Gov. Andrew Cuomo praised the tenure of outgoing Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch on Monday, but at the same time indicated he will push for broad reforms to the state’s education curriculum and Common Core standards.
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Cuomo has come under fire for his education policies from the state’s teachers unions and state lawmakers reluctantly approved the changes in part because they were tied to a boost in state education aid.
The governor’s Common Core panel expects to have recommendations for Cuomo in changing the standards by January.
“This is also a time where you are going to see a lot of changes in the education system,” Cuomo said. “The Common Core system I think almost everyone uniformly agrees needs dramatic reform.”
Asked if he believed Tisch did a good job as chancellor, Cuomo called her “an extraordinary person.”
But he added: “We have a lot of changes to make in education.”
Cuomo's got trouble on the polling front.
No matter what he does these days, his poll numbers remain underwater.
The latest Siena poll has him at 40% approval and 58% disapproval despite his push for a higher minimum wage, a move that was supposed to help bolster his support from the left.
On education, he has 68% of voters in the Siena poll disapproving of his handling of education.
He's got low marks on the economy, infrastructure and corruption as well.
His poll numbers have been underwater for quite a while now too (he was at 42%-57% in last December's Siena poll, for example.)
So Cuomo's floundering, he's starting to get desperate and he doesn't know how to turn this around.
He's decided he's going to pay lip service to making changes to the Common Core with a review panel, but given that the people he appointed to his review panel are mostly pro-CCSS (and pretty much the same one's who rubberstamped what we've got now), it's hard to see how we get any substantive change from them.
In addition, he refuses to make any changes to his APPR teacher evaluation system that makes test scores 50% of a teacher's rating.
So, I dunno what changes he's talking about that are coming.
From what I can see, all we're getting is a change in rhetoric on testing and the Common Core, but not actual change to the top-down imposed policies and reform agenda.
And given that this is a guy who said he would "break" public schools, I hear "a lot of changes" from him more as a threat than anything else.
Taking all of this noise apart logically:
ReplyDeleteCuomo and his cronies have gone way too far down the reform road to have any real turn back now. The money alone that has changed hands from corporate reformers to his administration is enough to mitigate any reversal. Its deeper than that however. Of all the reform-influenced governors, there are few that have rhetorically and otherwise bought-in as much as Cuomo. His buy-in has been full-bore and centered on destroying what was once an embedded fact of NYS political life: NYSUT. This was his end of the deal made with reformers. Clip NYSUTs political power, relevance, and gravity. In this he has been largely successful. Oddly, that success has been EASIER than anticipated. Turns out just putting on a scary mask and screaming real loud was enough to throw NYSUT into a confused flurry that has in and of itself resulted in its political death.
Facing political headwind on common core and testing is just fine by Cuomo...the real work is us. All that remains is removing the locally organized, largely tier 4 teachers still in the classrooms.
The big changes Cuomo has promised will create alot of noise, alot of dust clouds, and it is in that disturbance that Cuomo will, NO DOUBT take more steps against current teachers. Really. He will loudly make superficial changes....maybe even substantial changes....to testing, common core (rebrand no doubt), but he will NOT change VAM APPR and will likely use the chaos to ENHANCE it or do other anti-teacher things.
Cuomo is first and foremost trying to quiet angry parents, opt-out, etc. He will perhaps go to great lengths to do this. What he is searching for is that sweet spot where the parents shut up, and where he still has room to move against teachers. Most of us think, rightly, that parents and opt out will go fairly far for us.....but there will be a point where they shut up and we are pants down in the breeze. I don't know where that spot is, and Cuomo doesnt either, but rest assured that the moment he finds it, he will strike hard and fast against us.
Things to expect/look out for:
a) Teacher observations pimped out to corporate entity wholesale. No locals, or minimal local.
b) enhanced (again) 3020A that is way harsher.
c) increased rhetoric about TRS and our pensions, designed to create a crisis.
d) and increased rhetoric and policy stuff trying to force districts to consolidate and lose teachers via attrition.
e) streamlining of schools with poor graduation rates being swept towards take-over and charterization
f) anything else awful you can think of that doesn't involve testing kids.
For real....Cuomo will streamline down to his essentials....his bare-bones basic on education: teachers. He wants us gone. Statewide and locally. He'll shed all the distractions. All the nonsense...common core, tests, etc etc....all will be tossed aside if need be. He's after us and his statement about big changes is his focusing in on his real prey. Us.
Is the sky falling too?
DeleteChristie is not far behind Cuomo.
ReplyDeleteAbigail Shure
Is it just me, or has anybody else noticed that the NYCDOE has applied for an extension of the new evaluation law? The ramifications for this are HUGE. Why has not one serious blogger put forth an opinion on this?
ReplyDeleteBecause it wasn't unexpected:
Deletehttp://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2015/10/only-8-of-school-districts-have-vaunted.html
It's looking 90% of districts in the state will look for waivers.
I actually believe that it was expected that NYC would go through with the new evaluation. NYC has the money and resources to to do it. Now we are still stuck with 4 to 6 observations while the few districts that went through with the changes have TWO observations. Vindictive principals still have reign in NYC due to this fact.
DeleteYour expectation was based on what? There have been no indications there would be an agreement. Mulgrew said the UFT and the DOE were "negotiating," as required by law. That's all he said. Given how many moving parts there are to the new law, I never thought it would go through if there was a waiver process for it.
DeleteI agree with you on the nature of the current system, btw. 4-6 observations is a nightmare - soon as you get finished with one, you're waiting for the next one. Like being a hamster on the Danielson wheel...
Put all of this together, the only viable plan I see is uprising. Not just for education but all of the hits directed at the rapidly dwindling middle class. This is part and parcel of a big much bigger picture. Thanks to mr. hope and change, who goes along with repubs because that's what he wanted all along.
ReplyDeleteAngry guy he is and we're his payback.
Mr Hope and Change did a lot of damage. I regret that 2008 vote a lot.
DeleteWhat are the odds Tisch ends up in DC with King? 2:1, even money?
ReplyDeleteDoubtful. I can't see any capacity there for her.
Delete