In Non-Skelos Related News, Assembly, Senate Ed Chairs Propose Changes To Education Policy

Jessica Bakeman at Capital NY:

ALBANY—The chairs of the Legislature’s education committees have introduced legislation that would make significant changes to the state’s education law and policies, including amending how the Board of Regents is elected and requiring education officials to revisit their decision to adopt the Common Core standards.

The bipartisan legislation, sponsored by Senator John Flanagan, a Long Island Republican, and Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan, a Queens Democrat, would also delay implementation of a new teacher evaluation system that was included in the recent state budget.

Further, the bill would require education officials to investigate the quality of state-administered standardized testing and release more questions and answers from the exams. The legislation includes an immediate $8.4 million allocation for the department to aid the release of the test information.

Read Bakeman's piece for all the details.

Some of these changes their proposing seem significant, some seem like windowdressing.

In any case, given the tumult in Albany over the Skelos arrest, the succession race to replace him, and the rumors that swirl about fed wiretaps and/or future corruption indictments, it's difficult to see how something like this makes it through.

Albany Pol: Opt-Out Numbers Are "Shocking"

From State of Politics:

State lawmakers this week said the effort to alter and trim some of the education policy measures approved in the 2015-16 budget plan are being spurred in large part by the large number of students opting out of the current round of standardized tests.  

“It’s not my colleagues, it’s being generated by the people of the state of New York,” said Buffalo Assemblyman Sean Ryan. “Last week’s opt out numbers are really shocking.”

Cathy Nolan pays some lip service to democratic values:

 “We’re only here through the consent of the governed,” said Assembly Education Committee Chairwoman Cathy Nolan, a Queens Democrat. “If people are unhappy, then we have to respond. And the Assembly is responding.”

Put me down as skeptical that the "Assembly is responding" to the "consent of the governed."

So long as Merryl Tisch remains in power, so long as NYSED continues to impose its ed deform agenda on students, teachers, schools and school districts, so long as Cuomo can shove through an education reform agenda as easily as a Sandra Lee meal goes into the garbage, I'm not ready to believe the "Assembly is responding" to the "consent of the governed."

Cathy Nolan Says Assembly Putting Together An "Opt-Out" Bill

From State of Politics:

During a CapTon interview last night, Nolan, a Queens Democrat, revealed her conference is “looking at legislation that would really reaffirm a parent’s right to opt out.”

“I think that we have to give parents some say here,” the assemblywoman said. “And it’s an obligation on the part of the Regents and the state Education Department to make sure that these tests are valid tests that reflect appropriately the diverse backgrounds of our children, the skill set is it the right skill set, the appropriate age level.”

“…We’ve heard from an awful lot of people on Long Island, and it has made an impact on me, and I hope it will make an impact on the Senate majority as well.”

Nolan noted that the testing “mania” (as she called it) coincided with her ascension to the position of Education Committee chair, and she now regrets some of the early support she gave to the idea that regular and rigorous testing was the best way to assess student performance.

“I sometimes feel, you don’t want to second guess yourself, (but) I have stepped from some of the initial support I gave it myself,” Nolan said.
“If I had to do it again, I would have opted my own son out from some of these tests. He would probably be happy to hear that now, he’s pretty much finished with them. But I think it created too much of a burden. We’ve kind of over-tested our children, so I think we really need to take a step back.”

The governor's agenda promotes a heavy emphasis on testing - 50% of a teacher's evaluation will be based on test scores - so I can't imagine he's going to agree to an "opt-out" bill coming from the Assembly.

But it's important to get him publicly to take a stance on "opt-out" so that parents can see just whose side he's on - the testing companies and edu-entrepreneurs who make the money off this chaos.

NYSUT Says It's Staying Out Of The Speaker's Race

From the Capital NY Morning Education email:

—Assembly education committee chair Cathy Nolan, a Queens Democrat, officially declared her candidacy for the speakership on Wednesday, touting her record on schools and women’s issues. (She would be the first woman in the role.) Capital’s Josefa Velasquez: http://bit.ly/1EQwIXN

—Although labor groups are expected to influence the race, New York State United Teachers is staying out of it. “This is a matter for the Assembly to decide. We are taking no position,” spokesman Carl Korn told Capital on Wednesday.

Anybody believe NYSUT's claim?

