This will be the last post at Perdido Street School blog.
I have been blogging for ten years at various sites.
For reasons that have been brewing for some time now, I have decided ten years is enough.
I can no longer give the blog the kind of attention I have given it in the past and so, I've decided it's time to shut it down and move on.
Thanks to all the readers and commenters over the years.
Thanks especially to Arthur Goldstein at NYC Educator, who got me started at this all those years ago, and thanks to my blogging buddies Norm Scott at Ed Notes Online, Sean Crowley at B-Lo Ed Scene, James Eterno at ICEUFT blog, Brian at Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association blog and Chaz at Chaz's School Daze.
The battles in education these past ten years have been brutal and we have seen our profession transformed into something barely recognizable from when I first started teaching fifteen years ago.
Common Core, teacher evaluations tied to test scores, EngageNY scripts and drive-by Danielson observations have ensured that many of us are teaching by numbers if wish to remain in our jobs for any period of time.
If you're a reader of this blog, you know that all the "change" we hear that is happening in education - from Cuomo's Common Core Task Force "reforms" to the changes NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia says we'll see out of the State Education Department, is just so much window dressing.
The instructional focus of the Common Core remains.
The bludgeon of the Endless Testing regime on individual schools remains.
For many teachers, teacher evaluations tied to test scores remain.
The unions have run ads lately touting change, but quite frankly, there is no change - just more of the same with minor tweaks.
Thankfully there is a parent-led pushback movement in Opt Out that continues to terrify the politicians and educrats, that continues to keep them off balance and on the defensive.
I must admit, I don't have a ton of optimism for any positive substantive change coming to public education in the near term, but if any does come, it will be as a result of the Opt Out movement and all the tireless folks there doing the work to end the Endless Testing regime.
When I first started blogging, the corporate education reform movement was in the ascendant, with no real pushback to them in the media or politics.
Despite the media narrative of the "powerful teachers unions," the unions never really tried to counter the reformers - they instead collaborated with them on teacher evaluations, Common Core, Danielson, streamlined contracts and the like.
But the Opt Out movement has become that pushback and therein lies the hope I have for the future of public education - that parents, along with teachers, will take back their schools from the corporate reformers, the educrats, the consultants, the edu-entrepreneurs and the bought-off politicians.
If there is any bright light in the maelstrom of deform that we inhabit these days, it is the advent of a parent-led movement against the powers that be and their corporate backers to transform schools into one size fits all factories and children into interchangeable widgets.
On the union side, there are many great folks pushing back against the union leaders in the AFT, NEA, NYSUT and UFT, trying to end top-down unionism and make the unions more representative of the views of the rank and file.
In NYC, that movement is led by the people at MORE and before I go from the blogging scene, I want to say that I fully support the MORE candidates in the coming UFT elections and hope that we can finally get some people into the UFT leadership who fight for teachers and the teaching profession rather than sell us and it out piece by piece.
And with that, I say goodbye and good luck.
Perdido 03
Friday, January 29, 2016
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Buffalo School District Offers Worst Contract Deal Ever
From the Buffalo News:
In addition, the school day would be lengthened from 6 hours and 50 minutes to 7 hours and 30 minutes and the school year would run for September 1 to June 30.
Also, new teachers (7-12) would have to teach six periods a day and all new teachers would have to fulfill 4 days of extra professional development.
Teachers would be required to use tracking technologies like "Parent Portal," seniority preference for transfers would be eliminated, there would be no early retirement incentives and personal days would be reduced.
OK, so let me get this straight.
Teachers have been without a raise for eleven years.
Buffalo is offering them 10% for those eleven years, and in return teachers have to pay 10% into their health care, new teachers have to pay 20% into their health care, the work day is increased by 40 minutes and the year is increased to 188 work days.
In addition, new teachers have to do more PD, some have to teach a sixth class, sick days would be reduced and seniority preferences for transfers would be eliminated.
Uh, no thanks:
As the unions are weakened even more post-Friedrichs, you can see this kind of contract becoming the standard thing around the state - especially if the Triborough Agreement goes away (as some think it may.)
Take a shit sandwich and if you don't like it, well, too bad - there's nothing you can do.
With a lack of vision, foresight and planning, the UFT, NYSUT, the AFT and the NEA have brought us to a place where we are about to be effectively neutered and your union dues will be useless for anything except shitty car insurance offers and discounts to Great Adventure.
Given the weakness of the unions these days, given the impending Friedrichs decision and the consequences thereafter, and given that Cuomo and Elia have handed Buffalo school officials a lot of power to impose what they will, it's hard to see how there's a good outcome here for Buffalo teachers.
With the kind of contract being offered there, why would ANYONE want to start teaching in Buffalo schools?
Here's what one commenter at the Buffalo News wrote:
Indeed.
An update on contract negotiations with the Buffalo Teachers Federation took center stage at Wednesday’s meeting of the School Board.
Major points in the school district’s most recent proposal include a 10 percent increase in teacher salaries effective upon ratification of the contract. Teachers who work at least 160 days during the 2015-16 school year would be eligible for one-time payments ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 depending on their pay-step level.
In addition, active employees would pay 10 percent of the cost of premiums for their health insurance, and if the agreement is ratified, new hires would contribute 20 percent of premium costs.
Future retirees would contribute the same as active employees, effective July 1. Physician copays would increase to $15, from $5. And the district proposes eliminating the expensive policy rider that covers cosmetic surgery.
In addition, the school day would be lengthened from 6 hours and 50 minutes to 7 hours and 30 minutes and the school year would run for September 1 to June 30.
Also, new teachers (7-12) would have to teach six periods a day and all new teachers would have to fulfill 4 days of extra professional development.
Teachers would be required to use tracking technologies like "Parent Portal," seniority preference for transfers would be eliminated, there would be no early retirement incentives and personal days would be reduced.
OK, so let me get this straight.
Teachers have been without a raise for eleven years.
Buffalo is offering them 10% for those eleven years, and in return teachers have to pay 10% into their health care, new teachers have to pay 20% into their health care, the work day is increased by 40 minutes and the year is increased to 188 work days.
In addition, new teachers have to do more PD, some have to teach a sixth class, sick days would be reduced and seniority preferences for transfers would be eliminated.
Uh, no thanks:
In a statement, BTF President Philip Rumore said Buffalo teachers are already $20,000 behind their counterparts in other districts, which is a loss of $600,000 in lifetime earnings and $10,000 a year less in retirement because their retirement is based upon their final salary.
“The Board’s salary offer of a 10 percent raise, effective upon ratification of a new contract, over the 11 years teachers went without a salary increase, amounts to a less than one percent increase,” Rumore wrote.
As the unions are weakened even more post-Friedrichs, you can see this kind of contract becoming the standard thing around the state - especially if the Triborough Agreement goes away (as some think it may.)
Take a shit sandwich and if you don't like it, well, too bad - there's nothing you can do.
With a lack of vision, foresight and planning, the UFT, NYSUT, the AFT and the NEA have brought us to a place where we are about to be effectively neutered and your union dues will be useless for anything except shitty car insurance offers and discounts to Great Adventure.
Given the weakness of the unions these days, given the impending Friedrichs decision and the consequences thereafter, and given that Cuomo and Elia have handed Buffalo school officials a lot of power to impose what they will, it's hard to see how there's a good outcome here for Buffalo teachers.
With the kind of contract being offered there, why would ANYONE want to start teaching in Buffalo schools?
Here's what one commenter at the Buffalo News wrote:
So, the district proposes increasing starting teacher pay to 35K a year, but expects them to pay 4K a year toward their family's healthcare. When you add up the numbers it sounds an awful lot like the same deal employees of fast-food chain restaurants throughout the state will get when the min. wage is raised to $15 an hour over the next few years. And fast food workers don't have to invest 100K of their own money in their training. The district obviously has no interest in a new contract or the quality of its future workforce...
Indeed.
Democrats For Education Reform Hiring For COO, Communications Director
Dust off those resumes:
Director of Communications
Job posted by: Democrats for Education ReformAbout Us: We are Democrats leading a political reform organization that cultivates and supports leaders in our party who champion America's public schoolchildren.
Our Vision: To make the Democratic Party the champion of high quality public education.
Director of Communication Job Purpose: The Director of Communications is responsible for the creation and implementation of a strategic, progressive communications program designed to expand the organization's brand and to advance the organization's mission concerning bold school reform for kids. This position will require the candidate to craft and oversee creative communication projects to further advance the national message of the organization. The position accomplishes this through a strategic, progressive and bold style, guided by the core values of the organization, and fully aligned with its mission. Reporting to the National President, the Director of Communications will serve as the voice of the organization, bringing to light the need to improve the country's public schools.
Major Job Duties:
The ideal candidate will possess the following qualifications:
- Support and spread the national message of the organization
- Develop effective communication and social media strategies
- Serve as support for national team and each of our 11 state chapters
- Establish and advance long-term working relationships with various entities including elected, the media, members of the community, public offices and partner organizations.
