Now Elia says she wants to have some conversations with parents to better understand their thoughts about public education issues.
Sean Crowley has some words of wisdom for NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia:
She fails to grasp the Northern State Reality that parents and teachers ALREADY understand Common Core and High Stakes Testing, nobody needs to help us"understand" them. We understand they are shit and we want them gone. That's the understanding she is going to have brought to her. Whether or not she listens is anyone's bet but anyone would be an idiot to bet that she will.
NYSED announced they had dropped Pearson as the 3-8 test developer and hired Questar Assessment to develop the state tests using teachers in that development.
Then came the soothing words from Elia about wanting to have conversations with parents to get their ideas about education and maybe, just maybe, incorporate some of them into state policy.
But don't forget that "repaint" comment from May.
Elia's come in to put a new face on NYSED, Questar is a new face on the Endless Testing regime.
But is there going to be any real difference in direction that comes out of any of this?
I'm skeptical Elia and Questar are anything but a "rebranding" of the Endless Testing regime and NYSED policy.
If that's the case, as Sean noted in his comment, Elia better not think she'll fool anybody here in New York.