There has been a lot of debate over Randi Weingarten's publicly announcing that she wants to "de-couple" the Common Core State (sic) Standards from high stakes testing.
Alas, the CCSS were meant to go with high stakes testing, teacher evaluations based in part upon student test scores and data collection projects like inBloom that will track all the statistics and scores.
All three go together so that the deformers can assure themselves that their precious CCSS are being taught in schools.
Teachers who do not teach to the standards will be bludgeoned by the VAM in their evaluations tied to the CCSS high stakes standardized tests.
Parents who opt their children out of the CCSS tests will be bludgeoned by the data tracking programs that will provide the data and stats for secondary school and post-secondary school entrance for their children.
The whole system is meant to run on FEAR, meant to assure compliance for students, parents, teachers and schools through the high stakes tests.
As has been noted around the Internet, the CCSS cannot be "de-coupled" any more from the tests or the data projects than sun can been "de-coupled" from sunlight (I think Jim Horn wrote that.)
Great to hear Weingarten has gotten the message that VAM is voodoo and testing is ruining public education.
But so long as she and the other union leaders continue to take money from Gates and other deformers to promote the CCSS, not much is going to change in public education.
You cannot dismiss one part of the ed deform plan while supporting another part and get any real or meaningful change.
Weingarten is a fraud, and is desperately trying to distract teachers from her role in their current plight.
ReplyDeleteThat's right - it's all a distraction. Hey, kids, look over there. She does that every time I hammer her on Twitter. Says I am doing what Tea Partiers or the Koch Brothers do. It's jive, but that;s her M.O. Distract, blame others.
DeleteShe is trying desperately to hunker down in some non existent safe middle ground with people like Ianuzzi who talk a bunch of johnny come lately b.s. but like chronic alcoholics they still want to have some now and again...She refuses to see total abstinence from Common Core is the only acceptable answer to real teachers who are not drugged with her kool aid.
ReplyDeleteSean, that alcoholic analogy is a good one - that's how you have to deal w/ the deforms. Total abstinence, can;t have just a little. Randi and Dick will learn that soon enough, as they twist themselves into pretzels trying to maintain their power and privilege. Many people are seeing thru the pretzel stuff.
DeleteHow can we fire Weingarten? She does not represent teachers. She represents corporate interests.
ReplyDeleteShe's entrenched, was here at the UFT certainly, is at the AFT too. But attacks from below will weaken her, force her to move a little bit away from the deformers.
DeleteI wonder if a nationwide petition to get rid of Weingarten would take off?
ReplyDeleteI think it is worth a try. Reasons to get rid of her, how she betrays both her own members, those of other unions, and students with her sell out actions and lack of integrity can be brought to the fore in the petition. Needs to be stressed as an antidote to the billboard in Times Square that is anti-union at it's heart.