634 School Districts Got Waivers From Cuomo's APPR Teacher Evaluation System

I thought the waiver from APPR was supposed to be used sparingly:

The majority of eligible districts have applied for waivers to the new teacher evaluation system supported by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, according to the state Education Department. As of Friday, the department had approved 634 waivers, with one district expected to resubmit its waiver application. By law, the Nov. 15 deadline — which falls on a weekend — is extended to Monday, Nov. 16, according to the department. A total of 67 districts were able to successfully negotiate their new teacher evaluation system with their local teachers’ unions prior to the deadline, according to the department...Districts had the summer to negotiate their plans with their unions. Starting Oct. 1, districts could apply for the waiver, but first had to show they tried to come to an agreement on the plans. The state Education Department in October urged all districts to file for the waiver. Without the waiver, districts that did not come to an agreement with their teachers’ unions would risk losing state aid.” http://politi.co/1kuY7dx

634 waivered out of the system for now, 67 under the new system, 1 district resubmitting for a waiver.

I'm no math major but 67 out of 702 doesn't seem to be "sparingly".

Cuomo's APPR system is a disaster - now it's time for him to acknowledge that and redo the whole mess.

I'm under no illusions he'll do that, however.

APPR was pointedly not part of Cuomo's vaunted Common Core review.

Fred LeBrun: Cuomo May Cave On Common Core/Testing Because His Poll Numbers Suck

Governor Cuomo's poll numbers are not only underwater, they're deep underwater.

In the last Siena poll, Cuomo stands with 40% job approval, 58% disapproval.

 On individual issues, the numbers are even worse.

On public education, 68% disapprove of the job he is doing, 27% approve.

On corruption, 69% disapprove of the job he is doing, 23% approve.

On the economy, 63% disapprove of the job he is doing, 35% approve.

On improving the state's infrastructure, 65% disapprove of the job he is doing, 29% approve.

These are not good poll numbers.

And the numbers have been this way for a while - last December, Cuomo was at 42% job approval in the Siena poll and the numbers have languished all year.

So what's a governor to do but try and juice those numbers, starting with education

Cue Fred LeBrun: 

Things are at long last looking up for beleaguered public education in this state, probably.

I'd like to say the likelihood of significant corrections coming to Common Core, excessive and inappropriate standardized testing, and a hard-wired connection between those tests and teachers' jobs, is because the politician most responsible for the total mess we're in, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has finally seen the light.

His infatuation with data driven education ''reform,'' fueled by millionaire political donors, has been a disaster, for him and for our children. It's his law that's codified the problem. It's his law that needs amending.

But I have a hunch closer to the truth would be the sobering recognition by the governor that what desperately needs fixing and quick are persistently in-the-toilet poll numbers over his intrusive handling of education issues.

Voters get it.

Especially with Judgment Day a mere five months away, when the next round of standardized tests are mandated in English and math for grades 4 to 8. That's also about the time we are apt to see a parental opt-out uprising across the state of a scary magnitude if big changes aren't already made or in the works.

So Cuomo needs to distance himself from his own mess pronto and be part of the solution rather than the problem for a change.

LeBrun sees cause for optimism that Cuomo's Common Core task force - completely controlled by the governor (as all things are in this state) - has allowed dissenting voices this time around while previous Cuomo-controlled education commissions did not (see here.)

LeBrun is also encouraged by the appointment of a critic of the state's education policies, Jere Hochman, to work as Cuomo's top education adviser and by the news that more than 3/4s of school districts in the state are going to get waivers from Cuomo's latest iteration of APPR.

And LeBrun sees Testing Doyenne Merryl Tisch's departure as cause for smiling, since so much of the damage done to the system was wrought by Tisch herself.

But like all savvy Cuomo-watchers, LeBrun remains skeptical:

Now, the devil remains in the details, and forgive the state's teachers, educators — and parents — for being skeptical. The last five years has been a horror show. At the very least sole reliance on the flawed ''growth score'' from standardized tests in evaluating teacher performance has to change. It's written in the law. Student performance, and an appropriate level of teacher accountability, can be measured in a number of different ways, and alternatives need to be part of the dialogue. Common Core standards need new flexibilities, and a total rethink down in the lower grades where serious issues of developmentally inappropriate testing, questions, and frequency are recurring criticisms.

It won't be all that hard to torque the law back to reasonable. Now let's see it happen before we break out the confetti.

To be frank, I'm not ready to buy the confetti, let alone get it out and begin celebrating just yet.

NYSED Commissioner Elia told us she wants to repaint the Common Core standards so that people will like them better.

I'm not so sure all of what we're seeing out of Cuomo and NYSED is anything other than a repainting job meant to fool parents and educators into thinking state pols and educrats are listening to their concerns while really not listening to their concerns.

Tisch herself said one of her biggest regrets as Regents Chancellor was not communicating with parents the wonders of Common Core and testing well enough so that there wouldn't have been the rebellion the state has seen over both.

Call me cynical, call me jaded, but I haven't yet seen any tangible policy change that says to me the Endless Testing regime and the damaging Common Core State (sic) Standards are going anywhere.

What I see so far is a change in messaging, not a change in policy or agenda.

Calls for limiting testing from either President Obama or Governor Cuomo are jive when teachers and schools are rated (and fired or closed) based upon test scores.

So long as the tests carry so much weight, the system will be rife with test prep and test anxiety.

As for the Common Core, until these standards are revisited and the insane focus on "rigor" all the time is changed, schools will continue to be misery factories for both children and teachers.

In many schools, students do the same thing in every class, day after day - close reading informational texts that are several grade levels above in difficulty, responding to text-based questions and writing evidence-based argumentative essays on these texts.

This is happening not just in English class but in social studies, science, health - even art, music and vocational classes.

Teachers who deviate from what is considered "rigorous" are punished -  administrators enforce total compliance through the APPR teacher evaluation system and the Danielson rubric.

Until some teacher autonomy is returned, some creativity and allowance to deviate from the "One Way To Teach Them All" approach that we have now, many children are going to continue to hate school and learning.

And if you doubt this, ask some who go to schools where it's "All Rigor All The Time" - ask them how they like close reading day after day, writing argumentative essays day after day, spending three weeks on one short story and close reading it over and over until they don't care anything about it.

Cuomo said change is coming to the system - but given this is the same guy who said he wants to "break" the public school monopoly, I'm not ready to declare whatever "change" he plans to bring good change.

So far, all I see is a change to the messaging.

545 out of 674 School Districts Seek Waivers From Cuomo's APPR Teacher Evaluation System

From the Times Union:

Well over half of New York school districts may be exempt from implementing a new, controversial teacher evaluation system this year that relies heavily on student test scores. 

As of Tuesday afternoon, the State Education Department had approved hardship waivers for 420 school districts who said circumstances prevent them from putting the new system into place during the current school year. In addition, 106 districts are still awaiting approval for waivers. Nineteen districts were denied waivers. 

"The term denial may not be appropriate here, since the applications can be edited and resubmitted," a department spokeswoman wrote in an email. "We anticipate all 19 of these applications will be resubmitted." 

The deadline to submit a waiver application to the State Education Department is Friday.

Here is what Politco NY reported on October 5:

ALBANY — The vast majority of school districts and teachers' unions seem to be having difficulty coming to an agreement on a new teacher evaluation system supported by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

As of the end of last week, only 12 plans had been approved, with another 47 submitted for review, according to the state education department. There are 674 districts statewide.

So if my pre-Common Core math is correct, 420 + 106 = 526.

Add another 19 for districts that have to resubmit waiver paperwork and you get 545 total.

Out of 674 districts statewide, it looks like 545 will be getting waivers for the year from instituting Cuomo's vaunted new APPR teacher evaluation plan.

Think about that.

I'm an English major by trade and my math skills aren't the best, but I think that means about 80% of New York's school districts are seeked (and look to be getting) waivers from SED for the vauned new Cuomo APPR system.

Don't Believe The Obama Administration Jive On Capping Testing Time (UPDATED - 3:35 PM)

From the "We caused it - now we're trying to walk it back without really walking it back" file:

Faced with mounting and bipartisan opposition to increased and often high-stakes testing in the nation’s public schools, the Obama administration declared Saturday that the push had gone too far, acknowledged its own role in the proliferation of tests, and urged schools to step back and make exams less onerous and more purposeful.

... 

“I still have no question that we need to check at least once a year to make sure our kids are on track or identify areas where they need support,” said Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, who has said he will leave office in December. “But I can’t tell you how many conversations I’m in with educators who are understandably stressed and concerned about an overemphasis on testing in some places and how much time testing and test prep are taking from instruction.

“It’s important that we’re all honest with ourselves,” he continued. “At the federal, state and local level, we have all supported policies that have contributed to the problem in implementation. We can and will work with states, districts and educators to help solve it.”

So long as teachers and schools are rated based upon test scores, the "cap" on testing time the Obama administration educrats talk about is meaningless.

In New York State, teachers currently have 20% of their ratings based upon state test scores (even if they don't teach classes that end with state tests) and 20% based upon so-called "local assessment" measures that may be state test data crunched a different way.

Last spring Governor "I want to break the public school monopoly" Cuomo shoved through a reiteration of the evaluation system tied to school funding that increases the weight of state test scores to 50% because not enough teachers were being rated ineffective and fired under the old system.

In addition, he shoved through a school receivership plan that forces "persistently struggling schools" to increase their test scores in one year and "struggling schools" to increase their test scores in two years or be taken over by the state.

With such a test-centric environment (one that was absolutely encouraged by the Obama administration's Race to the Top program and their NCLB waiver system), the Obama educrats can call for a cap on testing time all they want - nothing about the system will change so long as the scores are used to fire teachers and close schools.

In any case, the administration isn't going to put out "guidelines" until January on the testing changes, so for now all we have is some meaningless rhetoric that may excite Randi Weingarten but will have little practical effect on what happens to all the overtesting that is currently going on in schools.

In short, the Endless Testing regime continues no matter the Obama administration public relations statements.

UPDATED - 3:35 PM: Peter Greene points out in comments that the Obama administration has hawked this testing cap gambit before. 

He's got a new post analyzing today's announcement and finds they're

offering pointless PR nuggets and avoiding the real discussion, which is why, exactly, we need the BS Tests at all, and what possible justification there is for using the BS Tests to measure, rank and rate students, teachers or schools.

But the tests are a "civil right," don'tcha know?

Teacher Shortages Should Be No Surprise

Tony Lux at NWI.com:

It is amazing to read about the blue ribbon committees being formed at the Statehouse to determine why there is a teacher shortage. The feigned ignorance and surprise of legislators is incredibly hypocritical.

Blame for the teacher shortage should be placed clearly at the feet of government officials in this state and across the nation who have scapegoated, demeaned and devalued the teaching profession.

...

If schools were failing, then teachers were ineffective. Teachers were not only ineffective, but overpaid as well.

The solutions were multi-faceted. Plans were formulated to evaluate teachers more stringently to get rid of the bad ones. The witch hunt to rid schools of weak teachers cast a pall over the credibility of the teaching profession. Teachers were seen as not just the most important variable, but the only variable that affected student learning. Any reference to the effects of poverty on student learning were dismissed out of hand as an effort to avoid accountability.

What followed was a legislative snowball racing downhill. An oversimplified, flawed system for grading schools on an A-F scale was created. School grades continue to be required despite major flaws in state assessments. State standards were raised to be the highest in the land, resulting in increased hours of testing time and diminishing teaching time. Laws dictated more stringent teacher evaluations tied to school grades and test scores. Laws dictated limiting salary increases so teaching experience and advanced degrees were devalued. New teacher and administrative licensing standards implied that anyone with a degree could be a teacher or administrator, even without training. Charter schools, unfettered by union agreements, were heralded as schools that could do better by hiring teachers at low salaries and cheap benefits.

Complexity index funding targeting the most disadvantaged underachievers was reduced and redirected. The effects of tax caps crippled property tax collections for many school systems, forcing them to use general fund dollars to pay debt rather than staff.

Educators are so demoralized they do not encourage their own children to follow in their footsteps, much less other students.

Today, with decreased funding for public schools, teachers cannot enter the profession with any kind of guarantee that in five to 10 years they will be earning very much more than they are now. 

Still surprised there is a teacher shortage? Really?

New York State hasn't experienced the same teacher shortages that states like Indiana and Nevada have, but the problem will get here too because there's an awful lot of teacher/bashing/scapegoating going on here that makes education a very unsavory career choice for college students of today.

For now, we have a "shortage" of "great" teachers willing to work in schools deemed "struggling" by the state and set to be handed off into receivership.

Indeed, NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia just decried this shortage and called for teachers with "heart" to come work in "struggling" schools.