- Identify opportunities to support national initiatives and develop associated communications materials and programs
- Respond to media requests for information and facilitate media interviews with elected officials, community members, journalists, etc.
- Possess strategic communication skills
Skills/Qualifications: developing standards, communicating cross team, strong writing, branding and presentation skills, humility, dedication to mission, analyzing information, dealing with complexity, thinking quantitatively about results, high attention to detail, confidentiality, time management, flexibility.
- 7-10 years of relevant experience
- Branding experience
- Political/policy experience preferred but not required
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
How About Teaching Cursive Again?
From the NY Post:
There is plenty of research to suggest that learning cursive helps develop creativty and other swell things:
I'm skeptical that MaryEllen Elia will push cursive - it's not needed for the online testing she can't wait to push onto children all over the state.
But there's a lot of goo that comes from writing by hand, especially with cursive.
ALBANY — Many Big Apple students, including the children of several state lawmakers, can’t even sign their own names, it was revealed at an educational budget hearing in Albany today.
“Not only is it sad, but it’s a security issue,” said Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-SI/Brooklyn).
She told Board of Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia that students have become so tech-oriented that they never learn how to sign their John Hancock, which renders them unable to properly ink contracts, checks and credit cards.
Malliotakis said the penmanship problem was brought to her attention while helping one of her constituents fill out a voter registration form. He printed his name, and when she told him to actually sign it, he insisted that was his signature.
Even the 11-year-old daughter of veteran Harlem legislator Herman “Denny” Farrell doesn’t know how to sign her name.
“And she’s smarter than me,” Farrell said of his daughter, Prince, who attends a private school in Harlem. “They don’t teach it. I’m going to go home now and teach her handwriting.”
LeRoy Comrie, a senator from Queens, told Malliotakis his son never learned that skill either.
“Can you imagine?” Malliotakis told The Post. “Not only does it mean you can’t sign a business contract, but it makes you vulnerable to identity theft because anyone can just go ahead and print your name.”
There is plenty of research to suggest that learning cursive helps develop creativty and other swell things:
When we adults went to school, one of the first things we learned was how to write the alphabet, in caps and lower case, and then to hand-write words, sentences, paragraphs, and essays. Some of us were lucky enough to have penmanship class where we learned how to make our writing pretty and readable. Today, keyboarding is in. The Common Core Standards no longer require elementary students to learn cursive, and some schools are dropping the teaching of cursive entirely, dismissing it as an “ancient skill.”[1] (link is external)
The primary schools that teach handwriting spend only just over an hour a week, according to Zaner-Bloser Inc., one of the nation's largest handwriting-curriculum publishers. Cursive is not generally taught after the third grade (my penmanship class was in the 7th grade; maybe its just coincidence, but the 7th grade was when I was magically transformed from a poor student into an exceptional student).
Yet scientists are discovering that learning cursive is an important tool for cognitive development, particularly in training the brain to learn “functional specialization”[2] (link is external)—that is, the capacity for optimal efficiency. In the case of learning cursive writing, the brain develops functional specialization that integrates both sensation, movement control, and thinking. Brain imaging studies reveal that multiple areas of brain become co-activated during the learning of cursive writing of pseudo-letters, as opposed to typing or just visual practice.
There is a spill-over benefit for thinking skills used in reading and writing. To write legible cursive, fine motor control is needed over the fingers. You have to pay attention and think about what and how you are doing it. You have to practice. Brain imaging studies show that cursive activates areas of the brain that do not participate in keyboarding.
Much of the benefit of handwriting in general comes simply from the self-generated mechanics of drawing letters. In one Indiana University study,[3] (link is external) researchers conducted brain scans on pre-literate 5-year olds before and after receiving different letter-learning instruction. In children who had practiced self-generated printing by hand, the neural activity was far more enhanced and "adult-like" than in those who had simply looked at letters. The brain’s “reading circuit” of linked regions that are activated during reading was activated during hand writing, but not during typing. This lab has also demonstrated that writing letters in meaningful context, as opposed to just writing them as drawing objects, produced much more robust activation of many areas in both hemispheres.
In learning to write by hand, even if it is just printing, the brain must:
Cursive writing, compared to printing, should be even more beneficial because the movement tasks are more demanding, the letters are less stereotypical, and the visual recognition requirements create a broader repertoire of letter representation. Cursive is also faster and more likely to engage students by providing a better sense of personal style and ownership.
- Locate each stroke relative to other strokes.
- Learn and remember appropriate size, slant of global form, and feature detail characteristic of each letter.
- Develop categorization skills.
Other research highlights the hand's unique relationship with the brain when it comes to composing thoughts and ideas. Virginia Berninger, a professor at the University of Washington, reported her study of children in grades two, four and six that revealed they wrote more words, faster, and expressed more ideas when writing essays by hand versus with a keyboard.[4] (link is external)
There is a whole field of research known as “haptics,” which includes the interactions of touch, hand movements, and brain function.[5] (link is external) Cursive writing helps train the brain to integrate visual, and tactile information, and fine motor dexterity. School systems, driven by ill-informed ideologues and federal mandate, are becoming obsessed with testing knowledge at the expense of training kids to develop better capacity for acquiring knowledge.
The benefits to brain development are similar to what you get with learning to play a musical instrument. Not everybody can afford music lessons, but everybody has access to pencil and paper. Not everybody can afford a computer for their kids—but maybe such kids are not as deprived as we would think.
I'm skeptical that MaryEllen Elia will push cursive - it's not needed for the online testing she can't wait to push onto children all over the state.
But there's a lot of goo that comes from writing by hand, especially with cursive.
Football Is Murder
There is simply no way to justify the "game" of football any longer - it is, quite literally, murder:
And these concussions didn't just come in the NFL:
Indeed, the other, "lesser" incidents of trauma can be just as damaging as concussions:
Like boxing, I don't think football should be banned.
But know that every time you watch an NFL football game, a good portion of the players on that field are going to end up with C.T.E or some other brain-related disease.
If you can still watch football knowing the damage that is being done, more power to you.
Same goes for the men willing to play it.
As for who gets to play the "game," I think there needs to be a conversation about it:
I used to be a huge football fan, but as the evidence has become overwhelming in the last few years that playing football destroys men's brains, I can no longer do it.
How many NY Giants have we learned about in just the past few years who died of brain-related injuries?
There was Frank Gifford and Dave Jennings, now Tyler Sash.
You can bet there will be more.
Football is said to be the national pastime, kinda like the Roman Coliseum was the national pastime for the Roman Empire.
But with our modern day gladiators, the football players, the deaths come off the field after their playing days are over.
When the former Giants safety Tyler Sash was found dead at age 27 of an accidental overdose of pain medications at his Iowa home on Sept. 8, his grieving family remained consumed by a host of unanswered questions about the final, perplexing years of Sash’s life.
Cut by the Giants in 2013 after what was at least his fifth concussion, Sash had returned to Iowa and increasingly displayed surprising and irregular behavior, family members said this week. He was arrested in his hometown, Oskaloosa, for public intoxication after leading the police on a four-block chase with a motorized scooter, a pursuit that ended with Sash fleeing toward a wooded area.Sash had bouts of confusion, memory loss and minor fits of temper. Although an Iowa sports celebrity, both as a Super Bowl-winning member of the Giants and a popular star athlete at the University of Iowa, Sash was unable to seek meaningful employment because he had difficulty focusing long enough to finish a job.Barnetta Sash, Tyler’s mother, blamed much of her son’s changeable behavior, which she had not observed in the past, on the powerful prescription drugs he was taking for a football-related shoulder injury that needed surgery. Nonetheless, after his death she donated his brain to be tested for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated trauma that has been found in dozens of former N.F.L. players.Last week, representatives from Boston University and the Concussion Legacy Foundation notified the Sash family that C.T.E. had been diagnosed in Tyler’s brain and that the disease, which can be confirmed only posthumously, had advanced to a stage rarely seen in someone his age.Dr. Ann McKee, chief of neuropathology at the V.A. Boston Healthcare System and a professor of neurology and pathology at the Boston University School of Medicine who conducted the examination, said Tuesday that the severity of the C.T.E. in Sash’s brain was about the same as the level found in the brain of the former N.F.L. star Junior Seau, who committed suicide in 2012 at age 43.Doctors grade C.T.E. on a severity scale from 0 to 4; Sash was at Stage 2. McKee, comparing the results to other athletes who died at a similar age, said she had seen only one case, that of a 25-year-old former college player, with a similar amount of the disease.The Sash family, who released the findings, said the outcome brought some clarity to the end of Tyler Sash’s life.“My son knew something was wrong, but he couldn’t express it,” Barnetta Sash said Monday night. “He was such a good person, and it’s sad that he struggled so with this — not knowing where to go with it.”She continued: “Now it makes sense. The part of the brain that controls impulses, decision-making and reasoning was damaged badly.”
