Perdido Street School:
Mayor Bloomberg Makes Incoherent Statement Defending Common Core
Education Reformers Grilled Over Common Core, Testing, And Evaluations
Arne Duncan's Bad, Bad Week
Perdido Street School
Michael Pollan Knows Nothing About Mayor Bloomberg
.@michaelpollan @paultough NOT a good idea; Bloomberg has been a disaster when it comes to instituting tech systems; witness CityTime— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) November 24, 2013Apparently Michael Pollan missed not only the news about CityTime scandal - the worst fraud ever perpetrated against NYC - but also the 911 system overhaul mess that has seen Bloomberg spend over $2 billion dollars i
Holding Andrew Cuomo Accountable For His Common Core/Testing Agenda
Great piece from Karen Dewitt at WXXI:Everywhere Governor Cuomo goes these days, he’s dogged by questions from reporters about what’s widely perceived as a rocky start up of New York State’s adoption of the new national Common Core standards for school children. Cuomo was asked essentially the same question in recent days in stops from Buffalo, to Lake Placid. “Can you talk about the common core,
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On the heels of John King calling critics to the Common Core "special interests" and Arne Duncan insulting critics to the Common Core of being "white suburban moms" who are mad because their kids aren't "as brilliant as they thought" comes this doozy from Bloomberg:Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn't understand what all the fuss is about over Common Core, the more rigorous national standards that aim to boost college- and career-readiness, and whose implementation in New York State has engendered controversy among parents and teachers."It's too hard for your kid
From the Baltimore Sun:A panel of state lawmakers grilled Maryland's top school officials Thursday over whether education reforms are being executed too quickly and putting undue stress on teachers.Senators on the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee told state schools Superintendent Lillian M. Lowery that they have been bombarded by concerns from teachers and parents.Many, they said, complained about how the state is simultaneously implementing three big programs: a new testing system, new ways to evaluate teachers and a more rigorous set of education standards known as the C
Really bad week for @usedgov betw @arneduncan insulting moms, tepid results of SIG program & twitter fight betw press flack & Ed reporters— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) November 23, 2013He can take heart that no matter how bad his week gets, he'll always be welcomed on the Morning Joe set on Monday.
YESTERDAY
NYSED: Tests And Evaluations First, Curriculum Later
In all the jive ass news editorials shilling the Common Core and calling opponents and critics of reform neo-Luddites and the like, you never hear this truth:ALBANY—Teachers across the state are waiting on the state education department to develop the rest of a $28.3 million curriculum that they've already begun teaching.State officials are just a step ahead in developing lesson plans that student
We Need Transparency On The Data And Stat Manipulation At Tweed During The Bloomberg Years
From Newsday:A former Hempstead school employee who informed state officials about the district's practice of systematically changing some students' failing grades has filed a federal lawsuit alleging wrongful termination in retaliation for his action.Carlos Ramirez, the Hempstead school district's former director of technology, sent a letter in June to state education officials informing them of
Cuomo, Legislature At War
The knives are now officially out for Cuomo in Albany: ALBANY — The battle between the Legislature and Gov. Cuomo's anti-corruption commission is set to explode Friday. The Senate and Assembly plan to jointly file papers in Manhattan Supreme Court to quash subpoenas from the commission that seek detailed information on lawmakers’ outside income and clients, according to sources. Private lawyers r
Failed Movie Director Lectures About Education Reform
From the NY Post:M. Night Shyamalan, who directed “The Sixth Sense,” focused on education for his recently published book, “I Got Schooled.”At the apartment of former CNN anchor Campbell Brown, who founded the Parents’ Transparency Project, Shyamalan spoke to a group that included Grace Hightower, Katie Couric, Alexandra Pelosi, Gilt Groupe founder Kevin Ryan, Newark Schools chief Cami Anderson an
NOV 21
Be A Teacher - Read A Script, Follow Orders, Raise Test Scores Or Be Fired!
What a joke this is:With so much teacher bashing, who in the world would want to teach? Seeking to combat such sentiments, the Department of Education — in partnership with the Advertising Council, Microsoft, State Farm Insurance, Teach for America, the nation’s two largest teachers’ unions and several other educational groups — is unveiling a public service campaign this week aimed at recruiting
More Hackery From Merryl Tisch
Tisch urges rethinking of network system, says it's sustainable but rethink way to include students w special needs and Eng lang learners— Beth Fertig (@bethfertig) November 21, 2013Last week, here's what she said:The next mayor should “reconsider” the current system of school-support networks, State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch said Monday, adding her voice to a chorus of critics – in
Here's A Shael Polakow-Suransky Proposal I Can Agree With
Wow - sometimes Shael says stuff that makes sense:A top city education official on Thursday suggested a relatively inexpensive way to boost the number of high school students who go to college – pay their application fee. Chief Academic Officer Shael Polakow-Suransky said the department is considering paying the $65 application fee for high school students applying to the City University of New Yo
The Common Core Standards And The Common Core Tests Go Hand In Hand
Peter Greene at Ed Week asks if the Common Core standards can be decoupled from the tests and concludes no, they cannot:A recent recurring refrain around and about the comments sections is the notion that the Common Core standards are, in and of themselves, quite fine, and if we could just uncouple them from the testing and implementation regimens, all will be well. The standards themselves are an
It's Not How Many Tests, It's The Stakes Attached To Them
DFER Joe Williams and TNTP's Tim Daly write in the Daily News over the absurdity of the teachers unions protesting the test score-based teacher evaluation system that they helped put together and push into law: Lately, student testing has become everyone’s favorite political punching bag. Just this week, New York State United Teachers, the state’s powerful teachers union, issued a statement decryi
How Would An Opt-In Law On InBloom Work?
From the Times Union:On Wednesday, the ire of teachers, parents and several state legislators was directed at another aspect of the increasingly controversial federal Race to the Top initiative and its implementation in New York: The creation of a vast trove of student data that the state Education Department wants to build in collaboration with a grant-funded nonprofit firm.In an almost daylong h
UFT Leadership Defends The ADVANCE Teacher Evaluation System Once Again
Excellent report from James Eterno from yesterday's Delegate's Assembly: No speakers were permitted to oppose a Unity Caucus resolution reinforced the UFT's support for the evaluation law. However, the UFT is calling for a moratorium on using the results of high stakes tests for teacher evaluations until alterations to the local portion of the Measures of Student Learning portion of the system ca
Assembly Members Take It To InBloom
InBloom is in trouble:Lots of questions cropped up about the protection of the data and on Wednesday the curiosity turned to outright ire against the Atlanta-based grant-funded non-profit firm that is organizing and maintaining the data, inBloom.Specifically, members of the Assembly Education Committee said they were furious that representatives of the organization declined to appear before them a
NOV 20
NYSED Commissioner King Should Open Up A Whine Shop
He's always whining how the message about how wonderful his education reforms are never gets out to the general public - and usually he blames the media for not carrying his message.Here's his latest whine:Commissioner King, speaking to reporters afterward, admits the message about what the department believes are the benefits of using data collection companies like Inbloom, has not been getting o
Poor, Poor Eva
colleague jokes "Eva Moskowitz didn't get a spot on the de Blasio transition team. bummer.”— Azi (@Azi) November 20, 2013Maybe next time.Gotham Charter Schools notes no teachers on the transition team, no UFT heads - but some good, solid friends of public schools, IMO:The committee includes Zakiyah Ansari, the Alliance for Quality Education’s advocacy director and a leading critic of the Bloo
Cuomo Pays Hollywood To Film In New York
Next time you hear Sheriff Andy lecture about fiscal discipline, remember this:ALBANY—New York's tax rebates for movie and TV studios are so generous that the state is actually paying them to film here, according to an analysis prepared for—but not published by—one of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's tax commissions.The 137-page addendum to the commission's formal report asserts the Film and Television Tax Cre
How Much Have Districts Spent On Race To The Top Mandates?
