Assembly Dems to SED: We’re Watching http://t.co/IIbInxxVWF
— Susan Arbetter (@sarbetter) April 2, 2015
Assembly Dems, heavy hearts all, passed the most anti-public school/anti-teacher budget in New York State history.
They did so despite thousands of calls from parents and teachers and pressure from NYSUT to vote down the education bill.
They did so because Andrew Cuomo, a not very popular governor with a very unpopular education reform agenda, told them to or else.
I'm sure the deformy bureaucrats at NYSED are quaking in their cubicles that Assembly Dems are "watching them."
Watching them for what?
After this week's historic cave to Cuomo, I doubt anybody in Albany is scared of anything Assembly Dems do or say about anything at all.
Tip of the Cap to Patrick Sullivan for coining the "Heavy Hearts Club" moniker.
The piece seems to indicate they'll keep a closer eye on the BOR, not SED. Not sure if the reporter knows the differences (slight though it may be). If Tisch is allowed to install another King type person as the NYSED commisioner, then it'll be a terrible loss. If not, then it won't.
ReplyDeleteI guess the point I'm trying to make is that the public meetings of the BOR and of SED and the as of yet decided appointment, are going to be enormously big factors on how the new eval will look. That means calls to representative, calls to regents, and it means shining a light on when the BOR is meeting and how they're functioning over there at SED.
It's like budget season all over again!
Liz Benjamin wrote the State of Politics memo that Arbetter linked to in her tweet. They both know the difference between the Regents and SED. The subsuming the two into one comes more from that second point you made, that SED enacts policies the Regents want it to enact. Remember when King canceled the CCSS town halls. Tisch made him go on the CCSS town hall tour right after that because she calls the shots with SED. So you're right, the Regents is probably where all the action is on this.
DeleteIn legal terms the Regents enact policies that it wants SED to implement. SED doesn't "enact" anything. It is not a public board.
DeleteTisch has stated publicly that she thinks she is a goner when she comes up for reappointment next March. Cathy Nolan praised Tisch after she said this. Nolan might be canny, but I rather believe she is going to sell us out on the reappointment.
The Regents definitely has a more friendly makeup than they have. Roger Tilles, the Regent from LI has stated publicly he doesn't believe test scores should be used at all for APPR purposes.
Tilles and Lester Young visited my district a few months, spending an entire day in classrooms. Tilles asked my superintendent how long it takes him to know whether a teacher "has it or not." My superintendent responded, "I might be off by a minute or two, but about five minutes." Tilles said "Then why the hell are we going through all this other stuff." My supt: "Exactly."
Touche - implemented is the correct term, not enact.
DeleteLong week, brain fried...
And that's an INCREDIBLY important point: there is real advocacy to be had over the next few weeks by way of shining a light ln what the BOR is up to.
DeleteIndeed. Now we will see what those four new Regents do. Cashin, Tilles and Rosa already skeptical of Tisch agenda.
DeleteOne of my union officials took to Facebook today to trash us members. He wrote that only a small percentage of teachers (he said 30%) vote in elections, so it is our own fault that the legislature rolled over us. He added that if we had elected 10 more senators, we would have been able to stop the slaughter.
ReplyDeleteThis is an example of what we are dealing with from our union leaders. First of all, there are only 63 senators in the entire state. Hard to understand how the 400 members of my union could have elected 10 more senators had they voted at the rate of 100%. B
Let's forget about that insanity for a few minutes. I pay $1,000 a year in union dues to a bunch of people that are supposed to be protecting my interests. They ran for office; they cash their paychecks funded by my dues; they participate in the buffet spread at each union meeting; they have dinner out as a group following the meetings; they go to Gurney's Resort in Montauk half a dozen times a year for "training" sessions; they go to the AFT/NEA convention, etc. Now that NYSUT was routed it's MY fault?
For the record, I have voted in every election since I first became eligible to vote in 1978. I also vote against most of the people endorsed by NYSUT.
Let's remember one thing: 99.99% of the Assembly members that voted to screw us Tuesday night were endorsed by NYSUT/UFT/Andy Pallotta. These were people NYSUT helped elect. NYSUT has contributed millions of dollars to their campaigns. They all shafted us!!. Now my union is blaming ME? Look in the mirror!! NYSUT is USELESS.
Classic scapegoat move - it's our fault they settled on the "Win the Senate" strategy, finagled a WFP nod for Cuomo with the promise that he would help Dems take back the Senate, then discovered Cuomo lied and was helping the GOP to maintain Senate control.
DeleteBrooklyn Regent Kathleen Cashin released this statement today:
ReplyDelete“As a Regent of the State of New York, I cannot endorse the use of the current state tests for teacher/principal evaluation since that was not the purpose for which they were developed. It is axiomatic in the field of testing that tests should be used only for the purpose for which they were designed. They were designed to measure student performance, not teacher effectiveness. The American Statistical Association, the National Academy of Education, and the American Educational Research Association have cautioned that student tests should not be used to evaluate individual teachers. Nor should these tests be used for student growth measures until there is clear evidence that they are valid and reliable. The Board of Regents should commission an independent evaluation of these tests to verify their reliability and validity before they are used for high-stakes purposes for students, teachers, principals, and schools. How can we criticize people for opting out when the tests have not been verified? We need to cease and desist in the use of these tests until such time as we can be confident of their reliability and validity. If tests do meet those criteria, the tests must be released to teachers and to the public after they are given, in the spirit of transparency and accountability.”
Dr. Kathleen Cashin
Cashin's been outspoken previous to this but has only had a couple of allies on the Board to side with her.
DeleteI not only have no confidence in the tests and thew grading process, I have no confidence in the formulas that'll be used on us in the APPR re-do.
SED still hasn't shown cause for why Sheri Lederman was rated "ineffective" on the test component of her APPR.
They're instead trying to have the case dismissed on the "No harm, No Foul" rule.
I'm betting that's because they know the rating won't stand up in court if they had to disclose how they came up with it.
So would u rather be in a high school with an 85% grad rate that will decline to 80%, then 77%, and then level out somewhere in the mid 70's OR go to a high school with a 50% grad rate with room to grow this year to PROB hit 55%, then maybe low 60's leveling out. Thoughts?
ReplyDeleteNeither - I'd like to be in a system where I don't have to worry about all that.
DeleteAlas, that would mean leaving NY State...
Unfortunately, that's not a reality RBE. We do have to worry about it. There's no choice. I'd go with the growth. Ride that for 5 years, then jump to another school. Keep doing it till you retire.
DeleteDon't you think this system will be a mess and they'll be re-doing it again in two years? They're using the same carrot/stick approach to create a system under duress that they did w/ the initial APPR for RttT. This thing is going to be such a mess that I cannot believe it lasts long. Especially with so many people, parents and teachers, angry about it.
DeleteThe let it fall apart strategy is very risky when dealing with an Andrew Cuomo. Let's understand that we tried that with Bloomberg concerning weekly rotation of Absent Teacher Reserves. Everyone said in 2011 the DOE could never pull this off. They did. Lawsuits on evaluation will take years to get through court. If you value your job and your profession, it is time to wake up and get ready to be out in the streets and convince others to do the same.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying let it fall apart, I'm saying help it fall apart. Given the anger parents have over CCSS, testing, et al., the groundwork is there to undermine this.
DeleteI don't think getting concerned over how to survive the next five-ten years with this current system is warranted because they'll be re-doing it again in two years, just as they have now three of the last four. Even Merryl Tisch acknowledged this in her interview on Arbetter's program.