Assembly Speaker's Race Gets Shake-Up

Inbox!: @Wright4Harlem "throws full support" behind Carl Heastie for Assembly Speaker
— Ben Max (@TweetBenMax) January 28, 2015

Which does this:

Breaking #nyassembly news: Assemblyman Keith Wright has endorsed Carl Heastie's bid to be speaker. This is big news; unites black support.
— Jimmy Vielkind (@JimmyVielkind) January 28, 2015

Cathy Nolan of Queens and Joe Lentol of Brooklyn announced today, along with Heastie.

Heastie was considered the front runner even with Wright looking to be speaker.

With Wright out and throwing his support to Heastie, that makes him that much more the front runner to be permanent speaker.

Assembly Education Committee Chair Cathy Nolan Says She'll Run For Speaker

From State of Politics:

Queens Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan is launching a campaign for speaker, she announced on Wendesday.

Nolan’s bid, if successful, would make her the first woman to lead the Assembly as speaker and the first woman to lead a majority conference in either house of the state Legislature.

...

The campaign for speaker is taking shape this week as Democrats move to have embattled Speaker Sheldon Silver step down from the post he’s held since 1994 after he was arrested on corruption charges last week.

Among the other candidates in the mix: Manhattan Democrat Keith Wright and Bronx lawmaker Carl Heastie. Rochester-area Majority Leader Joe Morelle, who becomes acting speaker Monday until Feb. 10, did not rule out running for speaker.

...

As chair of the Assembly’s Education Committee, Nolan is a prominent supporter of the state’s teachers unions.

It will be interesting to see if the teachers union look to back her or Heastie for speaker.

I suppose much will depend on what's going on in the zeitgeist.

State Senate Undercuts Mayor Control Of NYC Schools Over Charter School Issues

It's interesting how the functionaries of the plutocracy like mayoral control of schools so long as the mayor in charge is pushing their agenda.

But when he's not, they undercut it from Albany:

The state Senate will propose sweeping measures in its budget bill to undo Mayor de Blasio’s ­moves against charter schools, sources familiar with the plan said.

The recommendations — to be released as early as Thursday — include overriding the mayor’s decision to block three of Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charter schools from opening in city buildings.

“We’re going to fix this problem,” said Sen. Martin Golden ­(R-Brooklyn).

“We agreed for the first time to provide ‘facilities’ aid as well as operating aid to charter schools.”

Charter schools for the first time would also be eligible to receive state facilities aid. That move is a response to de Blasio scrapping $210 million in construction aid to charters.

Charter schools co-located in city buildings will also be able to continue to expand grades in the future, sources said.

The plan would also increase operating aid.

Another move tentatively being considered for the budget is a recommendation to prohibit the city from charging rent to charter schools.

Charter schools do not operate under the same rules as public schools.

For example, Eva Moskowitz refuses to open her finances to the state comptroller's office becuase she says they do not have jurisdiction over her.

Charters do not have to abide by the teacher evaluation law either.

Many run a selective entrance process and some have been known to counsel out students with low test scores or behavioral problems.

Yet here they are, about to get a lot more state aid (money that will come from the public school budget, btw) even as they get to do whatever the hell they want to do.

And here is the State Senate, staunch mayoral control advocates, undercutting Mayor de Blasio's public school policies simply because they (and Eva Moskowitz) don't like them.

I would imagine some semblance of this bill will pass the Senate and be eagerly promoted by the charter school lobbyist in the governor's mansion.

Will Assembly Dems pass it?

That's the question.

We'll see - but one thing I do know, the next time you see one of these Independent Democrats or Republicans in the Senate talk about the importance of mayoral control of NYC schools, you can throw this at them and say "You mean the mayoral control you support only when it suits you?"

Same goes for the charter school lobbyist in the governor's mansion.

What It Takes To Be A Member Of The New York State Board Of Regents

From a commenter here at Perdido Street School blog:

All the other members of the board of Regents are unqualified political appointees. It sure helps to be the wife of a billionaire without appropriate experience to become the Regents Chancellor. Skill, competency, educational background are irrelevant in the NY state crony culture of Regents appointments. What matters? Do you have a billion dollars in assets. Are you friendly with Shedon Silver? Are you ready to rubber stamp everything Cuomo wants? Are you in favor of charter school expansion and do you agree that public schools are failing "our" kids? If you are willing to answer yes to all of the above, then you can be appointed to the Board of Regents.

Voe the way the plutocrats want you to vote - that's the number on qualification.

