How MaryEllen Elia Fools Some Critics (But Not All)

I've been writing for a few weeks now that new NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia is engaging in a "rebrand" effort for New York's education reform agenda, but underneath the "repainting" we see the same old same old reforms - the Endless Testing regime, a pro-Common Core push, and a Blame Teachers attitude toward educators.

Jessica Bakeman writes that Elia comes at this agenda with a more deft touch than her predecessor, John King, and has managed to fool many critics so far that her agenda is different - even though it isn't:

ALBANY—New York’s new education commissioner, MaryEllen Elia, and her predecessor, John King, both support the state’s controversial reform agenda, including implementing the Common Core standards, testing students on the more difficult material and evaluating teachers using students’ exam scores.

But it’s what makes her different from the former chief that state education officials have highlighted.

Elia is seasoned at 66, compared to King, who at 36 became the youngest education commissioner in the state’s history. Elia spent more than four decades working in traditional public schools, as a teacher, an administrator and a superintendent, while King had relatively limited experience in schools before founding a prominent charter school network. She has been described as a skilled listener, communicator and collaborator, while he was often criticized as being out of touch and tone deaf.

In hopes of turning King’s critics into Elia’s supporters without reversing course on the reform agenda they’ve pursued for five years, the new commissioner, her communications staff and the State Board of Regents, which appointed her in May, have pitched her as his opposite.

 So far—and granted, it’s still early—the strategy seems to be working.

...

Elia’s record, like King's, is that of an aggressive reformer. In her last position as superintendent of a large, diverse school district in central Florida, she implemented teacher evaluations before the rest of the state with a $100 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and negotiated with teachers a merit-pay system. Since coming to New York, she has repeatedly described herself as a believer in “accountability.” She supports Governor Andrew Cuomo's receivership model to turn around struggling schools, a plan that could lead to the firing of principals and teachers, and she stressed just giving schools more money isn't the answer.

Bakeman has two pretty good examples of how Elia isn't doing anything different than what came before at SED, but is getting credit for "change" from her critics.

The first is when she said she was instituting a review of the Common Core standards.

That review is in state law as passed this year but Elia broached it as if it were her idea.

The second was in the new testing contract with Questar that "Elia emphasized that the new contract specifically requires teachers’ input in the tests’ content."

Her PR on this:

“New York State teachers will be involved in every step of the test development process,” Elia said in a statement. “Teacher input is critical to building a successful state test.”

But a former NYSED functionary points out that stipulation was in the Pearson contract too:

What’s not in her statement: The contract with Pearson, which ultimately totaled $38 million over five years, also required input from educators. Education officials for years stressed to critics that every question on the exams had been vetted by New York teachers.

Ken Slentz, former deputy education commissioner who now leads a small district in the Finger Lakes, said the department’s messaging suggested the new contract offered something the old one didn’t, which he called “disingenuous.”

“The Questar contract calls for the role of teachers; the Pearson contract had that as well,” he said. “Instead of going out and having these fact-based conversations, we’re being a little bit disingenuous about how we do business. That doesn’t help us in terms of overcoming these misinformed conversations.”

There has been no change to the state's education reform agenda under MaryEllen Elia, but that hasn't stopped critics of NYSED and John King from falling all over themselves to praise Elia.

Take NYSUT, for example.

NYSUT President Karen Magee declared Elia's appointment a victory for NYSUT.

Then there are the nice things NYSUT said about the Questar contract.

Bakeman reports how Assembly Dems like Patrica Fahy are saying nice things about Elia too.

But make no mistake, there are no changes to the state's reform agenda under Elia, as members of the Board of Regents acknowledge:

Board of Regents member Roger Tilles, who represents Long Island on the board, said he believes Elia will be better suited to convince Cuomo and lawmakers to increase state aid to the department.

“The new commissioner is in a much better position to ask for that than the previous commissioner,” he said. “She’s not tainted. There’s not the baggage. And maybe she’ll make exactly the same pitch that John King made. I’ve already seen it when she’s talked to the public in general. She could [talk about] the same issues, and the public will buy it, as opposed to John, when there was immediate antagonism.”

Board of Regents chancellor Merryl Tisch said Elia's long career in public education has helped her gain the respect of skeptics.

“She has been very well received by all constituent groups,” Tisch said, referring to Elia. “She’s got 40 years of experience, so when she says something, people can’t just say to her, ‘No, I don’t think so.’ She speaks with authority. She speaks from experience. She speaks with conviction, and she speaks with deep knowledge. And that is important.”

Bakeman reports that NYSAPE are not fooled by MaryEllen Elia and see the Endless Testing regime continuing under her despite the new PR efforts.

If you're a reader of Perdido Street School blog, NYC Educator's blog, ICEUFT blog or Ed Notes Online, you know we're not fooled by the PR either.

MaryEllen Elia's reform agenda is the same as John King' reform agenda was and Andrew Cuomo's reform agenda is.

At the core is a "Blame Teachers" mentality, an attitude that accountability is for individual schools and teachers, perhaps for districts, but never for the geniuses in Albany who make the policy or put it into action, and a love of the Endless Testing regime and the Common Core.

Elia is pursuing that agenda right now in the receivership push, talking tough to officials and administrators in districts with "struggling" schools while dismissing funding inequity or any other issues other than mismanagement.

I'm not exactly sure what John King's critics who've become MaryEllen Elia's fans are watching with Elia - it's pretty obvious that her game is the same as John King's game (and the same as Andrew Cuomo's game.)