And these concussions didn't just come in the NFL:
Sash came from a football family. His father, Michael, played in college and his brother, Josh, was a good enough high school player that he considered playing in college as well.Josh Sash, eight years older than Tyler, said his brother sustained at least two concussions in high school, one documented concussion in college and two with the Giants, including one in the Giants’ playoff victory over the San Francisco 49ers that earned the team its berth in the Super Bowl after the 2011 season.In the San Francisco game, Sash, who was 215 pounds, was blindsided by a brutal and borderline late hit on a punt return by a 281-pound defensive lineman.“Those concussions are the ones we definitely know about,” Josh Sash said. “If you’ve played football, you know there are often other incidents.”
Indeed, the other, "lesser" incidents of trauma can be just as damaging as concussions:
Experts believe that less severe blows to the head — those not strong enough to cause a concussion — also significantly contribute to the damage that results in C.T.E. These lesser traumas are especially troubling, neurologists say, because they happen frequently in contact sports like football but go undiagnosed.
Like boxing, I don't think football should be banned.
But know that every time you watch an NFL football game, a good portion of the players on that field are going to end up with C.T.E or some other brain-related disease.
If you can still watch football knowing the damage that is being done, more power to you.
Same goes for the men willing to play it.
As for who gets to play the "game," I think there needs to be a conversation about it:
Josh Sash, who has two young sons, said it would be difficult for him to recommend that his children play football when they grow older. Barnetta Sash, who said she had always loved football, felt similarly.
“I want other parents to realize they need to have a conversation with their kids and not just think it’s a harmless game — because it’s not,” said Barnetta Sash, whose daughter, Megan, has three children.
I used to be a huge football fan, but as the evidence has become overwhelming in the last few years that playing football destroys men's brains, I can no longer do it.
How many NY Giants have we learned about in just the past few years who died of brain-related injuries?
There was Frank Gifford and Dave Jennings, now Tyler Sash.
You can bet there will be more.
Football is said to be the national pastime, kinda like the Roman Coliseum was the national pastime for the Roman Empire.
But with our modern day gladiators, the football players, the deaths come off the field after their playing days are over.
Some Students Spent Between 6 And 13 And A 1/2 Hours On Testing Yesterday
Yesterday three Regents exams were given - Global History, English and Geometry.
All over the city, high school juniors who had previously failed the Global History and/or Geometry exams were taking those tests again.
Many were also taking the English exam.
Here's how the schedule went yesterday for students slated to take the ELA Regents exam and one or two more exams:
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM - Global History Regents Exam
1:00 PM - 4:00 PM - English Language Arts Exam
4:00 PM - 7:00 PM - Geometry Regents Exam
A student taking two exams yesterday spent six hours on the tests.
A student taking all three exams yesterday spent nine hours on the tests.
And some students from the special education department who receive extended time testing accommodations spent as long as 13 and a 1/2 hours on the tests.
Think about that for a moment.
Think about how much is riding on these tests for the students (who need them to graduate), for the teachers (many of whom are tied to the scores for their APPR teacher evaluation rating despite the claims of the UFT and NYSUT to the contrary) and for the schools (which can end up in receivership or closed based upon those scores.)
I keep hearing from Carl Korn of NYSUT that test scores don't count for teachers anymore, that the pressure is off for students and schools too.
I've heard similar from some of the UFT and NYSUT shills on Twitter (one of whom told me that there was "zilch, nada, bupkis" in his rating tied to test scores.)
Apparently the union hacks at NYSUT and the UFT are unaware of the stakes tied to tests that continue to ride high in high schools for students, teachers and the schools themselves.
Does anybody want to guess how well a student who took two tests back-to-back for six hours yesterday did on those tests?
How about students who took all three for a nine hour testing extravaganza?
How about special education students who had extended time and could have been taking the tests for as long as 13 and 1/2 hours?
Does anybody want to guess what the test component/teacher evaluation ratings for teachers whose student took three tests in one day are going to look like?
It's absurd to think that the geniuses at the Board of Regents and the State Education Department decided to shove as many tests as possible into as small a window as possible, knowing that some students would have to take more than one test a day, some as many as three.
But it's not a surprise.
Because these people DO NOT CARE about children or teachers or schools.
They care only about test scores, expediency and compliance.
And by that gauge, everything yesterday was swell - three tests knocked off, grading starts today for those three, some more tests today, with that grading to begin on tomorrow and so on until it's all done by Sunday.
And there you have it - testing on a tight schedule, all done so that schools can get the scores in by the weekend, the next semester's scheduling completed by Monday and the Spring Semester off to a start by next Tuesday.
Now if you ask, does this system serve children, teachers or schools, the answer would have to be no.
But remember, the members of the Board of Regents and the educrats at NYSED don't really care about that.
Scores, expediency, compliance - that's what matters.
They ought to be brought up on child abuse charges for what was done yesterday and what will continue to be done this week.
But they won't be.
Hell, they won't even be taken to task by the union leaders at NYSUT or the UFT since the union heads are too busy claiming there's a test score moratorium in APPR and attacking any teachers who point out how wrong they are.
How much has changed as a consequence of Governor Cuomo's Common Core Task Force?
In high schools just about nothing has changed.
What will it take for NYSUT and the UFT to admit this?
I dunno, but it certainly will take more than my efforts, since I keep telling NYSUT's Carl Korn this and he keeps ignoring me.
In fact it seems politicians, the unions and reporters all keep saying so much has changed in education when, in reality, little has changed at all.
Yesterday's insane Regents exam scheduling was the latest iteration of that.
Governor Cuomo keeps telling us he's reduced testing in schools.
I wonder how well he would have fared taking 13 and a 1/2 hours of history, math and English tests yesterday?
All over the city, high school juniors who had previously failed the Global History and/or Geometry exams were taking those tests again.
Many were also taking the English exam.
Here's how the schedule went yesterday for students slated to take the ELA Regents exam and one or two more exams:
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM - Global History Regents Exam
1:00 PM - 4:00 PM - English Language Arts Exam
4:00 PM - 7:00 PM - Geometry Regents Exam
A student taking two exams yesterday spent six hours on the tests.
A student taking all three exams yesterday spent nine hours on the tests.
And some students from the special education department who receive extended time testing accommodations spent as long as 13 and a 1/2 hours on the tests.
Think about that for a moment.
Think about how much is riding on these tests for the students (who need them to graduate), for the teachers (many of whom are tied to the scores for their APPR teacher evaluation rating despite the claims of the UFT and NYSUT to the contrary) and for the schools (which can end up in receivership or closed based upon those scores.)
I keep hearing from Carl Korn of NYSUT that test scores don't count for teachers anymore, that the pressure is off for students and schools too.
I've heard similar from some of the UFT and NYSUT shills on Twitter (one of whom told me that there was "zilch, nada, bupkis" in his rating tied to test scores.)
Apparently the union hacks at NYSUT and the UFT are unaware of the stakes tied to tests that continue to ride high in high schools for students, teachers and the schools themselves.
Does anybody want to guess how well a student who took two tests back-to-back for six hours yesterday did on those tests?
How about students who took all three for a nine hour testing extravaganza?
How about special education students who had extended time and could have been taking the tests for as long as 13 and 1/2 hours?
Does anybody want to guess what the test component/teacher evaluation ratings for teachers whose student took three tests in one day are going to look like?
It's absurd to think that the geniuses at the Board of Regents and the State Education Department decided to shove as many tests as possible into as small a window as possible, knowing that some students would have to take more than one test a day, some as many as three.
But it's not a surprise.
Because these people DO NOT CARE about children or teachers or schools.
They care only about test scores, expediency and compliance.
And by that gauge, everything yesterday was swell - three tests knocked off, grading starts today for those three, some more tests today, with that grading to begin on tomorrow and so on until it's all done by Sunday.
And there you have it - testing on a tight schedule, all done so that schools can get the scores in by the weekend, the next semester's scheduling completed by Monday and the Spring Semester off to a start by next Tuesday.
Now if you ask, does this system serve children, teachers or schools, the answer would have to be no.
But remember, the members of the Board of Regents and the educrats at NYSED don't really care about that.
Scores, expediency, compliance - that's what matters.
They ought to be brought up on child abuse charges for what was done yesterday and what will continue to be done this week.
But they won't be.
Hell, they won't even be taken to task by the union leaders at NYSUT or the UFT since the union heads are too busy claiming there's a test score moratorium in APPR and attacking any teachers who point out how wrong they are.
How much has changed as a consequence of Governor Cuomo's Common Core Task Force?
In high schools just about nothing has changed.
What will it take for NYSUT and the UFT to admit this?
I dunno, but it certainly will take more than my efforts, since I keep telling NYSUT's Carl Korn this and he keeps ignoring me.
In fact it seems politicians, the unions and reporters all keep saying so much has changed in education when, in reality, little has changed at all.
Yesterday's insane Regents exam scheduling was the latest iteration of that.
Governor Cuomo keeps telling us he's reduced testing in schools.
I wonder how well he would have fared taking 13 and a 1/2 hours of history, math and English tests yesterday?
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Regents Exam Season Begins, But NYSUT Says The Scores Are Not In APPR (Even Though They Are!)
