NYSED Commissioner King Pretends To Listen, Still Hears Nothing

#KingForum King and audience in Westchester speaking in different worlds. This will not end well.
— Carol Burris (@carolburris) October 28, 2013

I think that's exactly right. 

Commissioner King and SED, Regents Chancellor Tisch and the Board of Regents - they're putting on a "We're Listening!" show.

But they're really not listening.

As Fred LeBrun wrote in the Times Union yesterday, unless the powers that be in Albany gut the Common Core reform agenda they pushed through and start over, nothing is going to be solved here.

The accountability system for students, teachers and schools is built on overtesting.

They can't knock off a test and another one there and do much to the level of overtesting.

And they're not fooling parents and teachers when they do just that:

Critics of high-stakes testing, however, said on Friday that the plan amounted to tweaks around the edges that would do little to change the culture of schools. 

“It’s duplicitous,” said Monty Neill, executive director of FairTest, a group based in Massachusetts that opposes the use of high-stakes tests. “The political intention is to try to get students and parents to accept the bad system.” 

...

 

In New York City, where concerns over testing have seeped into the mayoral race, there was criticism of the state’s plan. 

“All this emphasis is being put on testing, instead of developing an enriched curriculum that produces real learning for children,” said Jane Hirschmann, co-chairwoman of Time Out From Testing, a statewide coalition. “This is not going to satisfy any of us.”

Nope - not fooled.