Common Core Questions Meant To Confuse
Take a look at this math question from the 3rd grade Common Core test in NY State and the comments made afterward by various commenters on Michelle Malkin's Twitchy blog:If you’re wondering why the scores were so bad, check out one of the questions for third-graders from the New York State Common Core Sample Questions (page 8):There were 54 apples set aside as a snack for 3 classes of students. Th
Daily News: Cuomo Has Bon Jovi Concert Canceled At State Fair So As Not To Interfere With His Fundraiser
There is just so much wrong with this:ALBANY — Bon Jovi fans hoping for a concert at the New York State Fair have been shot through the heart — and a fundraiser by Gov. Cuomo might be to blame.State officials mysteriously scrapped plans for the New Jersey-based band to appear at the fair, in Syracuse, on Aug. 28, citing “scheduling conflicts.” On Aug. 25, band leader Jon Bon Jovi is scheduled to g
TODAY
Add The SLO's And The City Tests To Next Year's Battery Of State Tests
A parent made the following comment on the Newsday article about the Opt Out movement:My son gets almost 90's on every one of his "real" tests. He doesn't need to sit for 420 minutes of standardized testing in April, nor countless dozens of other hours for SLOs, benchmarks, field test questions and what every else they throw at these kids that is NOT used to determine a report card grade.While out
Cuomo Took $400,000 From Real Estate Developer In Return For $35 Million In Tax Breaks
The Daily News first reported on Thursday that Governor Andrew Cuomo took $200,000 from a real estate developer in return for providing that developer with tax breaks totaling $35 million - $100,000 to his campaign account, $100,000 to a Democratic Party account that the governor used to run ads to tout his agenda.The DN reported Cuomo officials vigorously denied on Thursday any quid pro quo betwe
First Slave Labor, Now This
From the Post:The billionaire widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs’ has reportedly hooked up with the divorcing, former mayor of Washington DC.Laurene Powell Jobs, 49, and Adrian Fenty, 42, got their romance rolling in January when the former DC mayor announced his separation from wife Michelle, the Washington Post reported today. The new power couple met in 2011 at an education conference.Then in 20
YESTERDAY
Weiner: Quinn Is The One Who Should Be Worried
Weiner has a point here:Anthony Weiner was clearly not bothered today by a new poll that placed him a distant fourth in the mayor’s race, even implying that front-runner Christine Quinn was the one who should be worried by the numbers. “It was an interesting poll, I mean, on some levels,” the sexting-scarred former congressman told Politicker earlier this afternoon while crossing the street at a c
The Weiner Circus Makes A Stop In Harlem
Some hilarious exchanges in this Real Clear Politics piece about Anthony Weiner campaigning in Harlem.Here are my favorites:The scandal-scarred former congressman made his way through the building methodically, reminding residents to vote in the Sept. 10 primary and taking plenty of rebuffs along the way. “I already said I didn’t want to meet you,” a woman inside one door, which remained closed, t
Stringer And Spitzer Agree On One Thing: They Both Love Education Reform
Scott Stringer and Eliot Spitzer had a debate this morning:At one point in the debate Friday, which was co-sponsored by the Daily News, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said that if Spitzer wasn't so rich and well-connected, he would be in prison. "Anyone who did what Eliot did would be in jail right now," Stringer said. "You engaged in money laundering," he added, referring to the forme
Anthony Weiner May Be Taking Away Support From Bill Thompson
From the Daily News:Only 10% of Democratic voters back Anthony Weiner for mayor — his worst showing since he entered the race, a poll released Thursday shows. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn leads with 25%, followed by Bill Thompson (16%) and Bill de Blasio (14%), the New York Times/Siena College poll found. Weiner had climbed to first in some polls — before revelations he sexted a woman last
Will The Public Turn Against The Reformers In New York State?
