Another Great Idea For A Cuomo Attack Ad

A commenter at Perdido Street School blog agreeing with me that the ads the UFT and NYSUT have run against Cuomo do not get at the core of the problem with Cuomo's agenda:

Why not throw some of his own comments back at him; clips from some of his campaign ads. Calling for a five year moratorium on testing. Telling students that the tests are unfair and that results will not be held against them [only their teachers]. How about a third grader telling his teacher that he hopes he does really well so that she doesn't get fired. Just the kind of weight an 8 year old should be carrying into a test.

I had this ad idea that I'll repeat:

Here's the ad they should run:

Tell New Yorkers what will happen if Cuomo gets to tie 50% of teacher evaluations to student test scores.

Start that process by running an ad featuring Sheri Lederman, the award-winning teacher who was rated "ineffective" by NYSED on her test component via their value-added algorithm even though Lederman's students all passed their state tests and scored well above the state average.

Tell New Yorkers that Lederman is suing the State Education Department over this rating and that so far, NYSED has been unable to provide an explanation for why Lederman was rated "ineffective" even though her students passed the state tests with scores well above the state average.

 Tell New Yorkers that if Cuomo gets his way, many more teachers will be rated "ineffective" via an inscrutable NYSED value-added measurement algorithm that nobody from SED or the Regents seems able to explain.

And end the ad with Lederman's principal telling New Yorkers that if Cuomo gets his way on the rating reforms, one more "ineffective" rating on the inscrutable, unexplainable NYSED VAM will have Lederman fired and her students losing a highly effective, well-respected teacher.

Asking Cuomo to visit classrooms and learn what a great education New York kids get as the basis for an ad?

That doesn't get at the root of the problem in this evaluation fight, nor does it explain to New Yorkers just how damaging Cuomo's education reforms will be to their children and their children's teachers.

If they're going to run "anti-Cuomo" ads, then they ought to be running ones that really explain the problems with the Cuomo reforms.