A commenter at the Newsday article on Diane Ravitch writes the following:The greatest scam was Andy Cuomo and Obama holding a gun to our head about the $700 million Federal funding and other state aid as well. Cuomo painted the teachers' union as the greedy obstructionists depriving children of their right to learn. These absurd programs cost more to implement than what most districts got in retur
Children Have Only One Childhood
A commenter at a discussion on the Common Core reforms at Comsewogue High School:9:02 p.m. -- Trustee Alexandra Gordon head to the podium to speak about her experiences with common core. "Our kids only have one childhood and if we don't act for them or if we don't advocate for them who knows whats going to come down the pike next," said Gordon. "John King has his children enjoying t
The Insanity Of Close Reading A Text Without Context Or Personal Connections
@leoniehaimson To teach without contact & context is bizarre, pointless, ineffective. Learning doesn't exist in a vacuum. Connection is all.— JosieHolford (@JosieHolford) November 20, 2013Read the whole Valerie Strauss post on Close Reading that they are talking about here - it is a horrifying tale of what is so wrong with Common Core and why kids and teachers hate it so much. I am teaching an
NOV 19
Ravitch Calls For Civil Disobedience Over Common Core Standards, Tests
From Newsday:Diane Ravitch, the outspoken education historian, policy analyst and author, called on educators across Long Island Tuesday to boycott Common Core-related curricula and refuse to administer state tests as an act of defiance against the state and federal governments."Your community is your boss, and you do what's best for children," said Ravitch, speaking at a Hauppauge meeti
Cuomo Says Common Core Standards Are A "National Curriculum"
You know, in the all the fun yesterday with Cuomo saying he was open to legislative fixes on Common Core but he was powerless to do anything about that because he's just, you know, a little ol' governor, I managed to miss this important part of the story:Cuomo calls Common Core a "national curriculum" http://t.co/9qutpQbvmf (Somebody didn't get the memo!)— Lisa Fleisher (@lisafleisher) N
Jeb Bush Is Sad About De Blasio's Plan To End School Report Cards...
...As are some fellow rich people on the Upper East Side:Jeb Bush doesn't think much of Bill de Blasio's plan to end the city's letter-grade system for evaluating schools.“We were the first state to grade schools ‘A’ through ‘F,’" said Bush, the former Florida governor, who made education reforms a key part of his tenure, in an appearance at the 92nd Street Y on Monday night."New York Ci
Obama Unveils Yet Another Unproven Education Reform
Hey, P-TECH's been around for a whole two years and things are going swimmingly! Let's scale it up:President Barack Obama on Tuesday will unveil a new $100 million competitive grant program called Youth CareerConnect, that will target preparing high school students for high-tech careers.The program will deliver 25 to 40 competitive grants of between $2 million and $7 million to teams of secondary
NYSED Commissioner King Tries To Deceive The Public Over State Tests
From Albany Watch at LoHud:In a lengthy statement today, state Education Commissioner John King refuted claims that the controversial Common Core testing is hurting students and teachers.He pointed to results last week from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which showed New York on par with the national average. The report showed that less than half of the state’s fourth- and eighth
Regents Blame Local Districts For Too Much Testing
The state evaluation system requires that teachers be held accountable for their students' test scores.40% of the evaluation is based on test scores - 20% from state tests, 20% from "local measures."In order for teachers to be evaluated on the local measures, students in every grade in every subject must be tested at the beginning of the year to get a "baseline" of knowledge so
Regents Cut Time To Take State Tests, But Not Length Of Tests
If Merryl Tisch, John King and Andrew Cuomo think this sort of thing is going to head off mor protests against their education reform agenda, they're delusional: The state Board of Regents, with testing policies drawing increasing public outcry, is shortening the time that students will have to take next spring's standardized tests but not the tests themselves. Some local educators dismissed the a
Cuomo Cannot Run From His Own Education Reform Agenda
@leoniehaimson @NYGovCuomo running scared now trying 2 distance himself from reform agenda. Too late Andy, you own this! #studentlobbyist— Sashammy (@Sashammy) November 18, 2013Nice try making believe you have no power or influence over education policy, Sheriff Andy, but we all remember your State of the State addresses from 2012 (you student lobbyist you!) and 2013 where you bragged about how m
NOV 18
Cowardly Cuomo Refuses To Own Up To His Own Education Reform Agenda
Here was Governor Cuomo talking about his pro-active education reform agenda this year during his State of the State speech in January:In terms of education, Governor Seward said the standard of education ought to be elevated. It is the highest; education is the chief of our responsibilities. He said that in 1839; it is true today. When it comes to education, I say two words: more and better. We n
Cuomo Says He's Considering Pushing Legislative Changes To Common Core
Well, like I've noted here at Perdido Street School, Governor Cuomo has been silent as NYSED Commissioner King and Regents Chancellor Tisch have gone on their "We're Listening, But We're Really Not Hearing" Common Core tour the past few weeks after King gotten verbally beaten up in Poughkeepsie last month at a state PTA-sponsored forum on the Common Core.I've written that Cuomo's silence
Arne Duncan Doesn't Get To Frame The Common Core Debate
Excellent piece by Stephanie Simon in Politico on the fallout from Arne Duncan's "Common Core opponents are just white suburban moms who have discovered their kids aren't as brilliant as they thought" attack.Simon writes that Duncan and other Common Core proponents are frustrated because the debate over Common Core has splintered into different fights in different localities over differe
Where Is Cuomo On His Education Reform Agenda Now?
A commenter on a Newsday article about the Common Core protests makes the following point:Let's not forget that Cuomo started all of this. He hasn't had much to say lately however..interesting.The louder parents get over the Cuomo/Tisch/King Common Core reform agenda, the quieter Governor Cuomo seems to be.There is some evidence that Cuomo has been polling his education reform agenda, including th
The Reformers Play The Race Here In New York State
On the heels of Arne Duncan saying Common Core opponents are simply white suburban mothers who have found out their children are not "as brilliant as they thought" comes this doozy in the NY Times:Some of Dr. King’s supporters blame teachers’ unions for whipping up some of the emotion. Timothy Daly, the president of the New Teacher Project, a group focused on teacher effectiveness and al
Siena Poll: A Clear Majority Of NYers Say There Is Too Much Testing In Schools
Some interesting results in the latest Siena poll:New Yorkers are closely divided on whether they believe Common Core standards will make students more college or career ready, with 45 percent confident they will and 49 percent not confident, according to a Siena College Poll of New York voters released today. About a third of voters (34 percent) think Common Core standards are too demanding, whil
NYSED And Regents: We Are Committed To "Uninterrupted Implementation" Of Common Core
In response to the widening protests over the Common Core and the SED/Regents reform agenda, the NYSED released this statement on Friday:"The Board of Regents and the commissioner are committed to the uninterrupted implementation of the Common Core in New York's classrooms. At the same time, however, we will continue to seek public input and will make adjustments along the way."In short,
NOV 17
Some New Yorkers Plan To Keep Children Home For National Common Core Protest Day
Staten Island Live has an interesting article on National Common Core Protest Day:STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- As Staten Island parents vent their frustrations about the state's new Common Core Curriculum standards, parents throughout the state are preparing to keep their children home from school on Monday, in what's being labeled as "National Common Core Protest Day."The grassroots movement
Suburbia Is Where Education Reform Comes To Die
There has been a huge backlash come Arne Duncan's way for a speech he gave to a group of state superintendents in which he blamed recent Common Core criticism on white suburban moms who find their child "isn’t as brilliant as they thought."Duncan has faced a storm of criticism on Twitter over the comments, with Carol Burris summing up many of the attacks with her own criticism of Duncan:
Mulgrew's Recess From The Tests Petition Went Into My Junkmail
Found this between the junk mail selling Viagra for 70 cents a pill and a plea from a Hong Kong banker telling me he has $300,000 of my own money he found in a bank account at HSBC:New York's youngest students need teaching and learning, not standardized testing. Sign the Recess from Tests petition » Bloomberg-style "drill-and-kill" standardized test prep has sadly become the norm for ou
NOV 16
President Obama On Obamacore: You Can Keep Your Teachers And Your Schools If You Like Them!
Good line in the comments of Valerie Strauss's blog post on Arnie Duncan's attack on white suburban moms who dare to criticize the Common Core State Standards movement: Obamacore: you can keep your teachers and your school if you like them. Oh no! -- CT TeacherIn fact, just as some Americans are now surprised to find out that the president misled them over his health care plan and they cannot keep
Arne Duncan Insults White Suburban Moms, Says Kids Aren't "As Brilliant As They Thought"
I wrote this morning how US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan shows us daily with every word he says how he is an exemplar of the "Best and Brightest" this country has to offer.Duncan underscored that with this doozy from a speech he gave to state superintendents yesterday:.@arneduncan says foes of Common Core = white suburban moms who find their "child isn’t as brilliant as they t
Arne Duncan - One Of The Best And Brightest Of Our Generation
We need the best & brightest to #teach. Join the @TEACHorg Thunderclap to recruit the next generation http://t.co/uauAhwfL9V— Arne Duncan (@arneduncan) November 9, 2013The phrase "Best and Brightest" doesn't mean what Arne Duncan seems to think it means. In modern usage, "Best and Brightest" has a negative connotation. David Halberstam used it to describe the geniuses in