not use the word ‘stupid’ in our home to describe anything, especially not people. But in the one hour conversation we had in which she was begging me to let her quit school, Isabella used that word- stupid- to describe how she felt about herself more than 10 times.

So, now I have had enough.

No matter the intent, good or bad, in creating and implementing these Common Core standards… if they are hurting children, causing them to give up on themselves at ten years old, there is a problem no one can deny. This problem is bigger than the left wing – right wing debate over states rights and Federal overreach. This problem is bigger than corporations spending billions to influence education policy. This problem is bigger than data mining and privacy. This problem is bigger than Bill Gates, Arne Duncan and Commissioner John King.

Because when a child is broken in spirit, when they have lost their self worth and confidence, that damage is not erased easily. When children hate school to the point that they attempt to avoid it at all costs, there will be no desire to be college or career ready.

Now, before you say I just want my child to succeed no matter what, and I must be one of those ‘everyone gets a trophy for participating’ parents, let me say this: I want my children to be challenged. I want them to have to work to be successful. I want them to sweat it out occasionally, and have to ask questions to clarify. I want their curiosity to lead them down paths I’ve never imagined. I want them to want to know more… about everything.

But when they have no confidence, they will not try. They will not raise their hand to ask a question. They will fear homework, quizzes and exams… and the voice they hear in their heads telling them they can’t, will create a self fulfilling prophecy… so they won’t succeed.

If these insane policies pushing developmentally inappropriate curriculum on our children are allowed to stay in place, what will the future hold for those students who do not fit in this one size fits all approach? What will happen when the precious data doesn’t show the growth these education reformers want to see because so many kids just give up? How many kids have to be hurt before we stop? How many kids have to use that word to describe themselves before we realize the damage that is being done?

Tomorrow morning I will bring Isabella to school. I will tell her that I know this is hard, but she has to just try her best. I will tell her I know how smart she is, and so does her teacher. I will kiss her head and whisper “I love you” with a smile.

And after she walks down the long school hallway, I will use very ounce of passion and compassion I have to call on my elected representatives to stop the abuse. I will contact every media outlet and offer my story- Isabella’s story. I will call, write, tweet, and email the Board of Regents and NYSED Commissioner. I will request meetings with policy makers. I will rally friends and family to do the same. I cannot, no I will not sit back and wait for someone else to get this done.

No one has the right to implement policies that are downright abusive, no matter how lofty their goals. These policies have hurt my child- and that is unacceptable. You’ve heard the phrase ‘Hell hath no fury like that of a woman scorned’…. that is nothing compared to that of a mother protecting her child.

~Ali Gordon

Categories Common Core, New York, Parents, Students

A NY Parent Objects to Commissioner King’s Cancellation of Parent Meetings

By dianeravitch
October 16, 2013 //
10

John King, Commissioner of New York’s education system, was booed repeatedly when he held his first parent meeting in upstate New York. The parents expressed their low opinion of his policies, his mandates, the Common Core, the Pearson testing, and the contempt King shows for teachers, principals, and public schools.

He opted out. He canceled all future public meetings with parents.

This Long Island parent recommends that parents write a letter to Governor Cuomo. Good idea. But even better to send a letter or email to the New York Board of Regents; that board approves state policy and appoints the State Commissioner. He works for them.

First I will post the parent’s letter, then a list of the members of the Board of Regents:

“Dear Governor Cuomo, I’m writing to express my incredible displeasure at Commissioner John B. King, Jr.’s decision to cancel the state sponsored PTA town hall meetings. As parents, we have legitimate concerns regarding his educational reform policies that are affecting our children. He must have the decency to listen to our concerns and defend his decisions publicly. This is inexcusable, and he must be held accountable.

On Tuesday night, I was looking forward to asking him what evidence he had that it was educationally beneficial or a valid measure of learning to include reading passages on the 3rd grade ELA exam that the average 3rd grader would only understand 50% of the reading material according to our understanding of lexile levels.

If the State’s education reform agenda is sincere in its efforts to improve teaching and learning for our children and not a thinly veiled effort to privatize public education for profit, it is imperative that corrective measures be taken now as a gesture of good faith. I implore you to immediately decrease the duration and frequency of testing, to ensure that the tests be returned to the schools and families so they can be used to make sound educational decisions that impact learning, and eliminate student test scores from teacher evaluations since VAM has been judged to be too unstable by the same people who developed it.

Many Long Island parents, like myself, moved to this region or chose to remain here because of the quality schools that have existed for decades. The Commissioner’s policies are threatening our children’s learning experiences. The canceling of these important meetings is further evidence of the Commissioner’s arrogance. Though the Commissioner is not an elected official, he is appointed by people that are and as one of my elected officials I am requesting that you listen and respond to our concerns.

Sincerely,
Keith Gamache
(Parent of Everett age 7 Centre Ave. School, East Rockaway and Atticus age 4 future kindergartner)
231 Ocean Ave.
Lynbrook, NY 11563
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear ___________________, I’m writing to express my incredible displeasure at Commissioner John B. King, Jr.’s decision to cancel the state sponsored PTA town hall meetings. As parents, we have legitimate concerns regarding his educational reform policies that are affecting our children. He must have the decency to listen to our concerns and defend his decisions publicly. This is inexcusable, and he must be held accountable.

On Tuesday night, I was looking forward to asking him…insert your question here.

Many Long Island parents, like myself, moved to this region or chose to remain here because of the quality schools that have existed for decades. The Commissioner’s policies are threatening our children’s learning experiences. The canceling of these important meetings is further evidence of the Commissioner’s arrogance. Though the Commissioner is not an elected official, he is appointed by people that are and as one of my elected officials I am requesting that you listen and respond to our concerns.

Sincerely,
Name
Children’s School
Address”

PLEASE WRITE TO THE MEMBERS OF THE NEW YORK BOARD OF REGENTS. THEY MAKE POLICY. THEY HIRE THE STATE COMMISSIONER:

Here are their personal emails.

abottar@bottarleone.com, mhtisch@mhtisch.com; assistant@mhtisch.com, bennrbrt@aol.com, bettyarosa@aol.com, cbendit@tacon.com, christine.cea@opwdd.ny.gov, REGENTCHAPEY@MAIL.NYSED.GOV, harryphil236@gmail.com, james.cottrell@downstate.edu, REGENTDAWSON@MAIL.NYSED.GOV, jinternetjack@earthlink.net, jtallon@uhfnyc.org, lyoung11@nyc.rr.com, maggiemadonna5@aol.com, roger@tillesco.com, abrown@brownhutchinson.com; wadenorwood@flhsa.org

They also have official ones listed here:

http://www.regents.nysed.gov/members/Membersterms0412.html

Categories Common Core, New York, Parents, Testing

Parent: I Was at the Poughkeepsie Meeting

By dianeravitch
October 15, 2013 //
27

This comment came from a mother who attended the infamous meeting where State Commissioner John King announced his intention to have a dialogue with parents, then lectured the audience for over an hour, and interrupted those who disagreed with him. Having announced five such meetings, he canceled the other four, claiming that “special interests” had manipulated the parents.

This parent says she was there.

She writes:

“….I was at the Poughkeepsie Meeting. Sat in the front row, cause I wanted to look directly into the eyes of the man who has stolen the love of school from my 9 year old.

I am a mom, I have two boys (9 and 14) and we reside in the small community of Millbrook NY. No matter if the persons who did speak were teachers, they were most likely parents too….and I trust them to be surrogate parents to my children when they are in their care 6-7 hours a day.

We are a team.

So, I suggest that every parent start attending every BOE meeting and PTA/O meeting (as I have for the last 4 years, and that’s why I was at that meeting in Poughkeepsie) to show the local districts our support and encourage them to break free of the STATES hold on our children’s love of learning and their own love for teaching.

REVOLT…..great history lesson….lets stop talking about how teachers are scared for your Jobs…implementing the CC cause you have to…and lets NOT DO IT ANYMORE.

The claim from King was that local districts have some control…and I agree, so now we should show him!!!! Some of the problem is that not enough parents understand how much power we hold in the accountability dept. But, we are educating ourselves and in turn becoming more involved whether our districts want us there or NOT.