Here are some Perdido Street School blog readers on the insanity of that:

This false wish for "great teachers" and "teachers who can rise to the challenges inside struggling urban schools" is just another Deform mantra. It is meant to shame teachers who are ALREADY "great" and who HAVE risen to challenges inside struggling urban schools. The dearth of teachers has been deliberately created by Deformers. They have shamed, demoralized and marginalized urban teachers. But they have done this for a very specific purpose. They want TFA's, alternate cetificates, and a general de-professionalization of teaching. So not be fooled by what they "say" they want. Look instead at what they are doing in urban districts. In Buffalo, teachers have recently been referred to as "dregs" and "the lowest form of human capital" by our superintendent/receiver. It doesn't get any clearer than that.

And:

"We're in the process now if looking for teachers who really have that heart ......" What? Are you @#$%ing crazy? If you gave me a 20K bonus to work in one of those receivership schools, I wouldn't take it. Why? Here's why. If you take it, your MOSL SCORES will be SHIT. In NYC where I teach, that's currently 40% or 40 points out of 100. Last school year I received a 17 and an 18 out of 20 for each piece. Obviously that's a total of 35 out of 40 which is very good. These shit schools that teachers with "heart" should go to are pulling 7's and 8's. That's around 15 out of 40. If you score below 65 total, which is very possible at one of these shit schools, you will be labeled "ineffective". You can be the BEST teacher in the world BUT if your at Lehman HS or Clinton HS or Any other, you literally have no chance. If you get 2 ineffectives in a row, a 3020-a process can easily remove you. You will be terminated. Your family, house, future, all destroyed because you were supposed to have "heart". What a @#$%ing JOKE. I HOPE SHE READS THIS IR SOMEONE GETS HER MY MESSAGE. The goal, find a small school to jump into and do your job, get your MOSL scores that these schools produce. If they really want teachers to work at "these" schools, they must eliminate the evaluation procedure because it's not reflective of the truth. Then again, I'm a Physical Education teacher at a really nice small school in the Bronx. My MOSL is based off ELA, nothing to do with me. This is also ridiculous because any schmuck in Bronx Science teaching Gym is riding the data wave. All BULLSHIT.

Indeed, it is all bullshit - teachers know it, the kids they teach know it and this is why, as we move forward into the future, fewer and fewer of those kids will look to follow in the footsteps of their teachers.

And why should they?

The system is rigged against teachers, the media and the political class take daily potshots at teachers, educators have been blamed for everything from the high rate of poverty and inequity in this country to the near economic collapse of the system in 2007/2008 and, as Tony Lux said in his NWI.com piece, the politicians and educrats have worked overtime to strip teachers of economic incentives (i.e., raises) based upon anything other than test scores and so-called objective "data" that really only measures how well a teacher's students' families are.

Add in the stripping of work protections from teachers, the imposition of the EngageNY teaching scripts onto educators and the increased linkage of test scores to teacher evaluations (now up to 50% in New York thanks to our "Student Lobbyist Governor") and you'd have to say any kid who thinks about going into teaching now ought to have his/her head examined.

Message To MaryEllen Elia Over Those Teachers She Wants To Work In "Struggling Schools"

From the Times Union:

State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia called on teacher educators across the state Thursday to train future teachers who can rise to the challenges inside struggling urban schools.

"Right now, we have schools across this state that are chronically failing, and we need to have great teachers that will rise to the challenge of moving into those schools and supporting those children and communities," she told a crowd of more than 100 who had gathered in Saratoga Springs for the annual conference of the New York State Association of Teacher Educators and the New York Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

Her message came just one day after these very schools testified before state legislators that they're bleeding teachers as they enter a new school year with more pressures than ever before. Under the state's new receivership law, 144 schools across 17 districts were labeled struggling or persistently struggling and given one or two years to turn things around or risk losing local control to an outside receiver approved by the state.

Between the short time frame to demonstrate improvement and the higher stakes around teacher evaluations this year, teachers are fleeing struggling schools for schools where things aren't so bad, officials said Wednesday at a hearing in Albany.

"We're in the process now of looking for teachers who have that heart, who really want to be in and support kids in urban settings," Elia said Thursday.

To do that, though, New York has to return to a position of respect and reverence for the profession, she said. As the state's population ages and teachers retire, New York will face a teacher shortage if it doesn't, she added.

"We need to really elevate teaching as a profession and articulate the importance of teachers across the state and what they do every day to support our students," she said. "There are many challenges in our schools across the state, and our teachers are going to be the ones who are going to make any change in what happens in those classrooms. We have to be very focused on supporting them, so that they can support our students for success."

We've been over this before, but let's do it again one more time since the message doesn't seem to enter that thick skull of Elia's.

Saying you want to "elevate the teaching profession" while simultaneously doing all you can to de-skill, de-professionalize and terrorize teachers in the system is not going to "elevate the teaching profession" nor help you find those teachers to work in "struggling schools."

Given that 50% of a teacher's rating is now based upon test scores, given that a teacher can be fired after two years of poor APPR ratings based upon test scores, given that students in those struggling schools often have low test scores and given that you, the governor and the Regents Chancellor are always blaming teachers for all the ills in the system, why would anybody in their right mind a) go into teaching at this juncture and b) teach in one of those "struggling schools"?

Here is a Perdido Street School reader on the toll the current "Blame Teachers" reform agenda has on the teaching profession Elia says she wants to "elevate":

More broadly, who'd want to become a teacher anywhere? I don't teach in a struggling school (though its close) and the decision to come in to teaching ranks as the biggest mistake of my life. Financially, psychologically, etc. A toll is taken on the psyche when your profession is labeled as the reason for almost all the negative issues going on in our society, relentlessly, no matter how ridiculous. The volume of it and the incessant nature makes one a bit twitchy. It was a stupid call. At least working at amazon, you are probably paid well for the few years you survive....and then you can go get another job.

The thing that isn't talked about so much, and should be, is that when a teacher is drummed out, for any reason really, they will never teach again in public school. It's an established, formalized, institutionalized, fully-legal blacklisting. So a public school teacher falling under the hatchet of reform faces a much steeper slope out of unemployment than does, say, a corporate person who gets fired. As always, the "accountability" and "disruption" on the corporate side is always somehow lighter than they want to impose on the public side. 

A fired teacher is DONE....the one thing they have prepared and trained for is no longer something they can tap on in their job search. (Unless they go to work at a desperate private school that will pay them like $19k a year.) Even admin....they leave or get booted somewhere, they get to become admin somewhere else (see Elia). No deep institutional, legal blacklisting for them! Even principals, AP's, Directors, etc in my district who have been let go for deep incompetence always get another job in Admin by the next school year in another district.

So that's a thing and it matters. For teachers, our options become way way way limited after being fired. We are the ultimate tightrope walkers...no safety nets.

James Eterno posted how teachers at his phasing out school were mostly rated "developing" and "ineffective" but all "magically" got "effective" ratings once they moved on to other schools that weren't being phased out:

In April the ICEUFT Blog published a piece in which we publicly admitted that for the 2013-14 school year state data showed that 88% of the teachers at the phasing out Jamaica High School were rated either developing or ineffective. At the time we stated sarcastically that we must be "the worst teachers on the planet." The blog also said these ratings were meaningless.

We concluded the post by making a not so bold prediction that for 2014-15, when teachers from Jamaica were sent to other schools where the student populations did not have as many needs as those at the phasing out Jamaica, we would see much better teacher ratings.

The data is now in for 2014-15 and another ICEUFTBLOG prediction has come true.  This year there were no adverse ratings from the 2013-14 Jamaica teachers who were still in the school system. We were perfect.  That is correct. 100% of the teachers who were at Jamaica in 2013-14, who became rotating Absent Teacher Reserves or were assigned to a school in the 2014-2015 school year, have been rated either effective or satisfactory. The only people who didn't receive these positive end of the year evaluations were the three who were fortunate enough to have retired.

How is it possible that we went from 88% of us receiving adverse ratings to 0% in just a year?  We were the same teachers. 

I am so sick of these educrats and politicians claiming they want to "elevate" teaching while they simultaneously pursue a conscious agenda to do the exact opposite.

Elia claims she wants to give these "struggling schools" more time and money to turn things around.

Alas, the receivership rules shoved through by Cuomo earlier this year and passed by the Heavy Hearts Club in the state legislature do not allow for that.

Same goes for the APPR teacher evaluation systems that rates teachers based upon 50% of student test scores - these systems have to be in place by November 15 or districts lose some funding.

We keep coming up against these arbitrary deadlines created by politicians and educrats (think Race to the Top) that are designed not to improve anything but simply put an ultimatum down and give the people running the system the opportunity to blow stuff up if their ultimatum isn't accomplished.

Elia can claim she wants to "elevate the profession" all she wants and say how she needs "great" teachers to teach in so-called "struggling schools," but the truth is this - any teacher who goes to teach in a "struggling school" risks a low performance rating (even NYCDOE Chancellor Farina knows this) and two years of a low rating and you're done for life, tarred as a "bad teacher."

Try working again as a teacher after you've gotten two "ineffective" ratings and been fired by your district after they pursued 3020a incompetence charges against you.

Education reformers like MaryEllen Elia have brought us this kind of environment and no matter how many times she says she wants to "elevate teaching," it's quite clear she and her fellow reformers want to do the exact opposite.

Only 8% Of School Districts Have Vaunted New Cuomo APPR Evaluation Plan In Place

Keshia Clukey at Politico NY:

ALBANY — The vast majority of school districts and teachers' unions seem to be having difficulty coming to an agreement on a new teacher evaluation system supported by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

As of the end of last week, only 12 plans had been approved, with another 47 submitted for review, according to the state education department. There are 674 districts statewide.

The new evaluation system was put into place last session. It puts more emphasis on students' state test scores, and has been met with criticism, including from the state Board of Regents, which put in place a waiver system to delay the implementation.

The districts have until Nov. 15 to have their plans in and approved by the state or risk losing state aid. Those that believe they can't meet the deadline can instead apply for a waiver, which can extend the deadline up to September 2016.

Little over a month to go, more than 90% of districts do not have plans approved and in place yet.

There are still some that are in with the state awaiting approval, but even if all 47 of those are approved, that leaves over 600 districts without plans in place.

Can't wait to hear Cuomo's statement when the deadline comes and hundreds of districts are looking for waivers.

Cuomo's Approval/Disapproval On Education: 33%-54%

Jon Campbell at Gannett:

The state Board of Regents passed a revamped set of rules Wednesday for New York's new system of evaluating teachers, but promised to pen a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers outlining their many concerns.

The Regents, the state's education policymakers, voted 10-6 in favor of the new regulations, which included a new system for some teachers to appeal their ratings and the loosening of an observation requirement for small school districts.

The vote came after significant debate and some nose-holding among the Regents.

Several voted no in protest of the new system, which was required by a state law approved by Cuomo and the Legislature in March and has been derided by teachers unions. Other Regents warned of a possible loss of state money for local schools if the rules were voted down, noting the board was required by the law to approve a set of rules governing the process.

"Quite frankly, I have met with hundreds of people, and all I hear is the joy of teaching is being squeezed out of them as a result of this process," said Regent Judith Johnson, whose district stretches from Poughkeepsie to Westchester County. She voted against the proposal.

New Yorkers know who to blame - Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo's approval/disapproval on education stands at 33% - 54% in the latest Quinnipiac poll.

Cuomo's fallen to his lowest approval level in a Q poll.

You can bet his handling of education issues one of the primary reasons for his continued drop in approval.

He's well under water with Republicans and Independents on that issue and even Dems only approve of his handling of education by 44%-42%.

Nonetheless Cuomo continues to shove through his unpopular education reform agenda with what seems to be political impunity.

Clearly Cuomo must pay a higher political price than falling poll numbers to abandon his harmful education reform agenda.

MaryEllen Elia Sends Message: Nothing Of Substance Is Changing

The Buffalo News has a fluff piece on MaryEllen Elia and her "I'm Not Listening" tour, which continues apace.

The theme of the piece is how Elia is actually listening to parents, teachers and union leaders.

Sure she is:

“I’ve always been very involved with teachers and the things that happen in the classroom,” she said during a visit to Sweet Home High School in Amherst on Wednesday. “The parents, the teachers need to be very involved in how we improve education in New York.”

...

During visits to Buffalo, the Sweet Home district and Niagara Falls, Elia reiterated her call for high standards and more rigorous coursework to better prepare students for college and the workforce.

She leaned on her decades of experience working in schools in New York and Florida in her appeal to teachers, showing an understanding of and appreciation for the work they do in their classrooms.

At another Sweet Home district school, Glendale Elementary in the Town of Tonawanda, she commended staff – and in particular a fifth-grade math teacher – for work in improving student performance on the state assessments.

“Thank you so much,” she told the group. “Thank you all for your work.”

Oh please - the theme is the same from Elia as it was from her predecessor, John King:

Improve test scores or else.

You can even see it from the pat on the head she gave to the Glendale Elementary teacher for "improving student performance on the state assessments."

No one should be fooled by the PR, it's all about the tests and the test scores for Elia:

Elia later faced skeptical faces in meetings with teachers and parents at Sweet Home High, fielding many of the usual questions about evaluations, standardized tests and training for educators.

She promised to review the standards, look for areas to improve on and offer teachers support to implement them in their classrooms.

But she also held firm to the message she has delivered since taking over as commissioner – she will not back down in her push for higher standards.

The message from the Elia there is, nothing of substance in the state Endless Testing regime is changing, we're just making it look like we're listening to parents and educators concerns, but we're going to do what we want no matter what

Kathy Hochul said essentially the same thing yesterday:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s latest effort to examine Common Core isn’t an effort to pull the state away from the controversial education standards, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a radio interview on Wednesday.

Hochul told WCNY’s The Capitol Pressroom this morning that Cuomo “agrees with the goal” of the standards, but reiterated that the role out of standards was flawed.

“He is going to convene a commission of people who have studied this and thought about it, but also parents and educators to get their opinion,” she said in the interview.

...

Overall, the administration’s review of the standards is a stab at modifying Common Core in New York, Hochul said.

“He agrees with the goal of the Common Core standards, but the role out was flawed and it’s been confusing for parents as evidenced by the opt-out movement,” she said. “So, he has not said it’s going away. He has said, yes, we have standards in place, but let’s figure out how we can modify them.”

See what they're doing?

They're pushing some propaganda that they're listening, they're really listening, to parents and educators about Common Core and testing concerns and it's possible, just possible, that something about Common Core might be "modified."

Isn't that swell?

Nahh, because under all of that is the message that the standards and reform agenda will largely remain in place and nothing's really changing.

Here's how I think this plays out:

They'll tinker around the edges, find something that seems like it's a big give that isn't really much of a give (last time around, a Cuomo commission/panel recommended killing the inBloom data thing even though it was already on life support), then hail the "modifications" as a great improvement on what came before (and parent- and educator-led to boot!)

No one should be fooled by Elia's jive or the Cuomo/Hochul jive - the chances that anything really substantive will change about the Endless Testing regime and/or Common Core are about the same as Andrew Cuomo publicly apologizing to Bill de Blasio for being a jerk.

It isn't happening.

It's all about the tests and the test scores in New York and it will still be the way after the Cuomo/Tisch/Elia Common Core Review show closes down.

How Does Governor Cuomo Defend His Irrational Teacher Evaluation System

This story is behind a paywall at Capital NY but here's the summary from their morning email update:

GOOD TEACHERS, POOR SCHOOLS? DISTRICT STRUGGLES TO UNDERSTAND RATINGS—POLITICO New York’s Keshia Clukey: “The same day that Bethlehem schools Superintendent Jody Monroe received a certificate from the state Education Department saying six of her schools were Reward Schools, among the top performing in the state, she also received word that her teachers were some of the poorest performing. ‘It’s hard to explain to a teacher how they could have a score of 17 (out of 20) last year and then a two,’ Monroe said. ‘It’s especially tough when you really can’t explain it … our curriculum hasn’t changed that much.’ The Albany County district, along with other public schools across the state, received its growth scores from the state at the end August, ratings that determine how good teachers are at their job. As in many districts over the past few years, fluctuations in the scores of Bethlehem’s teachers were hard to explain.

“According to the American Statistical Association, the variation from year to year has to do with the model, which the association's president says shouldn’t be used to evaluate teachers.’It suggests something is wrong with the approach, frankly, and possibly the data itself,’ David Morganstein said about the swings in teacher scores...The model doesn’t work, Morganstein said, because the state tests were designed to evaluate students, not teachers. The model often uses incomplete data. For example, it does not include all students’ scores, and the computers themselves can have errors, he said. The formula would work for testing a large group, such as a district or even school, but the margin of error is too large and can lead to wide discrepancies, with teachers scoring low one year, high the next, and then low again, Morganstein said.

“On average, Bethlehem’s elementary school teachers scored about an eight out of 20 in the 2014-15 academic year, ranking them as ‘developing,’ and its middle school teachers were slightly higher at about 12, or ‘efficient,’ Monroe said...In Guilderland, a neighboring school district similar to Bethlehem, teachers scored pretty well, with the majority in the ‘effective’ or higher range, said district Superintendent Marie Wiles, adding that with similar teachers, it doesn’t make sense that Bethlehem’s didn’t do as well. ‘There are just so many issues with (the annual professional performance review) and the calculation of growth score. We don’t put a lot of meaning in them. I hate to say it,’ Wiles said... ‘We don't need APPR .. .The numbers, to us, are not a measure of the quality of the teachers.” http://politi.co/1XDwca7

The symbol of the irrationality of Cuomo's APPR teacher evaluation system is Sheri Lederman, who took the state to court over her test score VAM.

Lederman has gone from 14 out of 20 to 1 out of 20 to 11 out of 20 in the last three years even as students are scoring similarly on their tests.

More and more evidence is coming to light just what a mess Cuomo's APPR is.

And yet, that's the one thing that won't be "reviewed" as part of Cuomo's Common Core Standards/Tests/Curriculum review.

Cuomo has said his APPR teacher evaluation is the "bedrock" of the state's education reform agenda.

Given what a mess the "bedrock" is, it doesn't say much about the reform agenda, does it?

Circular Firing Squad: Cuomo Blames NYSED For Common Core Woes, NYSED Blames Parents, Teachers

Susan Berry at Breitbart:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said Thursday that the Common Core “is not working” and announced a plan to form his own “education commission” to review the standards initiative and report back to him on how to “fix” it.

Cuomo’s announcement accompanied finger pointing on why the grossly unpopular education reform has failed in his state.

As Syracuse.com reports, Cuomo laid the blame for Common Core’s failure on the state’s Department of Education – the one state agency that is not directly under the control of the governor’s office. In turn, the relatively new education commissioner, MaryEllen Elia, who replaced Common Core champion John King — now “promoted” to adviser to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan – blamed New York’s Common Core problems on parents and school officials who were proponents of the state test opt-out movement.

Cuomo said in a statement that while he agrees “with the goal of Common Core Standards, I believe the implementation by the State Education Department (SED) has been deeply flawed."

“A growing chorus of experts have questioned the intelligence of SED’s Common Core program and objective educators across the state have found the implementation problematic, to say the least,” Cuomo added.

Berry writes that to blame NYSED for the implementation of the state's education reform agenda misses the "elephant in the room" - the popularity of Comon Core is plummeting all over the country.

Cuomo blaming NYSED, NYSED blaming parents and teachers - all the finger pointing in the world isn't going to improve the plummeting popularity of Common Core, the Endless testing regime and the corporate education reform agenda Cuomo is pursuing.

As NYSAPE put it yesterday:

 In a press release yesterday expressing “sympathy” for parents, Cuomo called for a review of the Common Core in New York, blaming the State Education Department’s implementation while vowing to revive his Common Core panel to review the mess.

Parents across the state are not fools.

They know the problems are hardly limited to implementation of the Common Core, but the actual Common Core itself, its excessive testing, and a fundamentally broken teacher evaluation system.

Parents know that Andrew Cuomo is not part of the solution. Cuomo is the problem.

It is Cuomo who forced his unproven teacher evaluation system down parents’ throats.

It is Cuomo who slashed and underfunded the State Education Department staffing.

It is Cuomo who accepted ‘Big Donor’ campaign money and enabled the build-up of a privatized, unaccountable shadow government within the State Education Department –The Regents Research Fellows—who created the “Implementation” mess Cuomo now blames.

It is Cuomo who repeatedly tramples on the New York State Constitution–which gives a NY Governor NO authority over education policy—with his serial habit of forming pro-corporate education reform stacked panels, complete with Washington lobbyists salivating to eliminate parental consent for data profiling of children.

Parents of New York are outraged and will continue the fight to take back their schools and classrooms from the Albany shenanigans of Andrew Cuomo, Merryl Tisch and MaryEllen Elia.

Cuomo can finger point and play games.

MaryEllen Elia and NYSED can finger point and play games.

The games and finger pointing aren't fooling anybody.

Neither is the latest Cuomo education reform commission (the third commission/panel since 2014.)

Why NYSED Never Wanted The Sheri Lederman VAM Case To Go Forward

Oral arguments begin in the Sheri Lederman VAM case today.

Diane Ravitch posted information from Lederman's lawyer, her husband Bruce, on how they are approaching the case.

One important thing to note about this case:

NYSED never wanted it to go forward.

They tried twice to have the case dismissed on the "No Harm, No Foul" rule (see here and here), arguing that since Lederman was rated "effective" overall despite the inexplicable "ineffective" rating on her test component, she wasn't adversely affected by the rating.

But under the current law, two "ineffective" ratings overall and a teacher can be fired and the test component part of APPR has been increased to 50% of the overall rating.

Going forward, if a teacher gets an "ineffective" rating on the VAM test component, it ensures an overall "ineffective" rating or, at best, "developing" rating - that means the test component score can and will have an adverse effect on teachers.

NYSED never provided the data for why Lederman went from 14 out of 20 points in 2012-2013 to 1 out of 20 points in 2013-2014 when the test score data was almost identical in both years.

I suspect the reason NYSED never provided the data is because they know the data won't stand up to scrutiny, that it was pulled out of John King's goatee rather than based on some objective, scientific reasoning.

We'll see as the case goes forward whether they've got some rational explanation for why Lederman went from 14 out of 20 points to 1 out of 20 points in VAM when the test data was almost identical.

But I would bet my own VAM they don't.

Regents Recommendations For APPR

APPR.pdf

Cuomo Finds Time To Make Yogurt Official State Snack, Can't Sign Teacher Safety Bill Into Law

 From State of Politics:

It’s official: Yogurt is the state snack.

As the Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday signed into law a measure that designates yogurt the snack of New York state.

The legislation’s approval comes as the third annual “yogurt summit” (yes, it’s annual now) kicks off at Cornell University in Ithaca.

Meanwhile the so-called teacher safety bill that provides a safety net for teachers who have their evaluations partly based upon Common Core tests that don't count for their students but do count against teachers languishes on his desk unsigned.

ALBANY—A month into the school year, districts are unsure how to proceed with the state-mandated teacher evaluation system because Governor Andrew Cuomo has not yet signed his own bill amending it.

After negotiating with teachers’ unions, Cuomo introduced and lawmakers passed a bill last session that aims to shield teachers from the rough rollout of the Common Core standards. The bill would create what state officials call a “safety net” for educators whose evaluations were negatively affected by students’ low scores on early administrations of new, more difficult Common Core-aligned state exams.

But because Cuomo has not yet signed the bill, it isn't clear whether educators who were rated “ineffective” or “developing”—the two lowest scores—will be affected by the “safety net” proposal.

“It’s confusing, because schools don’t know which set of rules they’re operating under and don’t know whether a teacher is going to be classified as ‘ineffective’ or ‘developing’ until those recalculated scores are made available,” said David Albert, spokesman for the New York State School Boards Association.

The governor's priorities here are quite clear.

He doesn't care about teachers at all.

Yogurt?

That he likes.

Cuomo Will Lead A Witch Hunt Of "Failing" Teachers In His Second Term

Here's a preview of the second term shenanigans we can expect from Governor Andrew Cuomo with his vaunted APPR teacher evaluation system:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Tuesday the state’s new teacher evaluation system will need to be refined, but he said he would like to see more data before pushing for any changes to the state law.

Cuomo said he sees value in the teacher rankings, but said critics who question how 94 percent of the state’s teachers can be “highly effective” or “effective” have a valid point.

“I’m excited that we started,” Cuomo said of the teacher evaluation system put into effect during the 2012-13 school year. “And I think once we start to study it and learn it and refine it – because there’s no doubt it needs refinement, not everybody can get an ‘A,’ it can’t be – I think it’s going to be a very valuable tool.”

His solution?

Study the "data" and push for statewide changes, taking away local control:
 

“The way we’ve done it the first few years is they’re negotiated locally. There is no statewide negotiation,” Cuomo said during a meeting with editors and reporters at The Buffalo News. “Each district negotiates it’s own criteria within certain mandates. So the suggestion was the way they negotiated it may be too loose because everyone’s doing well, and I think that’s a valid question.”

Cuomo stopped short of saying he would recommend specific changes to the evaluations.

“I think we have to understand what’s happening,” Cuomo said. “We don’t really have solid data back because we just started.”

A commenter on the Buffalo News story writes the following:

60% of the teacher evaluation system is based on "Other measures of Effectiveness score" in which a teacher has a formal observation, an informal observation, and provides various artifacts (which are rated by the principal) that prove that a teacher is doing what he or she is supposed to be doing in class. So if a teacher is doing their job, yet the students are "failing" the state assessments, then whose fault is it. There's no possible way the students or parents should share any responsibility in this, right? In my opinion it is very possible for teachers to be effective yet have students who are failing. Especially in impoverished districts. This sounds like just another witch hunt. More of the same. I guess they don't think they'll be able to get enough teachers fired.

APPR is supposed to be based on "multiple measures" of so-called performance, something we have heard trumpeted from the leaders of NYSUT and the UFT, that teachers are not being evaluated solely by test scores.

But Cuomo's framing this system just as the deformers are framing the system - test scores are the only valid measure and if many students are failing the new Common Core tests (despite the tests being rigged by NYSED and the Board of Regents to have just that outcome), then the teachers of those students must be failing as well.

Beware the second term, folks - as the commenter at the Buffalo News story notes, this is a teacher witch hunt that we have coming and Cuomo's going to be the head hunter.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that I have written over and over again that APPR was always devised to fire as many teachers as possible.

It wasn't a mistake that they rolled APPR out at the same time they rolled out the new Common Core tests that they rigged for 70% failure rates.

The one thing the deformers didn't count on was a revolt in the suburbs over the Common Core tests and the Common Core Standards themselves.

After a year of furor over the CCSS, they had to de-link the Common Core test scores from APPR for teachers of 3rd-8th grade students.

But make no mistake, the link is coming back and it will turn into a bludgeon they will use on you.

Calls from deformers and editorial boards to "tighten" up APPR will eventually lead to "refinements" of the system, as Cuomo called them - in short, rigging APPR the way the Common Core tests were rigged to come out with a pre-determined outcome of "failure."

Another commenter at the Buffalo News story wrote:

It does beg the question, how many "ineffective" or "developing" individuals are there in other professions? How many "ineffective" or "developing" teachers would be enough? Like you said, witch hunt.

Indeed.

Cuomo's Silence On Common Core Speaks Volumes

Jessica Bakeman at Capital NY:

ALBANY—Governor Andrew Cuomo featured education initiatives prominently at his State of the State address Wednesday, but never mentioned the controversial Common Core curriculum standards and the growing unrest among teachers and parents over how the state rolled them out.

“The biggest education issue that concerns parents and teachers and students is the Common Core, and the failed implementation of Common Core,” said Richard Iannuzzi, president of New York State United Teachers, after the speech. “The absence of a comment about that is almost deafening for me.”
...


Several lawmakers also pointed to the governor's silence on the Common Core in statements they released after the speech Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, the Governor failed to propose a fix for the botched Common Core implementation or to protect students’ data privacy,” Assemblyman Thomas Abinanti, a Westchester County Democrat, said in a statement.

Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski, a Democrat from Rockland County, said he shares Cuomo's hope to boost technology in schools, but “we also need to address concerns surrounding the Common Core implementation. I will work with my Assembly colleagues to ensure this is a priority.”

Opposition to the Common Core is bipartisan. Assemblymen Brian Curran and Chad Luppinacci, Long Island Republicans, also blasted the governor for failing to introduce a plan to improve Common Core implementation.

“We must also take steps to address and refocus the Common Core curriculum,” Lupinacci said, “so that our children continue to receive an education which sets them on a course to be leaders in our nation and the world.”

Cuomo's response to all the criticism over Common Core and his failure to even acknowledge the problems in his State of the State address?

A spokesman for Cuomo declined to comment.

That says everything you need to know.

Cuomo is going full speed ahead with the ed deform agenda, regardless of opposition and criticism.

Bill Thompson And The "Unworkable" NYC Teacher Evaluation System

Politicians rarely speak truth but I really think Bill Thompson did just that when he issued a second reaction to John King's evaluation system for NYC teachers.

Initially on Saturday Thompson issued an "Everybody wins!" kind of statement, saying the system was fair to both the DOE and the UFT and was good for NYC school students.

Then on Sunday he said this:

Bill Thompson, a Democrat who once served as school-board president and city comptroller, called the 241-page plan "unworkable in its complexity and bureaucracy."

Perhaps Thompson was, as has been suggested, pandering to the UFT in order to garner support and an endorsement.

Perhaps.

Or perhaps as former head of the Board of Education, he looked at the 241 page plan and saw it for what it is - a cobbled-together system that is too complex and convoluted to ever work.

Or maybe he was doing a little of both - truth-telling and pandering.

In any case, he described the King plan to a tee.
 

The Worse King's System Is, The Better It Is

The Daily News and the Post editorial boards are asking NYSED Commissioner/rookie teacher John King to institute the harshest, most punitive teacher evaluation system in the state.

NYSED Commissioner/rookie teacher John King is going to announce what the new system will be tomorrow at 4 PM.

The spinning has already begun, with UFT President and APPR pom-pom supporter Michael Mulgrew sending out an email to members last night telling them he believes the King system will be fair because the union helped develop it.

It's difficult to see how rookie teacher/charter proponent John King, the man who saw no issue with the Hare and Pineapple Pearson piece and who has defended every piece of crap corporate reform the state has pushed with every breath he has, will give us a fair evaluation system.

Rather, it is more likely that the system will be as punitive as the DN and Posties want it.

But in the end, the worse the system is, the better it is.

Because the more complex and convoluted they make it, the more they use junk science like value-added measurements that suffer from wide swings in stability and large margins of error, the more they add absurdities like growth measures on Student Learning Objectives that entail keeping student portfolios in every subject in every grade that will be used not to assess student performance but to evaluate whether teachers have "added value" to their students' performances, the more they force the Our Way Or The Highway lesson plan onto every teacher, the more likely this piece of garbage will fall apart under its own unworkability or die under the weight of court challenges.

There are, of course, two problems with this:

First, there will be teachers whose careers and reputations will be destroyed while that is playing out.

That is the most tragic part of this whole mess.

Second, Michael Mulgrew and the UFT leadership are bragging how this is their baby, how they helped develop it and how, if there are problems, it will not be with the system itself but rather with the implementation of the system by the DOE.

