High Achievement New York, a group that has been supportive of Common Core, is launching a six-figure radio campaign aimed at boosting support for the education standards.
The campaign, set to run through December, is being launched as Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s task force convened to study and potentially recommend changes to the standards is concluding its round of public hearings.
In the ad, two Buffalo teachers discuss their support for the standards, saying they “are working” for students.
“But opponents want to pull the rug out on teachers,” says teacher Lucy Mendola in the spot.
Teacher Heather McCarthy adds: “Help us strengthen New York Standards, not dismantle them.”
The ads will be targeted for audiences in New York City, the Capital Region, Buffalo and Rochester.
This isn't the first time pro-Common Core ad buys have run.
They haven't worked in the past.
I have a difficult time seeing these work either - the polling is pretty clear in its trends where the public at large stands on Common Core.
But there is a strategy, perhaps, behind the ads:
The spot...directs listeners to the task force’s comments page as well as the Department of Education’s feedback survey.
NYSED has already been touting its CCSS survey, the one that takes intimate knowledge of the standards and hours to fill out, as proof positive New Yorkers love them some Common Core.
Perhaps Hedge Fund, er, High Achievement New York wants to juice the numbers even more by directing people to that survey.
Then they'll point to the survey to say New Yorkers don't want any changes to the Common Core.
Perhaps this is all part of Cuomo's plan to make it look like changes are coming to the state's education policy when no real change is coming.
Quite frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't some coordination between the group and the Cuomo administration, since the backers of High Achievement come from the same place as his donor class, and Cuomo has been known to coordinate with ed deformers before (see here, for example.)
