“NYSED is convening a panel to examine creating assessments to measure student growth, performance and college and career readiness in the Arts programs.
“The Department recommends that the Board of Regents commission an operational study that would establish criteria to identify and evaluate arts assessments in each discipline that signify college and career readiness as well as those that are truly worthy of Regents recognition. Similar to the approach used in career and technical education pathways, the proposed process would begin with the establishment of an Arts Advisory Panel.”
This is as much about evaluating the teachers using New York State's abysmal APPR teacher evaluation system as anything else.
APPR calls for teachers to be rated using so-called student performance on both state and local tests and assessments.
As of now, arts teachers are often being evaluated using alternate measures like ELA exams that their students take.
But once the geniuses at SED and the Regents come up with their criteria for how to identify and evaluate arts assessments in each discipline, every teacher in every subject will have her or his own assessment that they can be rated on.
And won't that be wonderful?
Folks, until we make the politicians who put these Regents into power pay a political price for doing so, this stuff isn't going to change.
As a music teacher I find this abhorrent. Many of my colleagues are already required to give meaningless pre- and post-tests to measure student growth, which of course is the natural way to determine a student's ability to perform music - with multiple choice questions! A Regents exam in art or music would be the absolute low point of the lunacy this "tests all the time for everyone" movement has wrought.
ReplyDeleteThis is the end game, yes - tests for every subject in every grade. And again, it's to "evaluate" the teachers more than anything. It's all about control from afar. And of course money for the accountability people.
Delete"Okay class, take out your pens. I want you to draw me an essay!"
ReplyDeleteIn art class at my school, students spend time writing essays and reading complex text. Comes straight out of the limited instruction time for art. It's venomous, in my opinion. The very thing that often gets kids to come to school, the arts, where they can have fun and be creative, has been turned into a stifling place of "rigor."
DeleteHow many violins are needed to play a Fifth of Beethoven? Students, I would like yo to write an essay and provide details to support your argument. Extra credit will be provided if you can state the 1) a factor that influenced Beethoven, 2) state the prevalent weather conditions that existed, or 3) provide a analysis of world events at the time and their impact on Beethoven. Professors will be held accountable for the responses of their students...and students may not graduate if their responses are not scored highly effective or effective
ReplyDeleteWe'll be letting you know if you're qualified to write our music assessments. It sounds from the comment that you are more than qualified!
DeleteTisch and King are grossly incompetent. They are seeking the power to fire teachers to misrepresent their authority. They are convinced that if they can fire lots of teachers, they are authentic authorities on educational policy. They are no talented. They are poor leaders. They are in reality grossly incompetent.
ReplyDeleteNot enough bad stuff can happen to these two people professionally. Alas, nothing will.
DeleteThe insanely barbaric reform campaign of the NY state Regents is exactly the same anti-intellectual approach taken by Idi Amin Dada in Uganda.
ReplyDelete"Amin retaliated against the attempted invasion by Ugandan exiles in 1972 by purging the army of Obote supporters, predominantly those from the Acholi and Lango ethnic groups In July 1971, Lango and Acholi soldiers were massacred in the Jinja and Mbarara Barracks,and by early 1972, some 5,000 Acholi and Lango soldiers, and at least twice as many civilians, had disappeared. The victims soon came to include members of other ethnic groups, religious leaders, journalists, artists, senior bureaucrats, judges, lawyers, students and intellectuals, criminal suspects, and foreign nationals. In this atmosphere of violence, many other people were killed for criminal motives or simply at will. Bodies were often dumped into the River Nile.
They must have taken their testing campaign out of the Big Dada playbook.
Hate-mongering, incompetence and paranoia by NY state politicians...
ReplyDeleteI teach multiply handicapped kids. Some years they need to take the tests. They cannot write their names. We give them crayons and they draw on the test forms after getting totally bored sitting without doing anything for several hours. I hope the people who grade their papers consider their artistic ability of their scribbling. INSANE...MORE INSANITY!!!!
ReplyDeleteYes, and until we make the politicians pay for it, it will continue.
DeleteWent to a fair today and was introduced to Mike Cusick (Assembly) and Diane Savino (State Senator). Struck up a conversation with both and was asked about my occupation. When they heard teacher, these two idiots just left without a peep. Fortunately others came over and told these two turds that the last thing they would get was their vote.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the same teachers stated they would vote for Cuomo.
Sums up New York politics in a nutshell....the dumb leading the dumber
Savino's a member of the IDC, so I can see why she would treat a teacher with disdain.
DeleteDisdain and scorn for teachers is a key pillar in the IDC ideology platform.
So many teachers continue to vote for IDC members like Savino, Jeff Klein and Tony Avella.
As you note, Rage Against The Levine, the dumb leading the dumber.
So long as teachers continue to support pols who scorn them either individually (as Savino does) or through their policy work (as Klein and Avella do), teachers will continue to be treated with disdain and scorn.