John King in the Wall Street Journal:"We have been insignificantly aggressive in making the changes in adult behavior necessary to yield better student achievement," he said. "That's unambiguous." Diane Ravitch explained in a post this morning why the state's tying the new Common Core 3rd-8th grade tests to the NAEP is wrong:The state didn’t just “raise the bar.” It aligned its passing mark to a c
Cuomo Takes $200,000 In Bribes To Give $35 Million In Tax Breaks To Real Estate Developer
What else would you call this but bribery? A top development company donated $100,000 to Gov. Cuomo just days before he signed a bill that quietly showered the firm with lucrative tax breaks. Two corporations tied to Extell Development each contributed $50,000 to Cuomo’s campaign, which recorded the checks on Jan. 28 — the same day the Assembly passed a housing bill that contained tax breaks for f
AUG 08
New Times-Siena Poll: Quinn, Thompson, De Blasio
From the NY Times:Christine C. Quinn is leading the crowded field in the Democratic primary race for New York City mayor, lifted by support among Manhattanites and higher-income voters, the latest New York Times/Siena College poll finds. But just over a month before the Sept. 10 primary, Ms. Quinn is still well below the level needed to avoid a runoff, and many voters remain undecided.Ms. Quinn, t
Bill Thompson Calls For Christine Quinn To Release Legal Documents From Slush Fund Investigation
Thompson and Quinn continuing to go at each other:Bill Thompson’s mayoral campaign is calling on opposing mayoral candidate City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to release legal documents from a federal investigation into the City Council around five years ago.The “slush fund scandal” was revealed in news reports in 2008 alleging city funds were being allocated to non-existent “phony charities” an
State Audit Finds NYSED Commissioner King And Regents Chancellor Tisch Conduct Almost No Oversight Of For-Profit Career Schools
Looks like the accountability-meisters at the NYSED and the Regents don't care all that much about accountability for the for-profit career school sector: A host of private career schools have been operating without state licenses because of “alarmingly little oversight” by state education officials, state Controller Thomas DiNapoli says in a new audit. The audit, obtained by the Daily News, also
Bill Thompson Says He Will Add "Trust" To Contract Negotiations
From Azi Paybarah at Capital NY:Right before Bill Thompson began a press conference to discuss New York students' plummeting test scores, outside a high school on East 56th Street, an English teacher named Ethel Richards walked by, then stopped.Richards, who lives in Brooklyn and works at Frederick Douglas Academy VI in Far Rockaway, told me and a couple of other reporters who were standing there
Anthony Weiner's Sexting Partner Endorses Christine Quinn, The Nation Endorses Bill De Blasio
Not sure this endorsement helps either Weiner or Quinn:Anthony Weiner’s sexting gal pal Sydney Leathers is wading into the mayor’s race once again.In an interview with Complex, Ms. Leathers, the self-professed “political junkie” who traded racy messages and photos with Mr. Weiner long after he resigned from Congress, enthusiastically endorsed City Council Speaker Christine Quinn for mayor.“Obvious
How Success Academy Fared Against Other Renowned Charter Networks
I posted earlier today about the miraculous statistics Eva Moskowitz's Success Academy Schools garnered on the new Common Core tests.Scores across the state plummeted on the 3rd-8th grade ELA and math exams, but Eva Moskowitz's Success Academy schools bucked that trend with some amazing scores:There were some charter networks that boasted victory — like the aptly named Success Academy Charter Scho
Just How Did They Get To Be So Successful At Success Academy?
Yesterday before the Common Core test scores were released, Gotham Schools offered a handy guide for what to watch for:Here was the first of those items (emphasis added):Where are the outliers? All scores are expected to be low, but some will be lower than others. And some will almost certain fall by much less than the average. Identifying those outliers will be a first step in telling the story o
Business Leaders Speak To New Yorkers About Common Core
Buried near the bottom of the NY Times article on the Common Core tests is this doozy:New York’s bleak scores could prompt unease among elected officials who have staked their reputations on rising test scores. “For educators and parents who aren’t crazy about testing to begin with, one can understand why they feel like they’re being subjected to bait-and-switch,” said Frederick M. Hess, an educat
AUG 07
Startling Statistics From The Common Core Tests
From the NY Times:On the English exam, 3 percent of nonnative speakers were deemed proficient, and 6 percent of students with disabilities passed. Essentially, if you are an ESL student or a student with an IEP, you will not pass the Common Core exams.Can't wait until they change the high school Regents exams.As things stand now, we've already seen some support services students forced to sit for
Picture of the Day
It's a dead sand shark somebody left on the N train.No truth to the rumor NYSED Commissioner had it dropped there to send a message.