You can see here the fun I had on twitter with an NYSUT hack over the APPR test score moratorium that isn't actually a moratorium since high school teachers are not effected by it in the least.
Today starts Regents season - the ELA Regents, along with a math and history test are all today.
More Regents exams continue the rest of the week, including Common Core math exams.
The ELA test today is the Common Core variation and it will indeed be part of my APPR rating, thus making the claim that Common Core state tests are not part of APPR ratings an erroneous one:
The politicians keep saying there's a moratorium on state test scores in APPR.
The unions are running ads saying the same thing.
The education reporters are writing about the moratorium in their education stories.
Except the "moratorium" doesn't actually exist.
It's been learned long ago that if you repeat lies often enough, they become truth.
This is what has happened with APPR.
The lie just keeps getting repeated over and over and over.
Here is the truth:
Today starts Regents season - the ELA Regents, along with a math and history test are all today.
More Regents exams continue the rest of the week, including Common Core math exams.
The ELA test today is the Common Core variation and it will indeed be part of my APPR rating, thus making the claim that Common Core state tests are not part of APPR ratings an erroneous one:
Teachers with SLOs that are based on Regents assessments will not be impacted and must continue to use SLOs with such assessments.
This is footnote 3 from the Q & A from SED:
Please note that teachers and principals whose APPRs do not include the grades 3-8 ELA and math State assessments or State-provided growth scores on Regents examinations are not impacted by the transition regulations and their evaluations shall be calculated pursuant to their district’s/BOCES’ approved APPR Plan without any changes. For example, a building principal of a CTE program whose APPR utilizes CTE assessments as part of the student performance component of their APPR will not be impacted by the transition regulations.
The politicians keep saying there's a moratorium on state test scores in APPR.
The unions are running ads saying the same thing.
The education reporters are writing about the moratorium in their education stories.
Except the "moratorium" doesn't actually exist.
It's been learned long ago that if you repeat lies often enough, they become truth.
This is what has happened with APPR.
The lie just keeps getting repeated over and over and over.
Here is the truth:
- The Education Transformation Act of 2015 requires that 50% of a teacher’s evaluation be based on a student performance measure. This will not change unless the law is amended.
- Although teachers will still receive a growth score based on state tests, a 4 year moratorium has been passed on the use of state-provided growth scores for NYS Grades 3-8 Common Core ELA and Math tests in teacher evaluations.
- ALL teachers will still be subject to a 50% test-based evaluation as per the law. Schools must administer an additional, locally determined assessment (approved by the state department of education), and scores from that test will supplant the state test derived growth score in a teacher’s evaluation.
- Teachers will receive a “transitional score” during the moratorium. 50% of this score will be based on observation, and 50% will be based on the locally-determined assessment. This transitional score will be used for making tenure decisions, and as per the law can be used to fire a teacher.
- While growth scores derived from the state tests may not be used for purposes of evaluation during the moratorium, they will still be recorded, and upon request be made available to parents. Teachers evaluated by Regents exams and by the 4th and 8th grade science tests will still be evaluated using those scores.
- Once the moratorium is over, NYS will move to a three year average growth score. In other words, teachers will receive a growth score based on student performance from the previous 3 years. It is unclear whether or not state test growth scores captured during the moratorium will be used in the average growth score for the 2019-20 school year.
- Based on flawed growth scores, schools will continue to be placed into receivership and subject to autocratic control. This will happen disproportionately in schools located in economically disadvantaged Black and Brown communities, as laid out in the Economic Policy Institute’s report, “The Racial Achievement Gap, Segregated Schools, and Segregated Neighborhoods – A Constitutional Insult.”
Monday, January 25, 2016
Here's An Emblem For What's Wrong With Education In The Reform Era
It's also an emblem for how so little has changed from Bloomberg to de Blasio at the NYCDOE:
Education in the Reform Era, in the Danielson Era, in the Endless Testing Era has no place for a teacher like this.
What, a curriculum that engages students in activities like helping to feed homeless people?
No, by God, that's not education!
Writing argumentative essays about this, that's education!
The principal who has successively pushed Tom Porton out sounds like a doozy:
And what kind of teacher was Tom Porton?
This kind:
The truth is, there is no place in public education these days for a teacher like Tom Porton.
Teachers who teach to the test, who teach by the Danielson rubric, who teach the crap they want her/him to teach and nothing but that - those are the kinds of teachers wanted these days.
As Porton says in the Times article, the powers that be pay lip service to the social and emotional needs of children, but all that really matters these days is the test scores.
This is just another outrage in a long line of NYCDOE outrages.
The principal, Lyons, ought to be the one leaving (see here for the mess he made at Graphics.)
Alas, life in the de Blasio NYCDOE is pretty much the same as life in the Bloomberg NYCDOE - incompetent administrators get moved around to destroy more and more schools while excellent teachers, inspirational teachers, are pushed out.
Tom Porton is used to drama: Since arriving at James Monroe High School as an English teacher 45 years ago, he has taught and staged plays. Outside, in the Bronx River neighborhood where the school is, there was plenty of drama in the 1980s, when AIDS and crack ravaged the area. His response then was to establish a group of peer educators who worked with Montefiore Medical Center to teach teenagers about H.I.V. prevention. His efforts earned him awards, including recognition from the City Council and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and led to his induction into the National Teachers Hall of Fame.
Now he is at the center of drama: Last month he clashed with Brendan Lyons, the school’s principal, who disapproved of his distributing H.I.V./AIDS education fliers that listed nonsexual ways of “Making Love Without Doin’ It” (including advice to “read a book together”). This month, he said the principal eliminated his early-morning civic leadership class, which engaged students in activities such as feeding the homeless, saying it was not part of the Common Core curriculum. Mr. Porton was already skeptical of that curriculum, saying it shortchanged students by focusing on chapters of novels and nonfiction essays rather than entire works of literature.So, next month Mr. Porton — a 67-year-old educator whom students praised as a lifesaver and life-changer — is walking away from teaching. He handed in his retirement papers on Friday.
Education in the Reform Era, in the Danielson Era, in the Endless Testing Era has no place for a teacher like this.
What, a curriculum that engages students in activities like helping to feed homeless people?
No, by God, that's not education!
Writing argumentative essays about this, that's education!
The principal who has successively pushed Tom Porton out sounds like a doozy:
Mr. Lyons — who repeatedly replied “no comment” to questions during a telephone conversation — arrived at the school at the start of the academic year. A previous tenure at a Manhattan high school was marked by his replacing paper hall passes with toilet plungers, which students used to wreak havoc on property and one another.
In December, on World AIDS Day, Mr. Porton handed out his flier, as he had for almost 25 years. Mr. Lyons sent him an email saying the flier was “inappropriate,” and asked that he collect those already distributed. Though Mr. Lyons said he would discuss the matter later with him, Mr. Porton said that conversation never took place.H.I.V. and AIDS may have faded from the public mind, but they remain a danger in places like the South Bronx, especially among young blacks and Latinos. Mr. Porton said the school has failed to meet Department of Education mandates to educate students about the diseases, making his work all the more necessary.
Mr. Lyons, who would not say if the school met the mandates, never explained his objections to Mr. Porton. At the start of this semester, Mr. Porton said, the principal eliminated the 40-student leadership class because he said it was not part of the standard curriculum, even though the class met before the formal start of the school day. Because of that, combined with Mr. Porton’s disappointment over the standardized test frenzy that rules in many schools, he chose to leave.
And what kind of teacher was Tom Porton?
This kind:
Reaction among students and former students, many of whom learned of Mr. Porton’s retirement on Facebook, was immediate and full of outrage.“How can anyone think what he does is inappropriate?” said Janelle Roundtree, a former peer educator who graduated from Monroe in 1995 and went on to Howard University. “He changed Monroe. He was in the forefront of so many things. The school is losing out on this one.”David Gonzalez (no relation to this writer), a musician, poet and performer who graduated in 1973, was so grateful to Mr. Porton that he nominated him for the Kennedy Center’s Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award, which he received in 2011.“Tom has been the consistent heart of that building since I was at Monroe in the ’70s,” said Mr. Gonzalez, who still wonders how the teacher managed to get tickets to Broadway shows. “He was always looking for the heart and soul of the individual. I would never have had the confidence to do what I do without him. He changed my life forever.”
The truth is, there is no place in public education these days for a teacher like Tom Porton.
Teachers who teach to the test, who teach by the Danielson rubric, who teach the crap they want her/him to teach and nothing but that - those are the kinds of teachers wanted these days.
As Porton says in the Times article, the powers that be pay lip service to the social and emotional needs of children, but all that really matters these days is the test scores.
This is just another outrage in a long line of NYCDOE outrages.
The principal, Lyons, ought to be the one leaving (see here for the mess he made at Graphics.)
Alas, life in the de Blasio NYCDOE is pretty much the same as life in the Bloomberg NYCDOE - incompetent administrators get moved around to destroy more and more schools while excellent teachers, inspirational teachers, are pushed out.
Time For NYSUT To Take Real Steps To End The Endless Testing Regime
This is cross-posted from New York Rank & File and it's in response to the propaganda NYSUT has been spewing forth about there being a "moratorium" on the use of test scores in teacher evaluations (a claim that is patently false):
While the opt out movement has captured the attention of
policymakers,there has been no substantive change. The only change is
that school districts must now use limited time and resources to
negotiate another APPR plan that requires both more testing for NYS
children and a continued focus on evaluating teachers through test
scores.
Despite this glaring lack of relief for students, the state teachers union (NYSUT) has failed to sound the alarm, and instead has launched a million dollar member-funded “multi-media campaign to highlight progress.” While a campaign video vaguely states that “there is still a lot of work to do,” the campaign is absent of any call to action. A similar campaign by the UFT–the state’s largest local union, based in NYC–goes so far as to spread misinformation, making the false claim that teachers will not be evaluated by test scores for the next 4 years. Nothing could be further from the truth.
As educators, we are committed to sharing factual information so that those impacted by these policies can make informed decisions. Here are the facts:
It should be noted that the Task Force has not recommended ANY changes to the focus on test scores in teacher evaluations, making this response irrelevant. While the task force pays lip service to the need for shorter tests, it fails to recommend any substantial change. For example, the Task Force report calls upon New York to follow the examples set by North Carolina, Texas, and New Mexico. The testing practices in these States are hardly positive role models for a reduction in testing. In North Carolina, testing has been reduced to a one day, four hour exam. In Texas, testing has been capped, forcing the average student to sit for 120 minutes, with no administration lasting more than eight hours. And in New Mexico, testing has been reduced by a paltry 15%. In New York, that would reduce 9 hours of testing for 10 year olds to 7.5 hours; some students with disabilities would still be forced to endure 15 hours of testing. This is cold comfort.
We call on the leaders of NYSUT and the UFT to suspend their misleading media campaigns. We also call for NYSUT to work for an immediate amendment to the education law 3012d, that requires teacher evaluations be based on high-stakes tests. Those tests will continue to count for 50% of teacher evaluations.
Additionally, we call upon NYSUT leaders to launch a new, fact-based media campaign that will inform their members and the public that very little has changed for the children we serve. The continued requirement of students to participate in flawed and inappropriate testing this spring, as well as additional, local assessments (solely for the purposes of teacher evaluations) must stop. Furthermore, we demand that NYSUT urge all teachers to join the effort to save our profession, and to protect our students by refusing NYS tests in grades 3-8 for their own children.
Parents across New York State have labored for the past three years to protect their children and support educators. It is time that NYSUT and UFT leaders do the same. Now is not the time to lose the support of the public and our allies.
Signed,
Rank and File Teachers Call on NYSUT Leadership to Do More
We are a coalition of educators motivated by
a desire to provide our students with an authentic, developmentally
appropriate, culturally relevant, and child-centered public education.
As we near the 2016 testing season, hundreds of thousands of young
learners will be asked to submit to 9 hours of flawed and harmful state
assessments that reduce teaching and learning to a test score, narrow
the curriculum, label the majority of children failures, and squander
resources, ultimately providing no educational benefit.
Despite this glaring lack of relief for students, the state teachers union (NYSUT) has failed to sound the alarm, and instead has launched a million dollar member-funded “multi-media campaign to highlight progress.” While a campaign video vaguely states that “there is still a lot of work to do,” the campaign is absent of any call to action. A similar campaign by the UFT–the state’s largest local union, based in NYC–goes so far as to spread misinformation, making the false claim that teachers will not be evaluated by test scores for the next 4 years. Nothing could be further from the truth.
As educators, we are committed to sharing factual information so that those impacted by these policies can make informed decisions. Here are the facts:
- The Education Transformation Act of 2015 requires that 50% of a teacher’s evaluation be based on a student performance measure. This will not change unless the law is amended.
- Although teachers will still receive a growth score based on state tests, a 4 year moratorium has been passed on the use of state-provided growth scores for NYS Grades 3-8 Common Core ELA and Math tests in teacher evaluations.
- ALL teachers will still be subject to a 50% test-based evaluation as per the law. Schools must administer an additional, locally determined assessment (approved by the state department of education), and scores from that test will supplant the state test derived growth score in a teacher’s evaluation.
- Teachers will receive a “transitional score” during the moratorium. 50% of this score will be based on observation, and 50% will be based on the locally-determined assessment. This transitional score will be used for making tenure decisions, and as per the law can be used to fire a teacher.
- While growth scores derived from the state tests may not be used for purposes of evaluation during the moratorium, they will still be recorded, and upon request be made available to parents. Teachers evaluated by Regents exams and by the 4th and 8th grade science tests will still be evaluated using those scores.
- Once the moratorium is over, NYS will move to a three year average growth score. In other words, teachers will receive a growth score based on student performance from the previous 3 years. It is unclear whether or not state test growth scores captured during the moratorium will be used in the average growth score for the 2019-20 school year.
- Based on flawed growth scores, schools will continue to be placed into receivership and subject to autocratic control. This will happen disproportionately in schools located in economically disadvantaged Black and Brown communities, as laid out in the Economic Policy Institute’s report, “The Racial Achievement Gap, Segregated Schools, and Segregated Neighborhoods – A Constitutional Insult.”
It should be noted that the Task Force has not recommended ANY changes to the focus on test scores in teacher evaluations, making this response irrelevant. While the task force pays lip service to the need for shorter tests, it fails to recommend any substantial change. For example, the Task Force report calls upon New York to follow the examples set by North Carolina, Texas, and New Mexico. The testing practices in these States are hardly positive role models for a reduction in testing. In North Carolina, testing has been reduced to a one day, four hour exam. In Texas, testing has been capped, forcing the average student to sit for 120 minutes, with no administration lasting more than eight hours. And in New Mexico, testing has been reduced by a paltry 15%. In New York, that would reduce 9 hours of testing for 10 year olds to 7.5 hours; some students with disabilities would still be forced to endure 15 hours of testing. This is cold comfort.
We call on the leaders of NYSUT and the UFT to suspend their misleading media campaigns. We also call for NYSUT to work for an immediate amendment to the education law 3012d, that requires teacher evaluations be based on high-stakes tests. Those tests will continue to count for 50% of teacher evaluations.
Additionally, we call upon NYSUT leaders to launch a new, fact-based media campaign that will inform their members and the public that very little has changed for the children we serve. The continued requirement of students to participate in flawed and inappropriate testing this spring, as well as additional, local assessments (solely for the purposes of teacher evaluations) must stop. Furthermore, we demand that NYSUT urge all teachers to join the effort to save our profession, and to protect our students by refusing NYS tests in grades 3-8 for their own children.
Parents across New York State have labored for the past three years to protect their children and support educators. It is time that NYSUT and UFT leaders do the same. Now is not the time to lose the support of the public and our allies.
Signed,
BATs (Badass Teachers)
MORE (Movement of Rank & File Educators)
Stronger Together Caucus
Teachers of Conscience
**********************************************************************
The following organizations support The Call to Stand Up for Students:
Long Island Opt Out
Bronx Educators United for Justice
Opt Out CNY
Change the Stakes
New York State Allies For Public Education
Lace to the Top
NYC Opt Out
Pencils Down Rockland County
NYS Receivership and NYC Renewal Schools Action Group
ReThinking Testing MidHudson
The Paperclip Revolution
40,000 Educators Will Have APPR Scores Recalculated BY NYSED After Errors Are Discovered
From the NY Times:
These are the erroneous scores they're admitting to - you can be sure there are others.
And of course it's not the fault of the incompetents at NYSED or the incompetent governor:
The end result is this:
The system is so complex, so inexplicable, that when a teacher sued over her test score component, NYSED twice refused to show cause for her ineffective rating on the component (here and here.)
NYSED is owning up to the erroneous scores, but you can bet if there were an independent accounting of the evaluations from an entity outside of the state without something riding on the outcome (i.e., some ed reform-linked group or some entity on the state payroll), they'd find more.
And yet, we STILL have this system in place, with teachers having 50% of their ratings linked to so-called student performance as measured by state tests and/or local tests - despite the claims that there is a "moratorium" on using test scores in the evaluations.
The system is rotten to the core, yet it seems as if it will live forever.
More than 200 teachers and principals received erroneous scores from New York State on a contentious measurement that ties their performance to how well their students do on tests, according to state documents obtained by The New York Times.The error, which affected a small percentage of scores for the 2014-15 academic year, could be another blow to the practice of linking educator performance to student exams, a system that has come under fire in recent years.A letter sent to district superintendents on Friday said that certain test results had been excluded from state-provided growth scores — which track student performance on state exams — for less than 1 percent of the more than 40,000 educators who received such feedback.
These are the erroneous scores they're admitting to - you can be sure there are others.
And of course it's not the fault of the incompetents at NYSED or the incompetent governor:
The state Education Department attributed the error to a contractor, American Institutes for Research, a behavioral and social science research group based in Washington, and said the blunder affected principals and certain teachers whose growth scores included schoolwide measurements of student performance. (Teachers whose scores incorporated only their own students’ tests were not affected.) The letter said the problems occurred “almost exclusively” in grades nine through 12.
The end result is this:
Scores for the more than 40,000 educators would be recalculated at the contractor’s expense; the higher score would be the one that counts.
The system is so complex, so inexplicable, that when a teacher sued over her test score component, NYSED twice refused to show cause for her ineffective rating on the component (here and here.)
NYSED is owning up to the erroneous scores, but you can bet if there were an independent accounting of the evaluations from an entity outside of the state without something riding on the outcome (i.e., some ed reform-linked group or some entity on the state payroll), they'd find more.
And yet, we STILL have this system in place, with teachers having 50% of their ratings linked to so-called student performance as measured by state tests and/or local tests - despite the claims that there is a "moratorium" on using test scores in the evaluations.
The system is rotten to the core, yet it seems as if it will live forever.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
NYSUT And The UFT, Allied Again With Cuomo, Spend Millions On Propaganda To Fool Their Members And The Public
Had some fun on Twitter yesterday with a couple of union hacks, one the PR guy from NYSUT, that went something like this:
My response:
There was no response from Carl Korn, but another union hack jumped in with this bit of genius:
My response to that:
Lace To The Top jumped in with this very relevant fact:
Which got this response from said union hack:
To which I responded:
Here's the truth of things - Cuomo is sucking up to the union these days, what with his poll numbers in the toilet overall (39% job approval in the last Siena poll) and especially negative on education issues (68% of New Yorkers disapprove of the job he is doing handling education.)
The hacks running the union could care less about whether their members are harmed by APPR or not, they care only for their own power, prestige and perks.
They're happy to have the governor back on board, sounding almost like Mike Mulgrew when he talks about community schooling, well, that is progress indeed!
Unless you're a teacher affected by Cuomo's odious 2015 education law that requires 50% of a teacher's evaluation come from test scores - a law which Cuomo says does not need to be amended or repealed, a law which neither the UFT nor NYSUT plan to work to repeal.
So now, with Cuomo friendly with the union leadership again, the union heads have allied with the governor against their own members, spending millions of member dues on ads that are full of lies and propaganda (here's the UFT ad, here's the NYSUT ad.)
Even the governor himself has contradicted what the union ads are telling the public, saying back in December that test scores are indeed STILL part of APPR evaluations:
In case you're not willing to believe me or the governor, here's NYSED, via James Eterno at ICEUFTblog:
Yet the union ads - and the union hacks on Twitter - tell us differently, that the number of test scores in APPR evals this year is "zilch, nada, bupkis..."
I dunno about you, but I have had enough of the lies and propaganda out of NYSUT and the UFT, the harm they are doing to teaching, teachers and schools with the games they play with their ed deformer allies (see here for more of the games Mulgrew has played with Cuomo over the years.)
And if you think this is all hyperbole, that there's no way the union heads are playing a pro-wrestling "Good Guy/Bad Guy/Good Guy Game" with Cuomo - check out who's Number 4 on the all-time Cuomo meeting list and who enjoys late lunches with the governor to, you know, talk things over.
That would be one Michael Mulgrew of the UFT, the largest local in the state that can literally whack NYSUT leaders when they don't like what they're doing.
As I said above, I've had it with the games the union leaders play, the lies and deception they send out with every ad, every social media piece.
NYSAPE sent out this very informative tweet about where things stand today regarding state tests, the opt out movement and APPR teacher evaluations - you should send this tweet wide and far to cut through the self-serving jive and propaganda emanating out of NYSUT and the UFT, all of it using YOUR money to pay for it.
@perdidostschool @edbobgreen @nysut Why do deliberately misstate our position and communications? Hard to debate nonsense.— Carl Korn (@CarlKornNYSUT) January 23, 2016
My response:
@CarlKornNYSUT @edbobgreen @nysut Who's misstating? You say no state tests in evals. Regents exams are in evals.— rbe (@perdidostschool) January 23, 2016
@CarlKornNYSUT @edbobgreen @nysut When you say there's a moratorium on state tests in APPR, you are wrong.— rbe (@perdidostschool) January 23, 2016
There was no response from Carl Korn, but another union hack jumped in with this bit of genius:
@perdidostschool @edbobgreen @CarlKornNYSUT 3-8 NYS tests in my eval this year? Zilch, nada, bubkis. Union still supports my kids #optout.— Don C. (@TchrNORPAC) January 23, 2016
My response to that:
@TchrNORPAC @edbobgreen @CarlKornNYSUT You do know CCSS Regents exams are in APPR, yes? Those don't count?— rbe (@perdidostschool) January 23, 2016
Lace To The Top jumped in with this very relevant fact:
@perdidostschool @TchrNORPAC @edbobgreen @CarlKornNYSUT and 3-8 Eval scores will still be generated and be used as "advisory"— lacetothetop (@lacetothetop) January 23, 2016
Which got this response from said union hack:
@perdidostschool @edbobgreen @CarlKornNYSUT Got it. Get it. Still work to do. Still making progress.— Don C. (@TchrNORPAC) January 23, 2016
To which I responded:
@TchrNORPAC @edbobgreen @CarlKornNYSUT No, you get zilch, bupkis, nada - to use your own words back at you.— rbe (@perdidostschool) January 23, 2016
@TchrNORPAC @edbobgreen @CarlKornNYSUT The victory rhetoric from both the UFT and NYSUT show how little leaders get.— rbe (@perdidostschool) January 23, 2016
Here's the truth of things - Cuomo is sucking up to the union these days, what with his poll numbers in the toilet overall (39% job approval in the last Siena poll) and especially negative on education issues (68% of New Yorkers disapprove of the job he is doing handling education.)
The hacks running the union could care less about whether their members are harmed by APPR or not, they care only for their own power, prestige and perks.
They're happy to have the governor back on board, sounding almost like Mike Mulgrew when he talks about community schooling, well, that is progress indeed!
Unless you're a teacher affected by Cuomo's odious 2015 education law that requires 50% of a teacher's evaluation come from test scores - a law which Cuomo says does not need to be amended or repealed, a law which neither the UFT nor NYSUT plan to work to repeal.
So now, with Cuomo friendly with the union leadership again, the union heads have allied with the governor against their own members, spending millions of member dues on ads that are full of lies and propaganda (here's the UFT ad, here's the NYSUT ad.)
Even the governor himself has contradicted what the union ads are telling the public, saying back in December that test scores are indeed STILL part of APPR evaluations:
“There are teacher evaluations that are in the report and they are connected to tests, either state tests or locally approved tests,” Cuomo said on Sunday in Syracuse.
In case you're not willing to believe me or the governor, here's NYSED, via James Eterno at ICEUFTblog:
Footnote 10 in the SED Q & A states:
Teachers with SLOs that are based on Regents assessments will not be impacted and must continue to use SLOs with such assessments.
This is footnote 3 from the Q & A from SED:
Please note that teachers and principals whose APPRs do not include the grades 3-8 ELA and math State assessments or State-provided growth scores on Regents examinations are not impacted by the transition regulations and their evaluations shall be calculated pursuant to their district’s/BOCES’ approved APPR Plan without any changes. For example, a building principal of a CTE program whose APPR utilizes CTE assessments as part of the student performance component of their APPR will not be impacted by the transition regulations.
Yet the union ads - and the union hacks on Twitter - tell us differently, that the number of test scores in APPR evals this year is "zilch, nada, bupkis..."
I dunno about you, but I have had enough of the lies and propaganda out of NYSUT and the UFT, the harm they are doing to teaching, teachers and schools with the games they play with their ed deformer allies (see here for more of the games Mulgrew has played with Cuomo over the years.)
And if you think this is all hyperbole, that there's no way the union heads are playing a pro-wrestling "Good Guy/Bad Guy/Good Guy Game" with Cuomo - check out who's Number 4 on the all-time Cuomo meeting list and who enjoys late lunches with the governor to, you know, talk things over.
That would be one Michael Mulgrew of the UFT, the largest local in the state that can literally whack NYSUT leaders when they don't like what they're doing.
As I said above, I've had it with the games the union leaders play, the lies and deception they send out with every ad, every social media piece.
NYSAPE sent out this very informative tweet about where things stand today regarding state tests, the opt out movement and APPR teacher evaluations - you should send this tweet wide and far to cut through the self-serving jive and propaganda emanating out of NYSUT and the UFT, all of it using YOUR money to pay for it.
Do not be fooled, NOTHING has changed. Here is what you need to know: pic.twitter.com/cAKteQLtZI— NYS Allies 4 Pub Ed (@NYSAPE) January 24, 2016
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Remembering When Andrew "I Am The Government" Cuomo Shut The Subways For 7.8 Inches Of Snow
Looks
like Mayor de Blasio was looking to head off last year's "Cuomo shuts
the MTA without telling NYC!" story line this time around:
Last January, Cuomo shut the MTA down on short notice for what turned out to be a pretty routine snowstorm - Brooklyn Paper covered that Cuomo debacle quite well:
So Cuomo shut the subways down for the first time in the system's 111 year history for a snowstorm and, in the end, Central Park got 7.8 inches of snow.
Even better, he shut it down without giving a heads-up to anybody in the city government or, apparently, the MTA.
It's fun to remember stories like this as the current blizzard drops a couple of inches an hour and the National Weather Service is forecasting 18-24 inches of snow for NYC (with some models suggesting even higher totals possible.)
With Cuomo NOT ordering the subways shut because the system would have to run anyway (and it would take an extra day to start it up again), it appears Cuomo did indeed learn from his MTA snowmageddon debacle last year - hey, consult with the experts before making announcements!
It seems even a fevered ego in search of absolute power can, as de Blasio said, "learn some good lessons from that situation."
In 2015, also in January, a snow storm was expected to be a monster, but fizzled out. As it approached, the mayor urged people to use mass transit, but then Gov. Andrew Cuomo, shut down the subway system, leaving many stranded. The mayor said Thursday that this time around, that will not happen.
He reiterated Friday that the public transit system would continue as normal. "I don't think this is a situation where the MTA would consider shutting down the system," he said, referencing the system shutdown a year ago. "I think we all learned some good lessons from that situation."
Last January, Cuomo shut the MTA down on short notice for what turned out to be a pretty routine snowstorm - Brooklyn Paper covered that Cuomo debacle quite well:
Ghost trains are running under Brooklyn tonight.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s move to shut off the city’s subway system overnight on Monday ahead of an anticipated blizzard came as a surprise to transit workers and runs against common sense, because the trains need to move as part of keeping the tracks clear and will be running all night anyway, according to a transit insider. The governor’s 6 pm announcement that subway and bus service would be halted completely at 11 pm blindsided the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Incident Command Center, where workers first heard about it on the news, said the source, who lacks authorization to speak about internal matters and asked to remain anonymous.
The claim that trains were running empty appeared to be confirmed by the NYC Subway Time app for Android, which says it uses real-time data provided by the Transportation Authority. Around midnight, the app showed activity in both directions on all train lines in the city. The only exceptions were Manhattan’s 42nd Street Shuttle and the B and C trains, which do not run at night.
The halting of subway service is the first ever for a snowstorm. It is ill-considered because an actual turning-off of the entire system requires moving all the cars to far-flung facilities for storage, as the agency did during Hurricane Sandy, when flooding was a concern, and rebooting from that takes ages, the insider said. Emergency personnel will be riding the trains overnight while no one else is allowed to, per the source. The closure will strand people and put lives at risk, not because the subways can’t run, but because Cuomo wants to look good, the source said.
“I think it’s horrible, purely political decision, not based on anything that’s needed,” the insider said. “It seemed like cutting out a necessary lifeline unnecessarily.”
As much as two feet of snow are expected tonight and into tomorrow. Schools, courts, and offices have closed, and Cuomo has ordered drivers off the streets starting at 11 pm, under threat of arrest.
“This blizzard is forecasted to be one of the worst this region has seen, and we must put safety first and take all the necessary precautions,” Cuomo said in a statement. “Commuters and drivers need to get home before the storm completely cripples our transit networks and roads.”
The lack of ground transportation options makes keeping the subway open all the more important, the transit source said.
“The underground lifeline should be open,” the source said.
During snowstorms, limited closures along low-lying, outdoor sections of track such as the Brighton B and Q line makes sense, but the majority of the subway system runs on underground and elevated lines that are largely protected from the storms’ impact, the insider said.
A Twitter exchange between a Transportation Authority data scientist and a New York Post reporter appears to corroborate the agency being caught off guard by the governor’s announcement. Shortly before Cuomo’s bombshell, the transit wonk wrote that outdoor portions of the N, A, and Q, lines may be suspended. But when the reporter pointed out Cuomo was saying the plug would be pulled, the worker deferred to public relations.
Later, the data scientist lamented that stranded New Yorkers might resort to loosely regulated services such as Uber to catch now-illegal rides through the storm.
“Not a good plan from the governor,” Samuel Wong wrote. “The startup procedures will be fun.”
Following publication of this article, Wong wrote that the changes meant many workers would have to “stay overnight.”
Early Tuesday morning, a transit agency spokesman confirmed that “a handful” of trains were running in the system to prevent rust buildup on the rails, including trains equipped with scrapers and de-icing sprayers. Work crews were also being transported by subway, the spokesman said. The spokesman declined to comment on the efficacy of the service cancellation but said Cuomo made the decision in consultation with transit agency chairman Tom Prendergast.
On Monday afternoon, Prendergast said there would be “no reason” to halt underground service.
“I don’t believe so,” he said when asked if such a stoppage was likely. “Because there’d be no reason — because we’d be able to run trains.”
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is effectively controlled by the governor, who nominates the members of its 17-person board. Members are confirmed by the state Senate.
So Cuomo shut the subways down for the first time in the system's 111 year history for a snowstorm and, in the end, Central Park got 7.8 inches of snow.
Even better, he shut it down without giving a heads-up to anybody in the city government or, apparently, the MTA.
It's fun to remember stories like this as the current blizzard drops a couple of inches an hour and the National Weather Service is forecasting 18-24 inches of snow for NYC (with some models suggesting even higher totals possible.)
With Cuomo NOT ordering the subways shut because the system would have to run anyway (and it would take an extra day to start it up again), it appears Cuomo did indeed learn from his MTA snowmageddon debacle last year - hey, consult with the experts before making announcements!
It seems even a fevered ego in search of absolute power can, as de Blasio said, "learn some good lessons from that situation."
Friday, January 22, 2016
Chris Christie Too Busy To Deal With Impending New Jersey Blizzard
NJ.com this morning:
Here's Christie putting the people of his state first this weekend with the impending blizzard coming north:
You just can't make this stuff up.
When I think about the politician who is most full of shit in this country, I can never figure out if it's Chris Christie or Andrew Cuomo.
Every time you think one of them wins the award hands down, the other one does something to put himself back into contention.
TRENTON — With most of the Garden State under a blizzard watch, Gov. Chris Christie was asked Thursday afternoon what lessons he'd learned about New Jersey's power grid in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
Appearing as a guest on conservative talk host Hugh Hewitt's syndicated talk radio show, Christie gave a foreboding answer.
"What we learned is that it's incredibly vulnerable, and incredibly fragile," the governor and Republican presidential candidate said, adding that "a bad storm, a historic storm like Sandy, put the most densely populated state in the nation without power for 75 percent of the state for three weeks."
Christie said the fragility and vulnerability of New Jersey's power grid after Sandy means "that we have a lot of work to do," and then took the opportunity to promote his corporate tax plan, which calls for repatriating $2 billion in U.S. corporations' assets at a substantially lower rate.
The governor promised that if elected president, he would "use that money exclusively for rebuilding our infrastructure, and by that I mean, roads, bridges and the grid."
Hewitt noted that his radio show would repeat throughout the weekend on stations in both New Hampshire and South Carolina, and asked the governor for his "closing argument" to voters in those early primary states.
Christie answered that "I don't think there's anybody more tested by crisis" and that when faced with a devastating storm, "I put the people of my state first and foremost."
Here's Christie putting the people of his state first this weekend with the impending blizzard coming north:
LACONIA, N.H. — Gov. Chris Christie continues to monitor the a winter storm from New Hampshire that has most counties in New Jersey under a blizzard watch and the rest of the state under a winter storm watch.
The governor's office issues a statement late Thursday evening that advised Christie continues to "actively monitor the winter storm."
Christie, who's seeking the Republican presidential nomination, is in the middle of a six-day tour of New Hampshire as makes his final pitch to voters here with less than three weeks before voters head to the polls. He said earlier Thursday he had no plans for now to cut short his campaign trip and return for the impending storm, saying the lieutenant governor can handle the situation.
You just can't make this stuff up.
When I think about the politician who is most full of shit in this country, I can never figure out if it's Chris Christie or Andrew Cuomo.
Every time you think one of them wins the award hands down, the other one does something to put himself back into contention.
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Note To MaryEllen Elia, NY Pols And NY Press: Test Scores Are Still Part Of APPR Evaluations
Keshia Clukey at Politico NY:
Moratorium?
Is this a "moratorium"?
For math and ELA teachers, the Regents exams are the new Common Core exams, many with low passing rates - especially in math.
Moratorium on using Common Core test scores for teacher evaluations?
Hardly.
When will the education press stop writing stuff like "the Regents board has already put a moratorium on the use of student test scores in teacher and principal evaluations through the 2019-2020 school year while the system is under review"?
Because it's not true - NYSED's APPR Q&A lays that out quite specifically, as did Governor Cuomo a while back.
The more accurate description is, there is a partial moratorium on test scores for some teachers while the rest continue to be linked to test scores - including Common Core Regents test scores for some high school teachers.