It’s time for WE THE PEOPLE…..Teachers and Parents TOGETHER….No excuses, we are just as much to blame for this mess as anyone else. Let’s listen to each other and lets take back the importance of educating our youth.

I am writing for King’s resignation. His disrespect for anyone to have a voice showed him to be the Dictator of his “Communistic Core” and I will not be silenced….this mama bear will fight for her cubs.”

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Common Core, Education Industry, Education Reform, New York, Parents, Students, Testing

John King Is Unfit for His Position as State Commissioner

By dianeravitch
October 15, 2013 //
13

Arthur Goldstein, who teaches at Frances Lewis High School in Queens, New York, observed the video in which John King was completely unable to maintain order when faced with an audience of angry parents. He condescended to them, which seems to be his default mode, and they responded angrily. He could not control the class. He probably wanted to expel them, but he couldn’t. They were not “bad students,” they were outraged parents and taxpayers. He forgot that he works for them. They are his boss, not his subjects.

Goldstein wrote the following about John King’s debacle.

 

John King? Or King John?

The spectacle of NY State Education Commissioner John King losing his composure while speaking to Poughkeepsie parents last week was remarkable. I’m just a lowly teacher, but even I know that’s not how you face an audience you’re trying to persuade. I tell young teachers that every time you lose your temper, you make the kids trying to distract you happy. Not only that, but you also embolden and multiply your opposition.

I don’t mean to condemn critical parents or students here. I’m simply saying that educators ought to be able to accept differences of opinion without getting emotional. There are many viewpoints I do not share with my students, but that doesn’t mean they can’t express them in my classroom. How can I engage kids if I don’t tolerate their expressing themselves?

Honestly, how can King, who deems the public schools he administers unsuitable for his kids, tell us with a straight face that they’re good enough for ours? And how dare he suggest we have no right even to ask this question?

Young teachers in my school have concerns similar to those of upstate parents. One tells me his daughter, who used to love to read, is now spending hours doing homework for which she is not developmentally prepared. He says she now cries as a result of being overburdened.

A young mom with whom I work tells me her second grader is overwhelmed by demands he do algebra. She visited his school, claimed he left something in his desk, and surreptitiously used her iPad to photograph every page of his English and math books. She says that’s the only way she can effectively help him with his homework.

These are fundamental issues that are not effectively answered by pontifications on the wonders of Common Core. In fact, I’m amazed at the format utilized in Poughkeepsie. As a teacher, one of my prime directives is to engage my audience. Were I to attempt a two-hour lecture, with a twenty-minute comment period after, my teenage audience would likely engage in open revolt. This would be particularly true if I’d chosen a topic with which they disagreed strenuously, and would be exacerbated if my presentation failed to influence them or address their concerns.

King, ostensibly our state’s foremost educational authority, showed communication and management skills that would be unacceptable in a second-year teacher. He would not have fared well under the Danielson framework city teachers now face. There can be serious consequences for teachers who fail to engage their audiences, but I’ve seen none for King.

Even worse, after this exchange, Chancellor King saw fit to cancel the rest of his appearances. I’ve seen teachers, overwhelmed by the pressures of facing 34 teenagers at a time, get up and walk away. However, I’ve never seen them cancel all future classes and get to keep their jobs.

Last I looked, we’re still a democracy, and We, the People are the ultimate voice. John King is supposed to represent us, not dictate to us. If King cannot abide by what we and our children want and need, let alone allow us to question him, he ought not to keep his job either.

 

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Common Core, Parents

Parents Boo NY Commissioner John King and Boo the Common Core Too

By dianeravitch
October 12, 2013 //
78

New York Commissioner John King thought it would be a good idea to hold a series of town halls with parent groups around the state.

No doubt he expected to be showered with praise for his leadership in quickly implementing the Common Core.

He was in for a big surprise. He was met with outrage by parents who do not like the Common Core, hate the testing, and despise the State Education Department for imposing it on their children and teachers.

The parents booed and jeered. They ridiculed everything the commissioner said.