Tests As Shock And Awe
Leonie Haimson weighed on what the education reform establishment is doing with by rigging the scores to dramatically fall: So why are King, Arne Duncan, Joel Klein and the billionaires like Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch who are pulling the strings, so determined to prove that more that 69% of the students throughout New York State are failing? This is the Shock Doctrine at work. Naomi Klein has
Spin, Baby, Spin
Those fine journalists at Gotham Schools, ever mindful of their funding and perhaps angling for some of that Bloomberg philanthropy money, spin the state tests scores for the mayor:The state’s first round of Common Core test scores are out and they are just as low as officials warned.But there is some good news for New York City: Its scores are close to the state average, and far ahead of those of
Bill Thompson And Christine Quinn Hammer Each Other With Respective Scandals
The gloves are off:Mayoral rivals Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson are officially going at it, trading blows at an increasingly furious pace as Primary Day–just over a month away–quickly approaches. Yesterday, Ms. Quinn hit Mr. Thompson for an Ireland investment that went awry while he served as comptroller. The Thompson campaign quickly responded by blaming the City Council speaker for the 2008
NYC Passing Rates: 26% ELA, 30% Math
When you rig the exams to give you these kind of outcomes, well, these are the stats you get:Large numbers of New York students failed reading and math exams last school year, education officials reported on Wednesday, unsettling parents, principals and teachers, and posing new challenges to a national effort to toughen academic standards. Across the city, 26 percent of students in third through e
What The Testing Game Is All About
Norm Scott: Well, we know what the testing game is all about and it ain't children. It's about using tests to go after teachers, close schools, end tenure, de-unionize the teaching force so they can lower salaries, and create massive turnover in a temporary teaching force so they will never have to pay pensions.Is that enough of a mouthful for you?So will all the sturm and drang over the "failures
Joel Klein, The Man Who Hawked Inflated Test Scores As Chancellor, Lectures People About Inflated Test Scores
You can't make this stuff up.Here's the former NYCDOE chancellor and current head of Rupert Murdoch's for profit education technology division, Joel Klein, lecturing people about how inflated New York's test scores were in the past:For years, states around the country dummied-down standards to make it look as if students were more prepared for success after graduation than they actually were. This
AUG 06
Weiner, GOP Candidate Get Into At AARP Forum
One more ring for the multi-ringed Anthony Weiner Circus Extravaganza:Tensions boiled over between Anthony Weiner and the rival who has been most critical of his sexting scandal, Republican George McDonald, as the two got in a heated confrontation before a candidates forum Tuesday morning.The dustup culminated in Weiner calling his 69-year-old opponent "grandpa" - at a forum on senior issues hoste
Will Teachers And Schools Be Shown The Same Mercy The Tweedies Are Begging For?
Shael Polakow-Suransky on what the scores from the Common Core tests that will be released to the public tomorrow and are expected to show a sharp drop from last year mean:"You can't really compare these directly, because they're not just slightly different tests, they're dramatically different tests," said Shael Polakow-Suransky, the city's chief academic officer. "It's going to be difficult to m
Bloomberg: I'm A Fiscal Genius!
Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave a speech today in which he publicly patted himself on the back for his genius at stewarding the city through rough economic waters and warned that whoever follows him into City Hall had better follow the Bloomberg plan or New York City will turn into Detroit.Yeah, it was a real humble speech, full of soul-searching and honest reflection for why New York City has income
Weiner Accuses Bloomberg Of Manipulating Test Scores And Closing Schools To Get Around The UFT Contract
Fresh from being told to go ---- himself by a voter on Atlantic Avenue yesterday, Anthony Weiner decided to go on the offensive against Mayor Bloomberg on education policy today:Former Congressman Anthony Weiner accused Mayor Michael Bloomberg of using school closures to skirt union rules and fudging test scores ahead of his 2005 re-election bid during a conversation on education policy this morni
Merryl Tisch And John King Have Rigged The State Tests To Produce "Failing" Results
Diane Ravich posted this today:New York City’s chief academic officer–a testing zealot–here announces that scores will plummet on the new Common Core tests administered last spring for the first time. They will plummet because the state decided to align its standards to NAEP, which are far more demanding than those of any state. Over the years, many researchers have maintained that the NAEP achiev
NYCDOE STILL Doesn't Have Common Core Curriculum Materials Ready
Tomorrow the new Common Core test results for ELA and math classes, 3rd-8th grade, will be released to the public.They are going to show some very, very low scores.The scores will be so drastically different from previous years because these tests were a) based on the new Common Core standards and b) had difficulty levels ramped up several grade levels for each grade (i.e., what used to be tested