The NYSED Common Core Modules - Meant To Dumb Down A Whole Generation Of Children

Here's a comment NYCDOEnuts left on this Perdido Street School post yesterday on the NYSED modules:

At my school, I have two 9th grade classes where I am required to teach to the modules. They are so dry and tedious, that on days when I follow the curriculum (knowing I could be popped in on for an informal eval) my classroom is completely lifeless. Imagine spending a whole period asking almost the same question 10 times, while covering only 5 sentences of a story students clearly get and are ready to move forward with. The insane part is, that the lessons are so rigid and scaffolded that they are in fact not challenging at all. The lessons are designed to get students to see stories in such a specific way and with no room for interpretation, so that when a unit finally finished you get 34 of the exact same essay. We are not teaching students to analyze literature, or even to form arguments, we are teaching them how to be drones who follow tedious step by step processes that require no critical or independent thought whatsoever. Also, Module 1 for 10th grade is out now, and it is more of the same crap.

Here's another comment on the same post:

I can tell that the same is true for the middle school modules. My daughter sat through five weeks of a speech by Caesar Chavez. She said that after the first few days, everyone in the class, including the teacher, just tuned out. She felt like they just kept doing the same lesson over and over and over.

The supposed rigor of the Common Core is that children spend more time learning fewer topics, but the topics they do learn about, they learn in depth.

Take a look at the SED modules and see the "depth" of the Common Core in action in NY State schools.

Students spend weeks on one short story answering the same kinds of text-based questions over and over and over that lead them to all write the same essay response for the ending assessment.

Students read one speech by a famous American over and over and over until they no longer care about the issue, the speech, or English class.

Students read one scene from each of the five acts of Romeo and Juliet, spending weeks on each of the scenes, then watch the film with Leonardo DiCaprio for the parts of the play they're not reading.

This is rote, mind-numbing, soul-sapping drudge work meant to dumb down an entire generation of American children to grow into mindless adults able to follow orders and instructions and little else.

The purveyors of the Common Core belong in jail for child abuse - John King, Merryl Tisch, every member of the Board of Regents who supports this agenda, every functionary at SED who hoists this toxic reform onto NY State children (including the Gates Foundation-funded "Regents Fellows"), every member of the NY State legislature who supports Common Core as a reform and finally the state's First Lobbyist for children, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, who currently is running a campaign advertisement about what a great idea the Common Core is (even as he criticizes the implementation of it by SED.)

The Common Core NYSED modules are indefensible and the proof of that is in how much the children who are being taught with these modules have learned to hate school.

NY State Assembly Bill Delaying Common Core Stakes To Pass Monday

From Politics on the Hudson:

The state Assembly has introduced legislation to delay the use the Common Core testing standards on students’ grades and teachers’ evaluation, the latest move by state officials to address the outcry over the controversial program.

The bill (A08929) is set for approval by the Assembly on Monday, Assembly officials said.

“The implementation of the Common Core has caused significant challenges that have strained our school districts, administrators, teachers, parents and, most importantly, students,” the bill states.

The bill would delay much of the Common Core testing, particularly for third through eighth grades, from being used in evaluating the performance of students and teachers for two years. After its first year last school year, Common Core testing led to a major drop in test results.

The legislation would order the state Education Department commissioner to look at ways to eliminate some testing and ban standardized tests in kindergarten through second grade.

The bill would also delay the implementation of an online-data portal to collect student information until July 2015. And it would give parents the right to opt out their students from participating in the portal, which has been met with skepticism about whether it would be secure.

“This legislation will provide much needed adjustments relating to common core implementation, teacher evaluations and student data privacy to alleviate some of the strain experiences by our teachers, school administrators and, most importantly, students,” the bill says.

The bill, sponsored by Assembly Education Committee chairwoman Cathy Nolan, D-Queens, doesn’t yet have a Senate sponsor, and it complicates an effort by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Board of Regents to address Common Core concerns. Newsday first reported Friday that the bill was set for release.

Given how the bill doesn't have a Senate sponsor and how Cuomo wants nothing to do with it, it may dies an untimely death in the Assembly.

The Fight Over Teacher Evaluations

In the Times article on Cuomo's shrill reaction to the Regents CCSS delay recommendations is this:

A working group of the Board of Regents on Monday recommended several changes to how the state’s schools use the Common Core. It did not call for a moratorium as legislators have done, but it proposed letting teachers who earn the poorest evaluations — “ineffective” — to raise the bumpy Common Core rollout as a defense. Teachers rated ineffective two years in a row are at risk of losing their jobs. The full board is expected to approve the change on Tuesday.

In a conference call with reporters, John B. King Jr., the state education commissioner, who reports to the regents, said the idea was designed to ensure “that no teacher will be unfairly removed” as a result of students’ posting poor scores on the tests aligned with the Common Core.

