Gov. Andrew Cuomo and baloney
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s school reform proposals have infuriated educators across the state. Award-winning Principal Carol Burris of South Side High School is one of them and in this post, she explains why. Burris, who has written frequently for this blog, was named New York’s 2013 High School Principal of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and in 2010, was tapped as the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State. Burris has been exposing the botched school reform program in New York for years on this blog. Her most recent post was “Principal: ‘There comes a time when rules must be broken…That time is now.’”
(In this post, Burris refers to “value-added” scores, which refer to value-added measurement (VAM), which purports to be able to determine the “value” a teacher brings to student learning by plopping test scores into complicated formulas that can supposedly strip out all other factors, including the conditions in which a student lives.)
By Carol Burris
“Blaming teachers for the poor performance of their students on standardized tests makes as much sense as saying Rex Ryan is to blame for all the Jets’ failures.”
That was the astute observation of the Albany Times Union’s editor, Rex Smith. Smith’s column came on the heels of N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State address, which contained a reform agenda filled with hyperbole, logical fallacies and flat-out misinformation. For Smith, Cuomo’s transparent campaign to “demonize teachers” makes little sense. The New York public agrees. The latest Siena College poll shows that New Yorkers do not see teachers as villains, and a majority side with the teachers union over the governor in the recent “war of words.”
And yet, Cuomo remains obsessed with teacher measurement and firing. Unhappy with the outcome of evaluations, he called them “baloney.” He forgets that when the Boars Head delivery arrived in Albany, he was driving the truck. The evaluation system he now mocks is the very one he insisted be put in place.
In 2012, Cuomo called the new evaluation system, APPR, “one of the toughest in the country.” He referred to it as “groundbreaking” and “exactly what is needed” to transform schools. New York Students First, gave Cuomo credit for the teacher evaluation system—it was “because of the Gov. Andrew Cuomo and baloney - The Washington Post:
