Gina Terbot’s misgivings about state tests started with her daughter’s seventh-grade results.
Her daughter, an honors student, did well on both the state math and English exams that year. But all Terbot got back was a report with one number and no details of where her daughter could improve.
“You have no idea what you got wrong or what you need to fix,” said Terbot, a school board member in Niagara Wheatfield.
Like thousands of parents across New York last year, Terbot decided she had had enough with state tests given to elementary and middle-school children. She and her daughter joined a growing movement of parents and children trying out civil disobedience in the classroom. When it was time to take the eighth-grade tests, she and her daughter decided to refuse the test.
Classrooms here will be at the epicenter of a political storm again Tuesday as the state begins to administer federally required English Language Arts exams to third- through eighth-graders. With many students opting out of the assessments last year and rancor growing over new teacher evaluations pushed through by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, educators and lawmakers are bracing for more test boycotts.
...
Metzger, the Niagara Wheatfield parent who will have her fifth-grade and eighth-grade children refuse the tests this week, said opting out is the only way some parents feel their voices will be heard.
“For me, personally, I have a big issue with the education reform, and I’ve tried to contact the governor through phone, email, Facebook, and there’s no getting through to him,” Metzger said. “We don’t have a voice. He doesn’t want to hear us. So this is my way of expressing my opinion. I think the system is flawed.”
Governor Cuomo's education reform agenda was very unpopular as measured by the latest polling.
Nonetheless Cuomo shoved it through in the budget and the legislature voted for it with "heavy hearts."
It is quite apparent that our democratically elected officials do not care what their constituents think about the Endless Testing regime, teacher evaluations tied to test scores or any of the other education reforms they're imposing on the state.
Certainly Governor Cuomo doesn't care.
As parent Amy Metzger says in the Buffalo News piece, there's no getting through to the governor - he doesn't care what parents want for their children or their schools.
The truth is, Governor Cuomo only wants to hear from the ever-smaller coterie of sycophants he has around him who tell him he's right about everything and the charter school/education reform donors who pay him millions top push their agenda.
So parents must make Governor Cuomo hear them by opting their children out of the state tests.
That is the only way to be heard.
A couple hundred thousand parents refusing the test will send an extremely strong message to the creeps in Albany. The Endless Testing Regime didn't impact Senate Education Committee John Flanagan's three kids, but he wants to pin it on your children. He's quite a guy, isn't he? He lives off the charter school contributions to his campaign, using them to fund a car, food, gas, phone, etc. Meanwhile, he sells us out every chance he gets.
ReplyDeleteLooks like NYSED has lost control
ReplyDeleteCould this save us?
ReplyDeletehttp://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2015/04/senate-bill-revising-no-child-left.html
Nope. Wont save us. The best that stuff does is allow for more options with this stuff. Cuomo etc can and will continue to pursue their teacher-breaking agenda. Cuomo's reform $$ streams exists regardless of federal legislation. There is currently NO federal legislation on the table that:
Delete1) tells states to abandon a reform agenda
2) tells states to explicitly NOT break teachers.
so yeah, great to hear, but here in NY we continue to be F'd.
Elections have consequences. It seems that alot of people think those consequences can be somehow eased or ended. They can't....especially when the person elected is extremely tied to his teacher-breaking agenda. We had our chance. That passed in November. This is all consequences stuff now.
Elections have consequences? Exactly what does that mean? In the Assembly, NYSUT endorsed the Democrats, who have an overwhelming majority and still shafted us. I can see the Senate doing it because they are rolling in charter school cash.
DeleteYes they do. Cuomo won against Teachout by approximately 80,000 votes.
DeleteA firm push by NYSUT for Teachout.....a firm support, push, and helping hand....could have yielded that at least + 1. You know, out of their half-a-million membership. As it stood many teachers mobilized outside of NYSUTs lack of endorsement and went with Teachout. Imagine a full push with phone calls and ads and all that.
Yes, elections have consequences and the one with the central teacher-breaking focus and priority WON.
Thanks NYSUT!
I see it more as NYSUT didn't want to back Astorino. His wife is a teacher and NYSUT member. He was pretty good on education except for the charter school stuff, which we already have anyway.
DeleteThe local NYSUT members backed Teachout.
DeleteAstorino was still evil, though perhaps the lesser of two evils, still evil.
Cuomo, honored guest speaker 4-20 for Eva Moscowitz' charter schools, Success Academy is acting in pure (or 99%) evil.
There was no huge money for Teachout and no chance of her winning until Citizen's United is repealed.
NYSUT also endorsed republicans, so stop the nonsense. And before you protest:
Anthony Palumbo [R]
Andrew Raia [R]
Philip Palmesano [R]
Edward Ra [R]
Joseph Saladino [R]
Daniel Stec [R]
Claudia Tenney [R]
James Tedisco [R]
Raymond Walter [R]
Angela Wozniak [R]
Philip Palmesano [R]
Dean Murray [R]
Bill Nojay [R]
Robert Oaks [R]
Steven McLaughlin [R]
Thomas McKevitt [R]
David McDonough [R]
Nicole Malliotakis [R]
Chad Lupinacci [R]
Peter Lopez [R]
Peter Lawrence [R]
Kieran Lalor [R]
Brian Kolb [R]
Steve Katz [R]
Mark Johns [R]
Dov Hikind [D]
Stephen Hawley [R]
Alfred Graf [R]
Asm. Andrew Goodell [R]
Asm. Andrew Garbarino [R]
Asm. Joseph Giglio [R]
Asm. Gary Finch [R]
Asm. Michael Fitzpatrick [R]
Asm. Christopher Friend [R]
Asm. David DiPietro [R]
Asm. Clifford Crouch [R]
Asm. Brian Curran [R]
Jane Corwin [R]
Marc Butler [R]
Asm. Kenneth Blankenbush [R]
Asm. Joseph Borelli [R]
Asm. Karl Brabenec [R]
Asm. Inez Barron [D]
Asm. William Barclay [R]
Sorry friend, but in the house, democrats sold out New York, all but two of them.
They stood up and did the right thing as did many other republicans.
To be clear: Sending an extremely strong message to the creeps in Albany will result in a response, probably in the area of relieving the testing burden on kids. It WILL NOT, however, result in a less damaging teacher evaluation system. That is and has been the agenda here. Whatever happens, the creeps in Albany...especially Cuomo/Tisch/etc, will make sure that a teacher eval system that is harmful to teachers exists, stands, and thrives. They will just have to do it without angering parents into the future.
ReplyDeleteJust because the data for one part of their plan gets messed up, don't think they wont design something just as dreadful.
Opt Out is hugely important, but its not the end game.
They may have created a disaster of an eval system.
Opt Out may harm a big part of that system.
BUT, they will work into the wee hours making sure that they come up with SOMETHING that can effectively lay the hammer down on teachers.
That is their whole purpose after all.
Demoralize, remove, break, eliminate organized "highly" paid teachers. THAT IS THE WHOLE GAME HERE. Don't expect opt out to get them to quit their game.
Completely disagree. Opt out is hugely important. It is driven mainly by parents and that's what scares the living hell out of politicians.
DeleteWe have had three evaluation plans in four years. What makes you think this is going to last any longer than the others?
This, Anon.
DeleteYou've hit the nail on the head, though both of you have valid points. What 11:55 a.m. misses is the force of will of truly pissed off people to defend their flock of children against .1% vultures like Cuomo and Tisch.
Game on, Cuomo! You thought you were taking down unions and teachers? Guess what? You're going down first!
And politicians will respond to their scare by parents by adjusting things and dealing w tests in a way that doesn't keep them going crazy.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, 3 systems in 4 years. Each more of a pain in the ass than the last. They are searching for a way to start getting teachers fired and one of these attempts they'll find it. It's their goal.
History says you are wrong. I do not doubt the validity of what I believe in. I believe we will win in the end.
DeleteHistory? Name a sector of the public that has been privatized and then returned to the public?
ReplyDeleteThat said, will the agenda of privatizing public education succeed? Not sure. It may.
There is no pendulum and there is nothing outside of a belief....belief....that things will go our way.
Remember when they deregulated the airlines? ALOT of folks said that was beyond comprehension and didnt believe it would happen.
ALOT of folks also thought that the US military would never outsource to private companies essential functions like convoy escort and all that. Lots of folks didnt believe that would ever happen.
So privatization does happen. We need to be vigilant and extremely clearheaded. That's all.
Its dangerous for us to assume we will win...in the short term or long term.
ReplyDeleteAll of the historical, epic, enormous, global scale losses have started with that assumption.
شركة نقل عفش بالرياض
ReplyDeleteشركة نقل عفش بجدة
شركة نقل عفش بمكة
شركة نقل عفش بالمدينة المنورة
شركة نقل عفش بخميس مشيط
شركة نقل اثاث بابها