Opponents of Common Core standards are urging parents to boycott next year’s state math and English exams, despite the state imposing a four-year freeze on using the results to grade students or teachers.
NYS Allies for Public Education said Wednesday that state and local school districts are administering too many tests and want the Common Core standards scrapped completely.
“We will continue to refuse to allow our children to participate in this system until all harmful reforms are removed,” said a spokesman for the group LI Opt Out.
About 200,000 students boycotted the last exams.
Teachers are still going to be evaluated using test scores and, depending upon the district, may still be evaluated using the state tests.
The Common Core isn't going anywhere, the Cuomo Common Core Task Force called for no "instructional shift" from the Common Core, just tweaks around the edges so they can say "Changes are being made!"
This bait and switch will not fool us.
The union leadership can fall all over itself declaring this a "win" for students, parents and teachers against the corporate reform movement, but those of us in schools know differently.
Nothing's changed, the Endless Testing regime lives on, APPR continues to use test scores to rate teachers, and with the Cuomo task force calling for a switch to "local" tests for APPR, there will be a whole lot more testing in the system next year.
The fight goes on.
If there is anyone out there that by now isn't convinced we either need to oust the entire leadership of the UFT and NYSUT or create new organizations to take the place of them does not understand how inept both are or how they have repeatedly sold us out.
ReplyDeleteIf the US Supreme Court rules that I am no longer compelled to send my dues/agency shop fees to my local, NYSUT and the NEA/AFT, I intend to immediately cease doing so. They have done nothing but make my professional life miserable.
I am not anti union. I perfectly understand the need to have a functioning and effective union fighting for us against the likes of Cuomo, the Senate GOP and a wimpy Assembly leadership, not to mention the billionaires and their agenda, but NYSUT in its present form and with its present leadership has to go. The sooner the better.
Questar Assessments is currently writing the 2017 NYS math and ELA tests for grades 3 to 8. Does anyone wonder which set of learning standards they are using?
ReplyDeleteI have written this before. WE are doomed if the Court rules against us in Friedrich. YOU may believe in unions. The free riders only believe in getting something for nothing. An end to agency fee will destroy our job protections because we will not be able to afford to function. VOTE out the elected leaders of UFT and NYSUT. Join forces with others to break the monopoly of the Unity Caucus.
ReplyDeleteMulgrew and Weingarten have already destroyed teachers' unions. Friedrichs will not change that unsavory fact. STOP paying dues so that Mulgrew can order dinner on his UFT expense account and so that Weingarten gets to hangout at the DNC and mingle with her cronies.
ReplyDeleteScuomo had five of his flunkies OK a rate hike for LIPA, three members not appointed by him voted no or abstained. The rate hikes coincide with his administrations changing the previous folks running the company. Mr. Phreet should be looking into all contracts awarded by this fraud.
ReplyDeleteUFT/AFT/NYSUT have disgusted so many members over the past decade or so I wouldn't be surprised if members withdrew their dues by the thousands per month.
ReplyDeleteBUT if pulling out of dues is as difficult as pulling out of COPE, expect huge delays and stall tactics on their part to keep the gravy train going as long as they can.
The union leaders are FRAUDS. They are only interested in collecting dues for their salaries and perks.
The Friedrich case will not destroy the teachers union. The teachers union leaders did that all on their own.
If teachers had an effective union, the Friedrich case wouldn't matter at all. Most would gladly pay dues.
Members have only themselves to blame for allowing these FRAUDS to lie to them time and time again while they shoved the knife deeper and deeper into their backs. Mulgrew and Weingarten will likely go off riding into the sunset possibly with lucrative job offers in the private sector. Jusy wait and see. And how many teachers and students lives went to hell as a result of their actions?
All I can say is .....shame on all of them.
On a phone town hall with Randi and AFTer. She was on Cuomo commission. Still claims no more testing. Any suggestions for a question if I get a chance?
ReplyDeleteYes. Why are they still calculating the MOSL, then? Why are they doing a dual rating system? The judge in the Lederman case has already ruled that it is damaging to a teacher's career. Furthermore, judge seems about to rule that the MOSL rating is arbitrary and capricious (the state has not complied with Judge's demand for data). So, why on earth is our union participating in this charade that they "aren't using test scores." The state has clearly said that they are. The dual "advisory rating" system is just as damaging. So, why not just tell the truth?
ReplyDeleteIf anyone wants change in our nyc schools vote for trump. Obama has destroyed not only our country but our schools along with arnie duncan. Now that Obama is moving out of office notice how arnie duncan fled for the woods and also how Obama has now transferred authority to the states to run their schools. This after Obama administration forced bull crap on us like common core among other.
ReplyDeleteAnon. 8:40AM
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say, you are incorrect.
While the Obama admin has been deeply culpable in advancing the reform agenda, destroying public education, and acting as DINO's on this topic at every level, your statement about him "destroying...our country" is a mindless platitude that can only be verified and backed up by context-free, manufactured, and wildly redacted "evidence."
While I am no Obama fan, the claim of his destruction of our country is counterfactual and adolescent.
Now, Trump....really? You really "think" a Trump presidency wouldn't quadruple-down on reform and privatization of schools?? Trump is, at bottom, the archetype of primitive capitalism that sees the privatization of public space and institutions as essential.
You are deeply confused politically and, it seems, historically. It sounds like you care about public education, which is great, but you are confused, muddle-headed, and may have lost your mind. Please take a look, anywhere online, at what the political spectrum in the United States means, what the difference between the right and the left is really about, and begin from there.
Be well.