That suggests to me that the UFT leadership will not be challenging this system in court any time soon, unlike the Buffalo union, and if we in NYC want protection from it, we're going to have to mount the court challenges without the help of the UFT.

But even that problem might have a positive side effect.

See, that will show UFT members how little the UFT leadership cares about them or can protect them from the ravages of the corporate education reform movement and how, maybe they need a new UFT leadership who can do just that.

So in the end, I say, give the Posties and the DN and the DFER's and the Asshats and the rest of edu-reformers their harsh, punitive system with the many different moving parts.

Because in the end, the worse you make this system, the more complex and convoluted you make it, the more you rig the system so that a teacher can be ranked effective or developing on all three parts but still be ranked ineffective overall, the more likely this will not last.

Common Core Test Assault Begins

And so it begins.

They ratchet up the test difficulty by three grades levels.

They fail to give teachers and schools the curriculum needed to prepare students properly.

They barely - but just barely - inform teachers and parents what is going to be on the tests.

They tie teacher evaluations to the scores.

They know the scores are going to fall 30% from last year.

They will blame this decrease on teachers.

The new APPR system allows them to "i rate" tens of thousands of teachers across the state using these Common Core test scores.

The clock begins to run - those tens of thousands of teachers MUST get scores up next year or face dismissal under APPR.

Testing as a weapon of mass destruction.

That's high stakes test accountability education reform in a nutshell.

MORE Has A Good Case Here

The MORE caucus has posted their case against UFT President Michael Mulgrew and the Unity/New Action leadership of the UFT on their blog:

Michael Mulgrew, the current President of the UFT, represents the Unity and New Action caucuses.

New Action has made an agreement to back Unity’s top leadership in exchange for officer/executive board positions.  This agreement dates back to 2003, predating when Michael Mulgrew replaced Randi Weingarten in the UFT presidency.

We cannot and will not differentiate between these groups. Unity and New Action have exchanged seats and cross endorsed each other. This is the type of back-room deal that epitomizes the dirty politics that has come to define this union leadership.

What has been gained for the supposed alternative agenda of New Action in this time?

Similar to the way that Mulgrew signs onto deform policies, and then cries foul when the effects become detrimental, New Action has criticized some of these moves. Yet, this critique becomes disingenuous when it has supported the leader that took these actions, and then criticizes these policies. When the leader’s core policies are so fundamentally detrimental to the membership and our students, we must ask, how is this stance a credible opposition?

In 2009 Unity/New Action’s Mulgrew signed onto the Common Core; Mulgrew endorsed the extension of mayoral control.

In 2010 UnityNew Action’s Mulgrew signed onto the Race to the Top; Mulgrew made public lies that the rubber rooms were closed –in fact, detainees have been merely dispersed from large ones to district offices.

In 2011 Unity/New Action’s Mulgrew signed onto the weekly rotation of ATRs and the observation of ATRs in substitute assignments. (This was approved by the Delegate Assembly at an emergency meeting held after school on the last day of school, June 28, 2011. No ATRs were involved. The ATR pool itself was created by loss of senority excessing rights from Unity’s 2005 contract.)

In 2011 Unity/New Action’s Mulgrew, without a membership vote, endorsed the Danielson Framework for evaluating teachers.

2012 and 2013, in defiance of a rising clamor for a membership vote on the issue, Unity/New Action’s Mulgrew has endorsed the use of high-stakes tests as the basis for teacher evaluation, a methodology proven to be junk science.

In 2013 Unity/New Action’s Mulgrew has reaffirmed his belief in the failed policy of mayoral control which has led to the closing and/or privatization of our neighborhood schools and has left thousands of teachers as ATRs

Unity/ New Action endorsed Race to the Top 

In 2010 Unity/New Action’s Mulgrew said that New York’s Race to the Top (RTTT) application had teachers’ support. But just where did that race take us?

RTTT expanded the leadership academies; it took New York City’s burdensome data systems and network models state–wide, proving to be a failure everywhere.

RTTT mandates constant assessment and data management, spiking administrative costs and depriving teachers of proper preparation time.

RTTT pressured New York State to have high-stakes test-based educator evaluations, resulting in more testing and less learning for our students.

RTTT pushes districts to have destructive turn-around programs, school closings, and increases the number of charter schools.

Unity/New Action didn’t have to endorse RTTT.

13 states did not participate in the last round of Race to the Top applications.

The California Teachers Association criticized RTTT because its “One Size Fits All Hurts Students” and it said that RTTT requirements hold school systems “hostage by their purse strings.”

RTTT – Not worth the costs.

RTTT – Wrecking our working conditions and our children’s learning conditions.

Vote the MORE slate to improve working and learning conditions.

In each of the years of the tenure of Unity/New Action’s Mulgrew, the UFT has failed to stop dozens of school closings and even greater numbers of charter school co-locations. The privatization of our schools has led to fewer resources for our public schools, inequality in learning conditions, and the loss of union protections.

While New Action claims that it supports Mulgrew on some points and opposes him on other points, one must ask oneself: how could New Action be considered an opposition caucus when it will not challenge the fundamental betrayals of leadership that brought about the conditions that they complain about in their literature?

Unity claims they are “seasoned leaders in troubled times”, yet they are years removed from the classroom and their willingness to sign onto failed profit-driven reform is proof-positive that Unity has been the cause of these “troubled times”. They claim to fight school closings and co-locations, but cannot hide from their record of lack of mobilization against these policies (for the antithesis of Unity, please see the Chicago Teachers Union/Karen Lewis’ response) and agreeing to run their own charter school. Unity has allowed our members to go without a new contract for over four years; this is not leadership.

MULGREW/NEW ACTION/UNITY - disastrous management in a time of historic attack on teachers

CAVANAGH/MORE - positive alternative leadership to restore dignity to our profession and compassion for our students

 They make a great case against the current UFT leadership.

Can you imagine a UFT leadership that actually cared about its members, that actually came from the membership to rise to the union leadership positions not so they could get out of the classroom and live off the perks and double pensions but so they could protect teachers in a time of historic attacks on public education and provide a positive alternative to restore dignity to teaching and compassion to students?

If you can imagine such a leadership, you should vote for MORE.

Because the current leadership is just going to continue taking us down the path of destruction via APPR, Danielson, VAM, SLO's, and growth models.

After all, this is leadership that has decided education corporatists John King and Andrew Cuomo can be the independent arbitrators between the union and the city on the evaluation negotiations and impose whatever system they want upon us.

That, dear reader, is a failed leadership.