Perdido 03

Perdido 03

Monday, December 23, 2013

Andrew Cuomo: APPR Teacher Evaluation System "Costless Way To Improve Schools"

Responding to the Newsday article that reported Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch told a middle school principal from Brooklyn that Andrew Cuomo screamed at her over the state's education reform agenda implementation, saying if she didn't get it done he'd get some guys to make sure she got it done (a story that Tisch denied happened), Carol Burris tweeted the following:


In response to Burris' tweet, Chris Cerrone tweeted this:


I have been posting the past few months how it is far past the time that we make Andrew Cuomo pay a political price for his education reform agenda.

There was a time when Cuomo bragged that this agenda was his, but ever since the parent revolt over Common Core, Endless Testing and inBloom, Cuomo has done his best to distance himself from the SED/Regents reforms.

But we know this is his reform agenda, we know he still wants it implemented, we know that the moneyed interests he serves want it implemented and we know that Cuomo will only walk back this reform agenda when he is made to pay a major political price for it.

And so, let's start making him pay that price.

We can begin by putting public pressure on him to take a stand on Common Core, inBloom, APPR, and the Endless Testing regime of SED and the Regents.

Here's a small beginning:


Give the governor a holler, either through email, phone call or tweet, and ask him if he continues to support his own education reform agenda. 

He's been weirdly silent over the whole thing, even going so far as to refer to the Common Core State Standards as a "national curriculum" in order to take some pressure off the state implementation of the standards.

Governor Cuomo must not be allowed to get away with staying silent on these matters.

If he wants to continue to support inBloom, Common Core, APPR and Endless testing as he has in the past, that's fine.

But he should say that rather than hide in the shadows and have Tisch and King do his dirty work for him.

And then, once parents and teachers see where Cuomo stands publicly on these matters that mean very much to them, they can take the appropriate political actions to make Andrew Cuomo pay a major political price for his selling out of students, teachers and schools to the privatizers and edu-entrepreneurs.

9 comments:

  1. Perhaps those who wish to make Cuomo pay for his ed deform support should organize ala ABQ. How about anyone but Cuomo ABC? The mere fact that such a group could hound him at every event should scare the Dickens out of boy Cuomo.

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    1. I don't think you're going to find a viable candidate to run against him, but I do think if you can send the message to him that his totals will be held down because of his reform agenda.

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  2. There was a time when Cuomo bragged that this agenda was his, but ever since the parent revolt over Common Core, Endless Testing and inBloom, Cuomo has done his best to distance himself from the SED/Regents reforms.

    But we know this is his reform agenda, we know he still wants it implemented, we know that the moneyed interests he serves want it implemented and we know that Cuomo will only walk back this reform agenda when he is made to pay a major political price for it.

    RIght, Right, Right!

    Now it is time that all right thinking people should escalate the battle against Cuomo.
    *Link Cuomo with all these deforms
    *Emphasize that there was no need to jump on board --Virginia and other states didn't jump in-- with CCSS/RTTT
    *Insist ABQ and similar groups slam Cuomo on these issues
    *Attend forums of ABQ, NYGPS and the like and steer attention and discussion the way of anti-Cuomo critique.
    *Comment on Facebook on this
    *Any forum talking about the NSA data mining issues, speak to the parallels in inBloom
    *INSIST on Moreland Commission investigations on King, Tisch, Cuomo himself. They are soooooooo committed to this CCSS travesty. One can't help but wonder if there is a lot more money trail that we have not yet learned about.

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  3. Cuomo is picking up on the John King talking point, "Forty five states, Washington, DC, and the Department of Defense..." If I hear King respond one more time with that blather I will become physically ill. Tisch pointing at Cuomo, Cuomo ducking media questions, King hoping the holidays and the start-up of the Legislative session provides a distraction. Keep the pressure on. There is no "polishing this turd."

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  4. Here is the article. I had a difficult time accessing it:

    A Long Island Republican has posted on the Internet video from a forum this week on the Common Core academic standards and teacher evaluations where a Hudson Valley middle school principal relayed a conversation she said she had with state Regents Chancellor Meryl Tisch, touching on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

    In it, the principal says Tisch told her the governor pressured the chancellor, in no uncertain terms, to make the new teacher and principal evaluation system work. A spokesman for Tisch says the story isn’t true.

    Here’s how it unfolded:

    Karyann (Katie) Zahedi, principal of Linden Middle School in Red Hook, told the panel of Assembly members Wednesday night that that she and other educators strongly expressed their concerns to Tisch.

    “She was frustrated that we were so critical,” Zahedi, speaking of Tisch, told an audience that included parents and educators.

    “She said to me: ‘How would you like to be in my position?’” Zahedi continued. “This is what she says: ‘I’m at the governor’s mansion and he shouts at me that if you don’t get this done, if you don’t get this through, I’ll put three geniuses in a room and I’ll force it down your throats.’”

    Zahedi concluded: “At that point, I said to her: ‘If you need someone to talk to him, I’d be happy to.’”

    At that point, one of the Assembly members hosting the forum jumped in.

    “This is a prime example of how this governor operates,” said Assemb. Steve McLaughlin (R-Schaghticoke), a frequent Cuomo critic who is considering a gubernatorial run. “He operates in a thuggish, boorish manner all the time. … He shoves everything he wants down people’s throats.”

    Another Republican who sponsored the forum, Assemb. Al Graf (R-Holbrook) posted the conversation on his Facebook page Thursday. “It’s nice that this has come out,” Graf said in a brief interview about posting the video.

    A Tisch spokesman said the exchange between the chancellor and the educators as presented at the forum wasn’t correct.

    Education Department spokesman Dennis Tompkins said: "The story is not accurate. The chancellor has had a great relationship with the governor for more than 20 years and they've never exchanged an angry word."

    A Cuomo spokesman deferred to Tisch.

    [UPDATE: In an email, Zahedi said her description of the conversation centered on teacher evaluations rather than the Common Core.]

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    1. I've seen the video now too:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5Al6dCD9B4Q

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  5. Good point about Cuomo calling APPR "state of the art". I'll hang that around his neck in a future post. Thanks!

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