Anthony Cody has some of the video here; parents have sent me many more. They all show the same spectacle: the state commissioner as the object of angry parents.

Commissioner King has canceled all future public meetings with parent associations.

Did he learn anything? Will he reconsider the course that the state has embarked upon?

Don’t count on it.

The authoritarian mindset is impervious to change.

Lesson: in a democratic society, there are no shortcuts to the democratic process. This is supposed to be a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Bill Gates and Arne Duncan do not own our minds or our children. They are not for sale. The public will be heard.

Categories Common Core, New York, Parents

A Parent Writes New York Commissioner John King

By dianeravitch
October 9, 2013 //
20

This just arrived as a comment on the blog:

 

Not only have I opted out my child, but I sent back her scores with the following letter to John King:
October 1, 2013

Dr. John King
Commissioner of Education
89 Washington Ave.
Albany, NY 12234

Dear Dr. King,

Enclosed please find my daughter’s recent ELA and Math NYS scores. I am returning them to you because they are invalid. The scores on these tests are invalid for a multitude of reasons, including poor test construction, cut scores that were not developed until after the tests were administered, lack of oversight and transparency in the construction of the tests and the scoring process, and most importantly, they are not reflective of my daughter’s aptitude or knowledge.

In my opinion, you should be ashamed of yourself for submitting New York State’s students and dedicated teachers to this farce. These tests are a sham.

I refuse to accept that my daughter, who was on the honor roll for the entire year last year and received awards at her school for outstanding effort and academic achievement, is suddenly in need of AIS and considered as performing below proficiency as a result of a faulty test. I also refuse to believe that her teachers did not properly educate her last year or prepare her to progress to the next grade level.

Your education policies are abysmal. Common Core is nothing more than a way to channel much needed money away from Public Education into the pockets of Big Business. Your tests are an affront to hard-working and dedicated teachers and a blatant attempt to privatize education.

You may keep your scores. They mean nothing to my daughter or myself.

(Western NY Parent)

Categories Accountability, New York, Parents, Testing

Is Free Speech Dead in Oklahoma?

By dianeravitch
October 5, 2013 //
32

I just learned that Rob Miller, principal of the Jenks Middle School in Oklahoma, is under investigation for possibly encouraging parents to opt out of a field test.

According to the Tulsa World:

Jenks Public Schools participated in and encouraged a movement to opt students out of field tests last April, an Oklahoma State Department of Education investigation found.

In a July 7 report provided to the Tulsa World this week in response to an open records request, the state said it had evidence that Jenks Middle School Principal Rob Miller “initiated a movement to opt out ‘teachers and students’ from all field tests administered at Jenks Middle School. This occurred while on ‘school time’ and through school district email,” the report says.

The parents at the school say that the decision to opt out of field testing was their own, and they acted without the principal being involved:

In April, the school received a flurry of opt-out forms from parents asking that their children not be subjected to field tests, which are used by testing companies to evaluate questions for future use.

They do not count in either a student’s grade or in a school’s state grade.

“Our kids are being used as unpaid subjects by CTB/McGraw-Hill (a testing vendor) without our consent or permission,” PTA President Deedra Barnes said at the time.

She said the opt-out movement was led by Jenks parents who were frustrated by too much testing and who had heard of similar efforts by parents throughout the country.

After hearing about the opt-out initiative, the state Education Department on April 24 requested numerous records under the Open Records Act related to testing from Jenks Public Schools.

The state received 529 pages of documentation, including 216 redacted email communications, as well as around 800 student opt-out letters, according to its report.

But there may be another reason that Principal Miller is under investigation. On his blog, he wrote critically about the State Superintendent Janet Barresi, a member of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change and former dentist.

Worse, he wrote a dazzling review of Reign of Error.

He started his review with a quote tweeted by the Tulsa World’s education writer, Andrea Eger: “The truth is like a lion. You don’t have to defend it. Let it loose and it will defend itself. – St. Augustine”

Principal Miller went from there to write: “Diane is a lioness of truth who roars with authority, credibility and conviction. She leads a pride of like-minded Americans who believe that corporate reformers have gone too far and that overemphasis on testing and grading of schools has damaged public education and by extension, millions of students and teachers nationwide.”

