Believe me...shes been on a conferance call today with "the best and brightest" to shape her rhetoric for the next time shes forced to slum with the folkdom...
There is clearly something to that - Tisch, the Upper East Side matron and philanthropist, wife to one of the wealthiest men in the city, isn't used to her inferiors talking back to her, let alone grabbing pitchforks and torches and coming up to burn the family mansion.
But that is what's been happening at these Common Core meetings, and if Tisch and her functionary in reform, Commissioner King, think this mess will end when the lights are turned out on the last forum they've got another thing coming.
The revolt over the Common Core, the data collection program known as inBloom, the teacher evaluation system that ties ratings to test scores and forces so much extra testing onto the state, the Common Core tests themselves (which King and Tisch purposely rigged to show a very low "proficiency" rates) - this will not go away with a little p.r. or the doyenne of testing deigning to mix with the common folk over the Gospel of the Common Core for a few hours.
This revolution is just getting started and, lucky us, the people in charge of state education policy are throwing fuel on the fire by refusing to back down from their "full speed ahead" implementation.
When even the Gates Foundation-funded state PTA group calls for a slowing down of the SED reform agenda and notes how the current implentation has been handled "poorly" by SED Commissioner King and his merry men and women in reform at the state ed department, you know that the reformers see big problems on the horizon.
So no matter what was said on today's real or imagined conference call between Tisch and the "best and brightest" as they look to save their reform agenda, nothing but full scale dismantling of that agenda is going to satisfy the peasantry.
See...they had an easy time of it when they were steamrolling over inner city schools populated with poor native New Yorkers and new immigrants. Poor African Americans might have trusted President Obama with their kid's future since Obama ...is..well...Obama. In troubled , poor, student's personal lives, there's often no one to care about issues like testing, and the destruction of nabe schools. So, the going to this point has been relatively trouble free....especially with our toothless union.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I always wondered how the Ed reform wrecking ball would handle more middle class suburban school systems
You're absolutely right - New Orleans, Chicago, D.C., Harlem and the Bronx - no sweat. Scarsdale, Garden City, Great Neck - whole different ball game.
Delete(Cont)...Now that seemingly A students are suddenly B students, and the family plan for college has been shaken a little, involved parents will fight for answers. I'm sure some of these parents are shocked at the element of top down treatment they are receiving from the bureaucrats. Abusing teachers for a dozen years is one thing....start messing with upper middle class parents, and they have some turbulence ahead. I'd have to read The Prince to possibly predict what Tisch and King's "rhetoric" will be at the next meeting. I'd love for parents to make banners with "K-12" on them...the name of Tisch's brother-in-law's online education company. But I digress. I wouldn't be surprised if Tisch comes out in a more conciliatory tone, with some type of carrot thrown out there for the parents. Some type of new website or 800 number where parents can have their fears allayed with FAQ, or some such meandering device. Ultimately, the last thing she wants to state is : "we'll...this is the state LAW now, and I can't do anything about this until 2017, and the bestnthingmwe can do is read your suggestions from the,website, and try to plan for the time when this law expires
ReplyDeleteThe politicians are already talking about revisiting the law in January and revising it when the new legislative session starts. I think they're hearing the protests and they'll try and change a few things to head off a full scale revolt. We'll see how much they do to reform the reforms and if it's enough. I suspect it won;t be, but we'll see.
DeleteThen again, I watched Bloomberg's minions just coldly stare at raging protesters at some of those PEP meetings, while casually catching up in their Blackberrys...so...tough to tell what Tisch especially will sound like. We all know that King is a complete robot for the cause, but they brought Tisch in for damage control. A robot has its limitations- so I expect Tisch to bring something different to the table than King.
ReplyDeleteKlein and King - sounds like a bad law firm, or a couple of villains from Dickens.
Delete...I just think that Tisch is viewed,as a big gun here, after "it does not compute" King (see "Lost In Space" robot) malfunctioned. So, she can't exhibit the coldly cavalier tone of the King , or The Pepsters. So, to at least to give the impression that she gives a shit about the plight of the parents, she must take a softer approach...at least for now. This, ultimately,is a class war, and she's been holding the cards up to this time...now she's gonna have to start to show some of them. I'm sure the first one or two will be Jokers. One thing is certain...they have been plotting all day, and are getting advice from some very slippery, smart people. An example of what I mean is that video clip that was in Ednotes several years , or so, ago. The one where,some young movers and shakers in the Ed reform movement were discussing how easy it was to out negotiate teacher's unions in other parts of the country. They were discussing this at some type of Ed reform conference, but never wanted the comments to be released to the public. You now have some very smart, aggressive people all on board with Ed reform since there is now some serious money attached to it,down the road as charter school heads, public officials, etc. Basically, I look for a good cop (Tisch) , bad robot deal, with the parents not getting anything real in compromises from her...at least not yet. This dance has just begun...
ReplyDeleteI concur. They have nothing to offer the peasantry.
DeleteSo far, they're holding tough, paying lip service to doing something, but not really doing anything. I don't think they'll get away with this in the end. But that seems to be their strategy right now.
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