NYC Educator: Andrew Cuomo's Remote Control

NYC Educator: Andrew Cuomo's Remote Control
Andrew Cuomo's Remote Control

Andrew Cuomo, in his zeal to approach this crisis in the very worst way possible, has enlisted the assistance of Bill Gates, I'm sure you remember Bill Gates. He's the man behind value-added rating, and the push to enable it for teachers. There is a whole lot of potential here. For what, I dread to even imagine (let alone "reimagine").

You may be reminded of Bill Gates every time a Boy Wonder supervisor barges into your classroom with an iPad to tick off checks on a Danielson list while you do the actual work. Think of him every time you encounter an ATR, because school closings were his signature innovation. Think of him every time you meet someone stuck working for a charter, because he pushed that too.

Now, to "reimagine" school, Gates and Cuomo have established a committee with absolutely no working teachers, no parents, and not even a current supervisor from NYC. They did, however, include Dennis Walcott. Aside from towing the Bloomberg line, Walcott's most notable achievement as chancellor entailed making waffles. While it's nice to see that billionaire Bloomberg is represented on the committee, it's a little disappointing to see no working city teacher.

They do, however, have one teacher who is a "Gates master teacher." I don't know exactly what that means, but I suppose if we have someone doing what Gates advocates, you can be assured that Bloomberg isn't the only billionaire represented on the committee. There's also a teacher from the William Floyd school district. There are 8,876 students in that district, about double the number in my school alone, but you have to admit William Floyd is well-represented. NYC has a mere 1.1 million students, so who cares about them? I can only conclude the sandbox fight between Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio is more important than representation of the largest CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Andrew Cuomo's Remote Control