Perdido Street School:
Perdido Street School Week
Cuomo's Silence On Common Core Speaks Volumes
Jessica Bakeman at Capital NY:ALBANY—Governor Andrew Cuomo featured education initiatives prominently at his State of the State address Wednesday, but never mentioned the controversial Common Core curriculum standards and the growing unrest among teachers and parents over how the state rolled them out. “The biggest education issue that concerns parents and teachers and students is the Common Core,
YESTERDAY
NYSED Commissioner King Is Right About This
Hold onto your hats - I'm going to agree with NYSED Commissioner/rookie teacher John King about something:In an interview that will air on Capital Tonight this evening, state Education Commissioner John King shrugged off the news that NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi plans to ask his Board of Directors for a no confidence vote on King’s leadership, saying that in his opinion, the teachers union’s rea
Cuomo's Education Bond Puts State's Environment At Risk
Sheriff Andy wants to invest $2 billion in technology for schools so that students can take tests on computers and their teachers can be evaluated using so-called state of the art technology.That's not exactly what he said when he called for a $2 billion bond for education technology, but that's what many observers think he wants the money for (i.e., the infrastructure for the PARCC tests.)Scott W
JAN 09
NYSUT President Iannuzzi Calls For No-Confidence Vote On SED Commissioner King
From the State of Politics blog:In an exclusive Capital Tonight interview, NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi revealed he will soon ask his Board of Directors to bring an apparently unprecedented vote of no confidence on state Education Commissioner John King in response to what the union feels is a failure to respond to the growing concerns over the Common Core curriculum. “The frustration level is ov
Amiri Baraka Dies
From NJ.comAmiri Baraka, the longtime activist and former poet laureate of New Jersey died today, officials confirmed. He was 79 years old.Baraka was placed in intensive care at Beth Israel Medical Center last month for an unknown reason, but a spokesman for his son's mayoral campaign said his condition was improving late in December.Newark Mayor Luis Quintana said Baraka will be sorely missed. &q
State Senate Minority Leader Wants To Look At CCSS, APPR, And InBloom Issues
From Capital Tonight:Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins in a radio interview said she remains concerned over the speed of the roll out of Common Core evaluation standards as well as a plan to collect student data by the state Department of Education. “I am absolutely in favor of looking at what we’re doing, how fast we’re doing it and really evaluating what we’re looking at putting on t
NYSED Commissioner King: Merit Pay A Great Idea
From TWC.news:Another proposal from the governor, rewarding excellent teachers, those who rated highly effective on a valuations would be eligible to receive $20,000 as a bonus.Dr. John King said, "We certainly support rewarding highly effective teaching. We know there's an opportunity to identify teaching practices and allow them to be mentors for their colleagues." As Leonie Haimson po
Cuomo Doubles Down On Education Reform
Sheriff Andy did not mention the controversy over the Common Core State (sic) Standards, the inBloom data project, the APPR teacher evaluation system or the state's Endless Testing regime during his State of the State speech yesterday.He did pat himself on the back for doing a really, really swell job as governor, however, and talked about how much better things are in New York State now that he's
JAN 08
Daily News: Chris Christie Presidential Ambitions All But Kaput
Daily News editorial tonight: In the best possible light, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie built a top staff of lying thugs who threatened lives and safety to serve his political ends. If not, Christie is a lying thug himself. Emails and text messages among his close aides made public Wednesday documented that in September they gleefully engineered George Washington Bridge lane closures to punish th
Cuomo Calls For Merit Pay For Teachers
Apparently Andrew Cuomo hasn't heard that students, parents, teachers and administrators all over New York State are up in arms over his teacher evaluation system that mandates so many extra tests so that teachers and administrators can be rated for the year, because he's doubling down on that issue with a proposal to reward so-called "highly effective" teachers based upon his APPR teach
Assessing Chris Christie's Performance
A commenter at the NY Times on news that at least one Chris Christie aide was aware of the plan to close GWB traffic lanes to retaliate against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee and reveled in the pain it caused Fort Lee residents:Governor Christie makes sure that teachers have a very strict guidelines for performance assessment. How do we performance assess our governor?An NJ.com editorial assesse
Christie Steals Cuomo's Spotlight
Governor Cuomo is giving his State of the State speech today, but a lot of attention is being paid to this:A series of newly obtained emails and text messages shows that Gov. Chris Christie’s office was closely involved with lane closings on the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge in September, and that officials closed the lanes in what appeared to be retribution against the mayor who
Cuomo Has Protesters Penned Up For State Of The State Speech
Sheriff Andy brooking no dissent reports Capital NY's Scott Waldman:ALBANY—The state's biggest anti-fracking demonstration of the year on Wednesday has been supplanted by New York apple cider, bobsleds and engines made in New York. A wide array of tourist billboards and display booths are being set up in the concourse around the Empire State Convention Center, where Governor Andrew Cuomo will deli
How Will Cuomo Talk About Education In His State Of The State Speech?
Sheriff Andy is giving his State of the State speech today.We have heard through the grapevine that he will call for more CCSS PD for teachers and provide money in the budget for that.We heard yesterday that Shelly Silver is ready to walk back some CCSS implementation if the Regents don't do it themselves. So, what does Cuomo say about CCSS today?Does he mention it in his speech?I'm betting he dis
JAN 07
Shelly Silver Says Case For Delay In Common Core Reform Agenda Has Been Made
SED Commissioner King and Regents Chancellor Tisch seemed not to be listening to the public during their Gospel of the Common Core Tour in November and December, but the members of the legislature - including Assembly Speaker Silver - were:ALBANY—Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Tuesday he expects the state Board of Regents to form a plan for improving and possibly delaying implementation of t
De Blasio Vs. Cuomo
Inevitable that Sheriff Andy would want to make sure Bill de Blasio knows he's the boss.Cuomo says he can get an extra $250 million for full-day pre-k funding without raising taxes - a kind of one year windfall in the budget.De Blasio says the funding needs to be sustainable and over a period of years - in short, taxes need to be raised on individuals making $500,000 or more, as his plan calls for
Baby Its Cold Outside
6 degrees in #NYC ties the record low from 1896! Feels like -13. Regional temps: http://t.co/2dBYBSORkF @ABC7NY #RecordCold— Lee Goldberg (@LeeGoldbergABC7) January 7, 201413 class days until the ELA Regents exam. 6 degrees out, -14 with the wind chill.Going to guess attendance isn't going to be so great today.
JAN 06
Cuomo To Be On Defensive This Legislative Session
Fred Dicker tells us Cuomo plans to stroke himself in his State of the State speech on Wednesday:Expect an “orgy of self-congratulation and promise-making’’ in Gov. Cuomo’s election-year State of the State Address Wednesday, including pledges of tax relief, job creation, medical marijuana and some funding for new Mayor de Blasio’s pet pre-K program, Democratic insiders have told The Post. Cuomo, w
Looks Like We'll Have Another Day School Day Affected By Weather
It was 57 degrees and mad foggy this morning, the streets looking like something out of a Dickens novel.A dense fog advisory was in effect until 10 AM this morning. According to the Weather Channel, the high for the day is supposed to be 49 degrees (although it seems to me the high has been reached already with the 55 degree morning temperature?)Tonight, the temperature will fall to 10 degrees.The
Cuomo To Call For More Common Core Professional Development For Teachers
Just in case you thought he was going to walk back his support of his education reform agenda:Cuomo is also expected to propose additional funding for professional development to help teachers who are struggling with the new, more rigorous Common Core standards, a source said. Both the Regents and the Senate's education committee chairman have pushed for the professional development funds. Cuomo h
JAN 05
How Fighting Education Reform In NY State Is Like Getting A Shift In Medical Marijuana Policy
The NY Times reported last night that Governor Andrew Cuomo is shifting his stance on medical marijuana in New York State:ALBANY — Joining a growing group of states that have loosened restrictions on marijuana, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York plans this week to announce an executive action that would allow limited use of the drug by those with serious illnesses, state officials say. The shift by
JAN 04
Common Core Now Reported As "Federal" Or "National" Standards
One of the deceptions of the education reform movement is that the Common Core State Standards were put together by the states and voluntarily adopted.The reality is, while the Obama administration did not create the CCSS themselves, the Obama USDOE used the carrot of Race to the Top money and the stick of No Child Left Behind waivers to force states to adopt the standards.In the end, 45 states di
The Sham Regents Task Force
The Regents have let us know - there will be no meaningful change to their education reform agenda:New York's education policymakers say they really were listening, even to the shouting, during a series of volatile public forums held to explain a slate of education reforms intended to better prepare public school students for college and the job market.This month, a newly appointed Regents task fo
What Shael Polakow-Suransky Should Do Now
I wondered in a post yesterday if Shael Polakow-Suransky might continue on at Tweed even though a new administration has taken over that is supposed to be at odds with many of the education reform policies Polakow-Suransky developed and/or implemented as deputy chancellor.Carmen Farina told a reporter from Capital NY that she has made no decisions on personnel yet, but Norm Scott has a fabulous id