Bill Thompson - An Ethically-Challenged Man Always Looking To Cash In For Himself And His Friends
Wayne Barrett at WNYC had been the only reporter really giving former comptroller and current candidate for mayor Bill Thompson any scrutiny.Michael Powell at the NY Times joined Barrett in that endeavor today:In April 2008, the New York City comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr., as investment officer for the city’s multibillion-dollar pension funds, stood shoulder to shoulder and beaming with the
AUG 05
Anthony Weiner Cursed Out By Female Voter, Heckled By Homeless Man In Brooklyn
Add two more rings to the Weiner Circus:A fuming and foul-mouthed former constituent barreled into an Anthony Weiner campaign stop Monday to berate the shamed Congressman, saying he had "no right" to show his face in Brooklyn.As if that wasn't bad enough for Weiner - who has tried repeatedly to right his freefalling campaign - a man who reeked of booze jumped in the fray and started making crude p
Anthony Weiner Releases New "Ideas" Campaign Pamphlet On The Same Day His Sexting Partner Releases X-Rated Video
Weiner just can't turn a corner on this scandal:As Anthony Weiner continues to try–and often fail–to pivot the media conversation away from his sexting scandals, he released a sequel to his “Keys to the City” idea book today. The new one is creatively entitled: “Even More Keys to the City.”At a gusty afternoon press conference on a Queens pier overlooking the East River, Mr. Weiner made the case f
Ed Deformer Jeff Bezos Buys Washington Post
From Kaplan to Amazon:Billionaire Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos bought himself a new toy on Monday: the 136-year-old newspaper The Washington Post, which he acquired for $250 million from the Washington Post Company. The announcement blindsided the media world, where seemingly no one knew the U.S. capital’s flagship paper was for sale.Bezos says he will keep the Post separate from Amazon and w
Carrying Water For The Common Core
In a Wall Street Journal article that purports to cover New Jersey Governor Chris Christie taking on members of his own party over their opposition to the Common Core standards, Lisa Fleischer writes the following (emphasis added):There is growing resistance to the standards, including from some prominent Republicans, in part because they are worried about eventually losing state control over stan
State Needs To Release ELA/Math Tests In Their Entirety
Gotham Schools reported that the state, anticipating pushback on their standardized testing regime with scores expected to fall significantly on the new Common Core test results to be released this week, is going to let the public see a “significant number” of questions from the new Common Core-aligned tests that students took in April.The release of some test items by the state is meant to short-
Weiner Backs Bloomberg On Occupy Camp Attack
Carlos Danger, AKA Anthony Weiner, backed Mayor Bloomberg on his nighttime removal of the Occupy encampment at Zuccotti Park.Weiner, seen above running in the Ecuadorean pride parade and shouting “Que viva Ecuador!” through a bullhorn as parade-goers chanted Carlos! Carlos!", responded to a Wall Street Journal inquiry about how each prospective mayor would have handled the Occupy encampment and ot
Obamacare "Cadillac Plan" Tax Used Against Unions In Contract Negotiations
What many of us opposed to the Obama health care plan warned about us now coming to fruition:The so-called Cadillac tax was inserted into the Affordable Care Act at the advice of economists who argued that expensive health insurance with the employee bearing little cost made people insensitive to the cost of care. In public employment, though, where benefits are arrived at through bargaining with
AUG 04
The Politics Of The Terrorism Alerts
Just two links I wish to post tonight.The first is a New York Magazine article from Mark Green in August 2011 chronicling how he lost the 2001 election Mike Bloomberg.The second is a link to the NY Daily News and a little bit of the story: The terrorist threat that forced the closure of 22 embassies in the Middle East was “the most serious in the last several years” and eerily reminiscent of the l
Spitzer Continues To Play Coy
From the NY Post:Eliot Spitzer evaded the simplest of yes-or-no questions yesterday — refusing for the third day in a row to deny he’s carrying on an extramarital affair.When a Post reporter asked whether he has a girlfriend, Spitzer simply shook his head, waved his hand and let out an irritated sigh.The once hooker-happy governor, now running for city comptroller, said he did not read The Post re
Sydney Leathers: Weiner's Lying About When He Stopped Sexting
From the Daily News:She said Weiner was texting and calling her for graphic phone sex up to five times daily through Election Day 2012 — long after his resignation from Congress and his empty claims of rehabilitation. Last week, Weiner told the Daily News that he has ended his sexting.“I’m definitely interested in confronting him face to face,” Leathers told The News. “I would tell him to stop bei
Why Are Tisch And King So Afraid To Reveal The Common Core Test Contents?
The scores from the Common Core tests - the one's the kids didn't have the time to finish - are going to be released this week and NYSED Commissioner/rookie teacher John King says they are really, really bad: State education officials will drop a bomb on thousands of city kids and parents Wednesday when they release scores from the controversial and tougher reading and math exams. State Education