The parents in Jenks Middle School say they initiated the opt out. In the emails cited in the story, Miller says he tried to dissuade the parents, but he did not seem to be giving them direct orders not to opt out. He walked a fine line.

Trust the parents. Oklahoma should not punish this conscientious educator who is trying to walk a fine line, both to obey his superiors and to listen to his parents.

Will he be punished for (perhaps) expressing his own thoughts? He knows the test doesn’t count.

Is there freedom of speech and freedom of conscience in Oklahoma? Or is obedience to authority, even when authority is wrong, the highest value?

Principal Miller, I hope your parents and community stand with you. Can Oklahoma bear to debate what is right and what is true?

You are my hero.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Oklahoma, Parents, Testing

Suburban New York Parents Don’t Believe Common Core Tests

By dianeravitch
September 30, 2013 //
28

New York’s first Common Core tests, administered last spring, produced a dramatic score decline. 70% of the students across the state allegedly “failed.” State education leaders said the tests set a new “benchmark.” They implied that the tests demonstrated the failure of the state’s schools, that more “reform” was needed, and that more years of testing and accountability would cure the widespread “failure.”

However, suburban parents in successful districts see the matter differently. They know they have excellent schools. They don’t believe in the validity of the state tests.

The low scores have ignited a revolt against the state tests among parents and local educators.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

“But the state is looking at a hard sell, particularly in the Lower Hudson Valley and on Long Island, as a growing movement of educators and parents is questioning or outright dismissing the test results for grades three to eight. Their main argument: Most local students already go to good colleges and do quite well, thank you, so the state’s findings can’t be right.

“What do these results mean, that our kids are not at the level we thought?” asked Lisa Rudley, who has three children in the Ossining schools and recently co-founded a statewide group, NYS Allies for Public Education, that plans to fight “excessive” testing and sharing of student data. “I think parents are informed about what the state is saying, but they don’t like it and don’t accept it.”

“Her group has started a campaign urging parents to send their test-score reports back to Education Commissioner John King in Albany. The group is asking parents to write on the envelope: “Invalid test scores inside.”

The state’s strategy backfired. It has fueled the resistance to high-stakes testing.

Categories Common Core, New York, Parents, Pearson

Baltimore Parent Arrested for Speaking Up at School Board Meeting

By dianeravitch
September 22, 2013 //
33

This comment came from a reader:

“Dear Diane,

Please see http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/blog/bs-md-co-common-core-arrest-20130920,0,7127220.story

My partner attended this Common Core parent forum on 9.19.13 in Baltimore County, MD, where we live, and she witnessed this parent being removed from the meeting by a security guard for standing up and voicing his concerns about Common Core. I have been a teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools for 22 years, and I am seeing first-hand many of the ill effects of education reform. But the fact that a parent was arrested for speaking up at a public meeting in the county where I live is chilling. Please post this video and article. Thank you!”

Categories Common Core, Parents

What Mario Savio Said 50 Years Ago

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2013 //
15

Funny, I kept thinking about this famous speech of student leader Mario Savio, who led the Berkeley student protests in the 1960s. And a reader read my mind after reading Liz Rosenberg’s post where she explained that she and her partner would not look at their child’s test scores. They don’t care. They don’t matter. They don’t care if their child has higher or lower scores than children of the same age in Hong Kong or France. Stop the machine.

This reader takes me back 50 years with this comment:

“As a retired educator with 30+ years service in Special Education, I can only say BRAVO to Liz Rosenberg, her partner and all the parents and educators who have joined in the struggle to turn back the tide of what has become the dominant paradigm for “Educational Reform”. Diane has provided a critical mechanism for cross-country communication by those who oppose these so-called reforms, Reading Liz Rosenberg’s communication, I am drawn back some 50 years to the words of Mario Savio one of the spokespeople for the Berkeley Free Speech Movement:

““There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.”

We are at that moment that Mario Savio spoke about. I take heart from those who resist the machine of “Educational reform”

Categories Parents, Students, Testing
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