In an email, Catherine T. Nolan, the chairwoman of the State Assembly’s education committee, said that the board’s proposal “sounds reasonable,” though she would seek more input, including from the New York City schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña.

The scores make up 20 percent of a teacher’s grade — principals’ observations and other measures make up the rest — but the inclusion of the scores and the provision for firing teachers who repeatedly rate poorly were major goals of education reform advocates, former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the governor.

Cuomo, of course, didn't want to see his vaunted APPR teacher evaluation law watered down at all - he planned on hawking it during his presidential run as one example of how he used an iron fist to get an intransigent government bureaucracy to hold government workers accountable.

But to be honest, this isn't adding much water to the law.

UFT President Mulgrew claims teachers could already raise the "CCSS defense":

Mr. Cuomo sees the regents’ proposal as weakening the teacher evaluation law, though Michael Mulgrew, the president of the city’s teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers, disagreed, saying teachers already could raise the Common Core defense. Mr. King “did not give us anything new,” he said.

NYSUT President Iannuzzi said the same thing in an NYSUT statement:

"Instead of listening to parents and educators who are grappling with the fallout from the State Education Department's disastrous implementation, the task force dismissed their concerns with a report that, in the end, adds up to a 'we know best' collection of minor adjustments," said NYSUT President Richard C. Iannuzzi, who noted - contrary to a comment by the governor - that the Regents did not pause or delay anything that is not already in law.

But SED says no, this is new:

However, a spokesman for the state’s Education Department said, “it is our understanding that this is a new dimension; it changes the regulations.”

I say, it doesn't matter much because APPR is still a mess, still using the flawed VAM for teachers, still has a host of "local measures" that are so convoluted that hardly anybody can explain how they work, still forces a whole bunch of unnecessary classroom observations so that administrators are doing little more than running from room to room for Danielson observations and the Danielson rubric itself is a flawed review tool that is being used to force a "One Way To Teach Them All" methodology onto teachers.

The fight over teacher evaluations and APPR has just begun, and you can bet that Andy Cuomo isn't going to back down from it, you can bet that Mulgrew isn't going to fight him much on it, and you can bet that the changes the Regents announced yesterday will not solve the arious problems with the law and some teachers are still going to be "unfairly removed" as King put it yesterday at the Regents meeting.

All of which means the battle from the grassroots goes on.

Regents Say They're Feeling The Pressure

From Newsday:

High school students across New York will not have to meet higher passage requirements on new, tougher state exams in order to graduate until 2022 under recommendations approved Monday by the Board of Regents.

Those students currently were scheduled to start taking Regents exams based upon the Common Core academic standards this spring. The policy-making board's action means they will not have to pass the more rigorous exams with scores of 75 or 80 as graduation requirements until the later date.

The change came amid the full board's 15-2 approval of 19 recommendations from a six-member work group that Chancellor Merryl Tisch appointed to review the state's education initiatives. The vote followed nearly two-and-a-half hours of debate and discussion in a crowded Albany conference room.

Another recommendation will allow classroom teachers who face firing after being rated "ineffective" under the state's new evaluation system to appeal, on the grounds they were not adequately prepared to teach lessons based on the state's Common Core curricula.

That provision applies only to job ratings issued in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years. Under the new evaluation system, teachers rated "ineffective" for two consecutive years face the possibility of job loss.

The Regents' action was the first significant pullback from reforms that Tisch and state Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. have repeatedly asserted are necessary to ensure that students are college- and career-ready.

...

Veteran Regents have described the pressure they have felt from the public as unprecedented. The Regents are the nation's oldest education-policy board, dating back to the 1780s. Members are appointed to five-year terms by the State Legislature and traditionally have been largely insulated from politics.

"It's the first time since I've been on the board that I've seen something like this," James Dawson, a work-group member and geology professor from Plattsburgh who has served for 21 years, said in an interview before Monday's meeting. "I find it very disappointing and frustrating."

Dawson's disappointment stems largely from a conviction that the Common Core standards represent a positive step toward developing more rigorous, uniform guidelines in English and mathematics.

If these Regents think the pressure has stopped because they half-blinked on some parts of their reform agenda, they've got another thing coming.

Parents and teachers are not happy with the changes they announced today.

Neither was NYSUT.

They all thought the changes didn't go far enough.

And Cuomo was mad for another reason.

He thinks they're screwing with his signature education achievement - the glorious APPR teacher evaluation system that he claims is state of the art and the finest in the nation.

Members of the legislature have signaled that these announcements today are enough to keep them from doing anything in the short term to change either APPR or Common Core.

But Cuomo sounds like he's going to go after the Regents.

And the pressure isn't going to let up from parents and teachers either.

So if Regent Dawson is disappointed over the pressure he felt from the various stakeholders, that's just too damned bad.

The pressure isn't going to let up with the changes they announced today.

Reaction To The Regents Recommendations On Common Core And APPR Teacher Evaluations (UPDATED - 6:00 PM)

So the Regents reaffirmed the importance of Common Core but delayed the timeline of full implementation to 2022.

You can read the Regents press release here.

The Regents recommendations seemed to make nobody but some members of the legislature happy.

Here was Cuomo's response:

“Today’s recommendations are another in a series of missteps by the Board of Regents that suggests the time has come to seriously reexamine its capacity and performance. These recommendations are simply too little, too late for our parents and students.

“Common Core is the right goal and direction as it is vital that we have a real set of standards for our students and a meaningful teacher evaluation system.

However, Common Core’s implementation in New York has been flawed and mismanaged from the start.

“As far as today’s recommendations are concerned, there is a difference between remedying the system for students and parents and using this situation as yet another excuse to stop the teacher evaluation process.

“The Regents’ response is to recommend delaying the teacher evaluation system and is yet another in a long series of roadblocks to a much needed evaluation system which the Regents had stalled putting in place for years.

“I have created a commission to thoroughly examine how we can address these issues. The commission has started its work and we should await their recommendations so that we can find a legislative solution this session to solve these problems.”

NYSAPE was also not happy with the recommendations, though for reasons far different than Cuomo's:

The leaders of the NYS Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE), a coalition of more than 45 parent and educator groups from throughout the state, expressed extreme disappointment that the NYS Regent Common Core Taskforce refused to address the real issues undermining education in this state and made only minor tweaks to current policies.  The report is quite clear that the Regents continue to ignore the deep flaws in the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS), excessive high stakes state testing and student data sharing.  The recommendations can be viewed here: http://www.regents.nysed.gov/meetings/2014/February2014/214p12hea3.pdf

Tim Farley, a parent of four public school children and the Principal of Ichabod Crane Elementary/Middle School said, “Today's recommendations from Commissioner King and the Regents task force reveal just how out of touch they are and how obsessive their appetite is for excessive state tests.  The fact that they refuse to subject their own children to these excessive testing and data policies is very telling.  The parents and educators of New York have been paying attention, and they are justifiably outraged."

“The need to replace the four incumbent Regents members is more important than ever,” said Eric Mihelbergel, Ken-Ton public school parent and founding member of NYSAPE.  The Regents Taskforce failed to address the real concerns of parents and again has displayed disconnect from their constituents.  Their recommendations today tell me the State is full steam ahead with this failed reform agenda.”

Carol Burris, South Side High Principal and 2013 Principal of the Year stated, “For a deliberative body that is so insistent that students, schools and educators be held accountable, their unwillingness to assume responsibility for their blunders and respond by correcting course is breathtaking.  For example, they shift the review of the New York State Common Core standards to the National Governors Association, rather than assume that responsibility themselves. At nearly every turn they “advocate”, or “encourage” others to take action, rather than earnestly respond to what they heard.  Developing a “teacher portal” and more low quality materials, is hardly the response our parents expected.  The tinkering with dates and semantics about college ready scores at the high school level provides no relief for our K-8 students from testing or from the implementation of flawed curriculum. ”

“Instead of simply calling for a delay in the uploading of private student data onto an insecure data cloud, and pass the responsibility to deal with this issue to the Legislature, the Regents should have insisted that the inBloom contract be cancelled, as every other state has done.  Why should New York continue to be the worst place in the country when it comes to student privacy?” asked Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters.

“The notion that more time to phase in standards or train teachers will somehow cure the ills of a deficient curriculum and inappropriate tests is misguided.    Just as troubling is the suggestion that teachers should continue to be evaluated on the basis of a system no one believes in, and that if they are threatened with losing their jobs, they  should “raise an alleged failure” of their districts to properly implement the Common Core – when the fault lies with the state.   There is no need for more money to 'engage' parents with implementation of CCLS. Parents have made their voices perfectly clear in demanding that these destructive policies be brought to an immediate halt,” said Jessica McNair, New Hartford public school parent.

"The Regents appear not  to understand that the actual time spent on testing per day, multiplied out over six days of the state assessments, is inappropriate for all students despite the misleading statistics quoted in recommendations," stated Chris Cerrone, Western New York public school parent of two elementary-aged children.

“Our state education system remains in turmoil, yet the recommendations of this task force do nothing to address the profound problems associated with the standards and excessive high stakes testing.  They simply echo the false sentiments of Chancellor Tisch and Commissioner King, by providing nothing more than superficial suggestions in an attempt to pacify the public. Parents will not be so easily assuaged,” said Jeanette Deutermann, Bellmore public school parent and founder of Long Island Opt-Out.

But John Flanagan was mostly happy with the Regents:

Senate Education Committee Chairman John Flanagan (R-Suffolk) this afternoon was far less critical than Gov. Cuomo when discussing the changes the Board of Regents have proposed for the Common Core curriculum.

Flanagan praised the Regents for addressing many of the issues that parents and the lawmakers have been calling for. He called the changes a major step in the right direction and said it shows the Regents were listening to the widespread complaints.

“Compared to where they were and where they are today is night and day from where they started,” Flanagan said.

The Regents' plan, he said, addresses many of the issues the Senate has introduced bills to tackle, including the elimination of unnecessary testing and standardized testing for students in prekindergarten through second grade. He also praised the delay in releasing personalized student data to third parties.

He also highlighted the plan for ensuring that the graduating class of 2022 will be the first required to pass Common Core testing in order to graduate.

“Those are all positive things,” he said. “We’re going to have more discussions.”

Asked about Cuomo’s comments that the new plan would weaken a push for tougher teaching standards, Flanagan indicated it would do a lot to alleviate the fears of parents.

“There are things there the parents understand,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with eliminating standardized testing for pre-K through 2. There’s nothing wrong with saying we’re going to get rid of unnecessary testing. Those are things I think are right. Those are things that I think parents want. That has nothing to do with teachers. These are things that parents are concerned with.”

Despite the praise, Flanagan said he will still push the bills as a type of “belts and suspenders.”

He said there will also be continued discussions with the Regents and state Ed since the new plan “doesn’t address all concerns on delay and moratoriums.”

But he said the Regents seem to recognize they messed up and are now looking to correct it.

“They didn’t use the word ‘apology’ but they used the word ‘regrets’ about the way things have unfolded,” he said. “That’s a significant departure from where they were even a week ago.”

Shelly Silver sounded mostly happy as well:

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver had a favorable reaction Monday afternoon to the changes the Board of Regents proposed to the Common Core curriculum.

“I think they’ve done by regulation what they can do,” Silver told reporters outside his Assembly office. “And basically they’ve imposed some sort of moratorium on a variety of issues that we had addressed with them and that, more importantly, parents around this state have expressed at forums around the state.”

Silver did not rule out further legislative changes to the Common Core but expressed a willingness to await the report of the commission formed by Gov. Cuomo to review the issue.

“I think today’s actions alleviate some of the tensions that parents have had and expressed at those forums,”  Silver said. “There are things that may have to be done statutorily and the governor has a commission. I hope that commission will report and recommend some statutory changes that are necessary.”

Silver added:  “Our concerns has always been the students and the parents and I think they’ve addressed that.”

I've spent the afternoon at some PD and managed to miss the Regents recommendations as well as the various reactions from parents, teachers, and the politicians, so this news is still "breaking" for me.

But I'll certainly have more in a bit on this.

For now, let's just say that these "fixes" seem as half-baked as the original reforms.

Cuomo, Tisch & King Seem To Be Only Supporters Left On CCSS

Prominent members of the Assembly are calling for a moratorium:

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assembly Education Committee Chairwoman Cathy Nolan today called for a two-year delay – “at minimum” – in using Common Core test results for “high-stakes” decisions for teachers, principals and students.

Silver and Nolan said in a statement that “New Yorkers share the same goal – to improve our schools and help prepare our students to be successful and college and career ready upon graduation.”
But given the concerns raised over the controversial new curriculum, particularly in connection with the use of test data in teacher evaluations, the Democratic lawmakers said it would be both “prudent” and “wise” to put the brakes on.

At the same time, they said, the state Education Department should “continue to develop Common Core aligned curricula and assist local school districts in developing their own curricula” so teachers will successfully be able to instruct and assist students in reaching their maximum potential.

This is a victory of sorts for NYSUT, which has been pushing for a three-year moratorium, and also for the union’s embattled president, Dick Iannuzzi, who is facing a challenge to his leadership by a UFT-backed slate that includes his own No. 2, Andy Pallotta.

Up to this point, Silver has held off on making any definitive pronouncements on how to proceed on the hot-button topic of Common Core, even as many of his members and his political allies (ie: NYSUT) have been clamoring for a moratorium.

Prominent members of the Senate are doing the same:

A few hours after Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assembly Education Chairwoman Cathy Nolan backed a minimum two-year postponement of Common Core, the leaders of the Senate majority coalition on Tuesday are also calling for a delay.

In a statement released by Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos, Senate IDC Leader Jeff Klein and Senate Education Committee Chairman John Flanagan, the lawmakers say they “continue to have grave concerns” over the roll out of the national education standards.

“Unless the Board of Regents acts to alleviate the concerns of parents, teachers and other educators, we call on the Regents to delay the use of Common Core tests for high-stakes decisions about teachers, principals and students for a minimum of two years,” the statement reads. “During this time, SED should continue to develop curricula aligned with higher standards and assist local school districts in developing their own curricula so teachers can successfully implement higher learning standards and help students reach their maximum potential.”

At the same time, the Senate backs a one-yuear moratorium on the proposal to share student data through the controversial third-party vendor inBloom.

In addition, students, parents, teachers, privacy experts and school administrators have raised serious concerns about the ability of unauthorized third-parties to access personally identifiable information (PII) of students, teachers and principals that will be collected on the state-wide Education Data Portal (EDP). Therefore, we reiterate our call for the Regents to delay operation of the Education Data Portal for at least one year.

The lawmakers add they continue to support the education standards, but the decision to push for the delay came out of meeting with parents, teachers, students and administrators at public hearings around the state.

Governor Cuomo's response?

Hey, these moratorium calls are superfluous because my Common Core panel is going to handle all this:

Statement From Communications Director Melissa DeRosa on the Legislature's Call for a Moratorium on Common Core

Albany, NY (February 4, 2014)

Governor Cuomo believes that the best long term economic development strategy is ensuring New York State has the strongest possible education system. Common Core is an issue about which there has been a lot of dialogue. The Governor believes that we need to set real standards for our students and have a meaningful teacher evaluation system, and continues to support the Common Core agenda.

However, the Governor believes that the way that Common Core has been managed by the Board of Regents is flawed, leading to too much uncertainty, confusion and anxiety among students and their parents. The strength of public education in New York is dependent on a rational system that is well administered.

Two weeks ago, the Governor announced that he will assemble a panel that includes education experts and members of the legislature to identify flaws in Common Core’s rollout and take corrective action by the end of this session. The Governor believes there are two issues – common core and teacher evaluations – and they must be analyzed separately. It would be premature to consider any moratorium before the panel is allowed to do its work.

This "panel" Cuomo says will look into CCSS problems doesn't actually exist yet - no members have been named, no panel has been convened.

Calling for this panel was Cuomo's way of making it look like he was addressing parents' and teachers' concerns over CCSS and the attendant testing without actually addressing those problems.

It seems he, along with Merryl Tisch and John King, is one of the few people left in the state who still supports CCSS as is, but he doesn't want to take the political hit for doing so.

So he calls for the panel, then slow-walks naming people to it, in the end hoping people kind forget about some of this and move on to other things.

He's done the same thing with the fracking issue, though anti-frackers and pro-frackers haven't been fooled by his delaying tactics there and both sides continue to call for him to finally make a decision on that issue.

The same is going to happen here with CCSS - Cuomo is trying to delay any modifying of the state ed reform agenda and he's using these diversionary tactics to extend that delay as long as he can.

I don't know what his CCSS end game is any more than I know what his fracking end game is.

But I suspect in both cases, it's to give the campaign donors who pay him a lot of money the policies they want without taking the political hit for doing just that.

Cuomo Playing Games With Common Core

Here's Andrew Cuomo's response to Shelly Silver and Cathy Nolan calling for at least a two year delay on stakes attached to CCSS:

Statement From Communications Director Melissa DeRosa on the Legislature's Call for a Moratorium on Common Core

Albany, NY (February 4, 2014)

Governor Cuomo believes that the best long term economic development strategy is ensuring New York State has the strongest possible education system. Common Core is an issue about which there has been a lot of dialogue. The Governor believes that we need to set real standards for our students and have a meaningful teacher evaluation system, and continues to support the Common Core agenda.

However, the Governor believes that the way that Common Core has been managed by the Board of Regents is flawed, leading to too much uncertainty, confusion and anxiety among students and their parents. The strength of public education in New York is dependent on a rational system that is well administered.

Two weeks ago, the Governor announced that he will assemble a panel that includes education experts and members of the legislature to identify flaws in Common Core’s rollout and take corrective action by the end of this session. The Governor believes there are two issues – common core and teacher evaluations – and they must be analyzed separately. It would be premature to consider any moratorium before the panel is allowed to do its work.

That panel of education experts and members of the legislature Cuomo says he wants assembled to look into CCSS has yet to be named or convened.

That's because Cuomo is in no rush to name members to that panel or convene it, let alone do anything as a result of the panel findings.

It's a delaying tactic Cuomo is employing here because he doesn't want to give up the ghost on CCSS (he's taken many suitcases full of cash from the DFER's and other supporters of CCSS to do that), but he also doesn't want to take a political hit from the parents around the state who are irate about the Common Core State (sic) Standards, the Endless Testing regime that goes along with it and the inBloom data project that they're using to track all the stats from the tests.

He also fails to note how parents are upset about all the testing and much of that testing is mandated by his teacher evaluation system that he has claimed in the past is so state of the art, so while he is arguing that CCSS and APPR are different issues, they actually are related issues - APPR was devised to go hand-in-hand with the Common Core testing, punishing teachers who didn't teach to the CCSS tests.

Maybe Cuomo thinks this statement will fool people into thinking he's doing something on the CCSS/testing issue, but I doubt it will.

He's simply delaying taking a stance on the issues, just as he has done with other tough issues in the past - like fracking, for example.

The parents and educators who have been advocating for changes to the state's education reform agenda will not be fooled by Sheriff Andy's little CCSS panel gambit.

Shelly Silver, Cathy Nolan Call For At Least Two Year Delay On Common Core, Pause On InBloom

This is not going to make the functionaries at SED or Shelly Silver's pal, Merryl Tisch, happy at all:

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and his education committee chief said Tuesday that high-stakes testing associated with the new Common Core curriculum should be delayed for two years -- at least.

...

In a statement, Silver and Education Committee Chairwoman Cathy Nolan (D-Queens) said while "New Yorkers share the same goal – to improve our schools and help prepare our students to be successful and college and career ready upon graduation," the process is moving too fast.

"The use of Common Core aligned tests for high-stakes decisions for teachers, principals and students should be delayed, at a minimum, for two years," they said, while the state Education Department works with local districts to develop a game plan.

...

Silver and Nolan also reiterated their concerns about the safety of giving an outside vendor access to student information, which could include not only grades and test scores, but data on disabilities and discipline.

No data should be handed over, they said, until questions are answered about protection against security breaches "as well as the highly inappropriate potential for commercialization."

Obviously just saying these things isn't going to bring about any change - King already told the Legislature they have no power over him or the Common Core implementation.

But passing legislation to bring about a delay of CCSS and a pause in inBloom will do the trick.

Shelly Silver And Cathy Nolan Decide NYSED's InBloom Plan Is A Problem

From Daily Politics:

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Education Committee Chairman Catherine Nolan are trying to put the brakes on the state Ed Department's release of student data to outside vendor InBloom, saying it's just too risky right now. 

The data dump of attendance, grades and test scores -- plus disciplinary records and disabilities -- is supposed to fuel the SED's EngageNY web portal as part of the Race To The Top funding program.

“After receiving moving and credible testimony at a recent hearing, the Assembly Majority has serious concerns about the potential flaws of the SED’s plan to share student data and their ability to protect student privacy. We feel compelled to question this plan and we strongly believe that student information should not be shared with InBloom at this time,” said Nolan, a Queens Democrat.

The Assembly Members who signed the letter stating their concerns to King said that many of the witnesses who testified in opposition to SED's inBloom plan provided "credible" and "moving" testimony.

They said this summed up the overall feeling they were left about SED's plans:

One witness, Pleasantville Superintendent Mary Fox Alter, summed up these concerns in her submitted testimony:

“The promise of digital personalized learning that uses individual data points on a child to plan digital learning solutions is dangerous. We cannot micromanage the learning needs of students or allow isolated data elements to be interpreted through a computer game, smartphone app or educational software to design learning. Students are human beings with individual needs, characteristics and learning trajectories.”

I would add that Common Core and Danielson also, in many ways, force micromanaging the learning needs of students and force a one-size-fits-all education onto human beings with individual needs, characteristics and learning trajectories.

That Silver and Nolan acknowledge this about inBloom is a good thing, however.

Just six months ago, Silver was telling critics of inBloom that there was nothing they could do to derail the state's inBloom plans.

Sounds like the furor around inBloom has changed that.

Still no Sheriff Andy sighting on any of this, however.

Wonder when he'll finally realize the DFER money he took to help implement inBloom isn't worth the political hassle?