Commenters at Perdido Street School responded with scorn:
Parents will provide NYSED all the feedback they need on the April "survey".
And:
When Elia proclaims that everyone loves the CC and it's still full speed ahead with the bullshit, she'll add another 200,000 to the opt outs in April.
And:
Amazing, anyone who has kids knows that number is a complete fabrication. It insults parents, teachers, the public and students. They must have used Common Core math to arrive at that figure.
I think the insulting treatment from Cuomo, Elia and company over education policy will end up backfiring on them too.
Cuomo rigged his CCSS public hearings for minimal attendance by having them in small spaces at times that are so close to school hours that many people can't get to them in time to sign up and speak (see here and here.)
Elia rigged the NYSED Common Core survey to make it as arduous, complex and jargon-laden as possible so that only the most committed would finish it (see here.)
Now she's claiming 71.5% support for CCSS when polling from Siena shows widespread opposition to the standards (see here and here.)
This comes on top of the Endless Testing propaganda site she put together, replete with talking points and sample tweets, for superintendents to use in communicating with parents and teachers about the wonders of the state's testing regime.
The powers that be continue to play games with parents and teachers, on the one hand saying that they're "listening" to the dissatisfaction over Common Core and Endless Testing (see Cuomo's approval numbers on education here and here) while doing all they can to ensure the status quo with the other.
But as the commenters noted, their gambits won't work - when the education policies of Endless Testing and Common Core do not change, parents and teachers will not be fooled by rigged surveys, rigged Common Core hearings, or "sample" pro-Common Core social media messages.
I agree that Elia's ass number of 71.5% wont fool anyone.
ReplyDeleteHOWEVER,
This insistence that Opt-Out will be given a HUGE bump in numbers is, perhaps, a bit of an ass-numbering as well. (an additional 200,000!!!)
Our side seems to really go in hard for making statements about the upcoming opt-out season. And for sure, the flames are being fanned. I'd argue that the best thing to do is SHUT UP and if the numbers go big, then its a much more pointed moment for us.
That said, I would argue that the opt-out of 2014-2015 was a full-court press and represents near peak numbers. This year if we get a 5-10% jump, thats big. NYC isn't in and won't be in. 250k of this past year represents ballpark of what is achievable. The people who are, for example, pissed off hard about Elia's latest comments and actions are THE SAME PEOPLE who were pissed last spring and did opt-out. Where are these new 200,000 coming from? Its a mistake to think that ed issues in NYS are as central to most people as they are to us and the hardcore opt-out folk. They aren't. The only real growth possible beyond the 250k of last spring is at the margins. I think a robust 300k is possible this upcoming year. 350k would be a treat. But up to 400-500K?? COME ON!!! I don't see an opt-out awakening in NYC. I don't see anything but a growth at the margins of the pockets that delivered the opt-out numbers of last year. Thats a reasonable guess. But to think that every time Elia talks or acts, hundreds of thousands of people will become hardcore opt-out is a little detached. It also assumes that the counter-opt-out measures that Cuomo/Elia/ETC are no doubt contemplating won't exist or will be entirely ineffective. (I'd guess that whatever those are they will be un-smart and not too effective, but still....I won't assume they won't be deployed).
Lets not inflate this stuff too much. Its not smart.