ALBANY — As education commissioner MaryEllen Elia updated a Senate panel on her agency's 2016 priorities Wednesday, lawmakers noted a "different vibe in the room.”
Her meeting with the Senate Education Committee came a little more than six months after she took over heading the agency from John King, a champion of the Common Core learning standards who became a polarizing figure in the state after their troubled rollout. He left for the federal agency and is now acting secretary of education there.
...
Among the priorities that Elia detailed Wednesday were revising the principal and teacher evaluation system, involving teachers in revising the Common Core learning standards and creating state assessments.
The Regents board has already put a moratorium on the use of student test scores in teacher and principal evaluations through the 2019-2020 school year while the system is under review. It has also made changes to the state tests, shortening them and increasing the time allotted, and the Education Department is reviewing the standards, assessments and evaluations.
Moratorium?
Is this a "moratorium"?
Common Core grade 3-8 scores won't be used for teacher evaluations until 2019 but other tests will still be in there including high school Regents Exams unless they are tied to a state growth model. Does going from a growth model to a Student Learning Objective (SLO) system constitute an end to high stakes testing? I don't think so.
Footnote 10 in the SED Q & A states:
Teachers with SLOs that are based on Regents assessments will not be impacted and must continue to use SLOs with such assessments.
This is footnote 3 from the Q & A from SED:
Please note that teachers and principals whose APPRs do not include the grades 3-8 ELA and math State assessments or State-provided growth scores on Regents examinations are not impacted by the transition regulations and their evaluations shall be calculated pursuant to their district’s/BOCES’ approved APPR Plan without any changes. For example, a building principal of a CTE program whose APPR utilizes CTE assessments as part of the student performance component of their APPR will not be impacted by the transition regulations.
For math and ELA teachers, the Regents exams are the new Common Core exams, many with low passing rates - especially in math.
Moratorium on using Common Core test scores for teacher evaluations?
Hardly.
When will the education press stop writing stuff like "the Regents board has already put a moratorium on the use of student test scores in teacher and principal evaluations through the 2019-2020 school year while the system is under review"?
Because it's not true - NYSED's APPR Q&A lays that out quite specifically, as did Governor Cuomo a while back.
The more accurate description is, there is a partial moratorium on test scores for some teachers while the rest continue to be linked to test scores - including Common Core Regents test scores for some high school teachers.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Cuomo's Penn Station Project Behind Schedule Two Weeks In
Well that didn't take long, did it?
Government is a vehicle of results and action...
Sure it is.
Cuomo's government is a lot of talk, some action, mostly PR...
Two weeks ago, Gov. Andrew Cuomo convened the press to announce that he would achieve what governors before him had not: a transformative renovation of the much-reviled Penn Station.
Even better, he would get it done quickly, issuing a “request for proposals” to developers that same week, with responses due in 90 days.
That timeline, in fact, was one of the very few concrete details contained in an announcement that was otherwise made up mostly of history lessons and pronouncements like “Government is not a soap box. Government is a vehicle of results and action.”
“The redevelopment of Penn Station will commence this week,” Cuomo said, during the event at Madison Square Garden. "We’re not going to waste any time. We’re going to do a joint solicitation—RFP/RFEI, for people who like acronyms—by Empire State, Amtrak and the MTA for the redevelopment of Penn by a private sector developer.”
But those solicitations have yet to be issued, as promised.
It’s not clear what the hold-up is.
The governor’s office referred questions to Empire State Development, which had no comment. Nor did Amtrak.
Government is a vehicle of results and action...
Sure it is.
Cuomo's government is a lot of talk, some action, mostly PR...
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
De Blasio Support Up
Not the best poll numbers around but at least the hemorrhaging has been staunched for now:
As for potential match-ups:
Not sure why Hakeem Jeffries wasn't part of the potential match-ups but he wasn't.
Stringer's the closest to de Blasio, but keep in mind that's without any negative stuff run against him.
This poll found that 61% haven't heard enough about him to form an opinion of him.
If Stringer decides to take Sheriff Andy up on his "Somebody run against de Blasio!" gambit, you can bet he'll have to defend his record as comptroller - including the rather poor performance of the pension funds he oversees.
That might change things in a head-to-head match-up against a sitting mayor.
As for Diaz, over 70% don't know enough about him to form an opinion.
If he runs, you can bet the ethically-challenged history of his family will come up for notice.
So all things considered, compared to where de Blasio was a few months ago, he appears to be stabilizing things politically, at least for now, and nobody on the potential opponent list is making that big a splash in the polling.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s approval rating has improved slightly over the last three months, with 50 percent of New York City voters now saying they approve of the job he is doing and 48 percent saying they believe he deserves a second term, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday.
An Oct. 29 Quinnipiac poll showed de Blasio with a near-record low approval rating of 45 percent. At the same time, 48 percent of voters said he did not deserve a second term.
“Not great, but better news for Mayor Bill de Blasio on two key questions: His overall job approval and whether he deserves re-election. They’re both up a bit since the last time we looked,” Maurice Carroll, the poll's assistant director, said in a release accompanying the poll results.
As for potential match-ups:
According to the poll, de Blasio would Stringer, 44 percent to 33 percent. He would defeat Kelly 50 percent to 35 percent and Diaz 47 percent to 25 percent, according to the poll.
Not sure why Hakeem Jeffries wasn't part of the potential match-ups but he wasn't.
Stringer's the closest to de Blasio, but keep in mind that's without any negative stuff run against him.
This poll found that 61% haven't heard enough about him to form an opinion of him.
If Stringer decides to take Sheriff Andy up on his "Somebody run against de Blasio!" gambit, you can bet he'll have to defend his record as comptroller - including the rather poor performance of the pension funds he oversees.
That might change things in a head-to-head match-up against a sitting mayor.
As for Diaz, over 70% don't know enough about him to form an opinion.
If he runs, you can bet the ethically-challenged history of his family will come up for notice.
So all things considered, compared to where de Blasio was a few months ago, he appears to be stabilizing things politically, at least for now, and nobody on the potential opponent list is making that big a splash in the polling.
Same Old Same Old: Cuomo Rakes In Charter School Supporter Cash
Bill Mahoney at Politico NY:
But there are some new reformer names to the Cuomo donation list too:
Walton is of course a charter school supporter and education reformer backer.
So is Jeff Bezos.
That Bezos' mother gave money to Andrew Cuomo - well, that is interesting, isn't it?
Not much has changed post-Silver/post-Skelos for Cuomo.
He continues to rake in the big bucks from hedge fundies and real estate developers, much of it through LLC's that allow donors to skirt individual limits.
The only change is Glenwood Management - once Cuomo's biggest donor, but since the firm and it's top political bagman wound up at the center of the Silver and Skelos corruption cases, they have given nothing to Cuomo.
ALBANY – In the first year of the 2018 gubernatorial election cycle, the list of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s largest donors is dominated by hedge funders and real estate developers.
...
This list is topped by hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller, who has written two $500,000 checks to the party that has spent a huge share of its money supporting Cuomo in recent years. In 2013, the state Democrats’ housekeeping account spent millions buying advertisements that boosted the governor’s agenda, the next year, 86 percent of its independent expenditures were on Cuomo’s behalf.
Druckenmiller has been a major supporter of charter schools. So has Paul Tudor Jones, the second largest donor to committees controlled by the governor ($10,000 to Cuomo and $500,000 to the Democrats). Tudor Jones was a supporter of a pro-charter Super PAC that helped Republicans retain control of the Senate in 2014.Greenblatt, Tudor Jones, Druckenmiller, Loeb - all charter school supporters and education "reformers."
Hedge fund Renaissance Technologies founder James Simons, whose $1.65 million to the Democrats’ campaign committees was enough to earn a spot as their top donor in the last election cycle, continued to financially support Cuomo. Simons, who made a $150 million gift to SUNY Stony Brook in 2011 that was contingent on tuition hikes, gave the party $300,000 and the governor $45,000 in 2015, placing him third for the year.
Other large hedge fund donors included Joel and Julia Greenblatt, who gave Cuomo $60,000 apiece, and Daniel and Margaret Loeb ($88,000 total), who hosted a July fundraiser for the governor.
But there are some new reformer names to the Cuomo donation list too:
Cuomo’s new donors also include the founders of collaborative office renter WeWork, Miguel McKelvey ($50,000) and Adam Neumann ($25,000; Neumann’s wife gave an additional $25,000). Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton gave Cuomo $60,800 in November, and Jackie Bezos, the mother of Amazon’s founder, gave $15,000 in July.
Walton is of course a charter school supporter and education reformer backer.
So is Jeff Bezos.
That Bezos' mother gave money to Andrew Cuomo - well, that is interesting, isn't it?
Not much has changed post-Silver/post-Skelos for Cuomo.
He continues to rake in the big bucks from hedge fundies and real estate developers, much of it through LLC's that allow donors to skirt individual limits.
The only change is Glenwood Management - once Cuomo's biggest donor, but since the firm and it's top political bagman wound up at the center of the Silver and Skelos corruption cases, they have given nothing to Cuomo.
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