Nonetheless, I will continue to point out over and over that the state's reform agenda has no changed under MaryEllen Elia, I will continue to illuminate Elia's track record in Hillsborough which was abysmal bordering on the criminal, and do my best, in my little corner of the Internet, to get people to see MaryEllen Elia for the corporate reformer and jive artist she is.

Pearson Sells Financial Times

Pearson's having an eventful summer so far, getting passed over for testing contracts, selling newspapers, that sort of thing:

Japanese media group Nikkei has agreed to buy the Financial Times from Britain's Pearson (PSON.L) for $1.3 billion, putting one of the world's premier business newspapers in the hands of a company influential at home but little known outside Japan.

The deal, struck after Nikkei beat Germany's Axel Springer (SPRGn.DE) to the prize, marks the biggest acquisition by a Japanese media organization and is a coup for the employee-owned firm which lends its name to the main Japanese stock market index.

In the Financial Times it has acquired an authoritative global newspaper that commands strong loyalty from its readers and has coped better than others with the shift to online publishing. It was one of the first newspapers to successfully charge for access to its website.

...


Reporters at the paper told Reuters there was some apprehension, as they knew very little about their new owner, but there was also relief they had not been bought by Bloomberg - another potential buyer - which could have resulted in duplication of staff roles and more potential job cuts.

Chief Executive John Fallon told reporters he believed that like Pearson, the new owner had a commitment to the "fairness and accuracy of its reporting, and to the integrity and independence of its journalism".

Pearson still has 50% of The Economist and 47% of Penguin Random House.

Here's their public strategy around the sale:

Pearson will now be 100% focused on our global education strategy. The world of education is changing profoundly and we see huge opportunity to grow our business through increasing access to high quality education globally.

Interesting that they see this "huge opportunity" to grow the business as the anger and hostility many parents and educators feel toward Pearson has been growing to a crescendo.

Helping MaryEllen Elia Out With Those Conversations She Wants To Have With Parents

Back in May, newly appointed NYSED Commissioner MarEllen Elia promised to "repaint" the Common Core in order to help parents and teachers understand how swell the CCSS are if only they ignored all the bad things mean people have said about the standards.

Now Elia says she wants to have some conversations with parents to better understand their thoughts about public education issues.

Sean Crowley has some words of wisdom for NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia:

She fails to grasp the Northern State Reality that parents and teachers ALREADY understand Common Core and High Stakes Testing, nobody needs to help us"understand" them. We understand they are shit and we want them gone. That's the understanding she is going to have brought to her. Whether or not she listens is anyone's bet but anyone would be an idiot to bet that she will.

NYSED announced they had dropped Pearson as the 3-8 test developer and hired Questar Assessment to develop the state tests using teachers in that development.

Then came the soothing words from Elia about wanting to have conversations with parents to get their ideas about education and maybe, just maybe, incorporate some of them into state policy.

But don't forget that "repaint" comment from May.

Elia's come in to put a new face on NYSED, Questar is a new face on the Endless Testing regime.

But is there going to be any real difference in direction that comes out of any of this?

I'm skeptical Elia and Questar are anything but a "rebranding" of the Endless Testing regime and NYSED policy.

If that's the case, as Sean noted in his comment, Elia better not think she'll fool anybody here in New York.

Canning Pearson Doesn't End The Endless Testing Regime

There was general relief around New York yesterday, from teachers and parents to the teachers union to reform organizations, that Pearson is out as the state test vendor.

The relief came in part from the statement by NYSED that teachers would be more involved in the creation of state tests under the Questar deal than they were with Pearson, though details about that remain scarce.

Pearson had a tumultuous tenure as the state's 3-8 grade test creator - the infamous Pineapple and the Hare debacle cystallizing it all into one big mess.

But as many parent and teacher activists have been pointing out since Questar Assessment was announced as the new state 3-8 grade test vendor, the problem with the Endless testing regime in New York State isn't which company is overseeing the test creation - it's the Endless Testing regime itself:

Sorry @highachieveny,parent concerns about NYS Assessment program do not stop at Pearson's missteps,#optout continues http://t.co/utlU2Wltgt

— Chris Cerrone (@Stoptesting15) July 10, 2015

Pearson or Questar, testing will still drive & narrow instruction to ELA/math as long as educator & school evals are tied to tests. #optout

— Chris Cerrone (@Stoptesting15) July 10, 2015

@leoniehaimson @SOTHVNY @perdidostschool @NYSAPE Important Q: what's in contract in terms of student data collection, privacy, security?

— Allison M. White (@allionthemove) July 10, 2015

NYSED having Questar Assessment replace Pearson is not a change to the Endless testing regime - it's simply a change to the face of the Endless Testing regime.

This is a "rebrand" of the Endless Testing regime, a (perhaps) more friendly face to it with Questar taking the reins from Pearson - but make no mistake, not much is really going to change.

As Chris Ceronne put it so well, so long as evaluations and school ratings are based upon the scores, high stakes testing will drive and narrow classroom instruction to only what is tested.

New York Is Paying Both Pearson And Questar For State Tests Through June 2016 (UPDATED - 10:00 AM)

UPDATED - 10 AM: Correction made to post regarding amount of January 2015 contract extension - was $2.6 million, not $6 million.

Leonie Haimson caught this part of the state test deal:

Pearson 'disappointed' by losing NY contract but still gets paid thru June 2016 http://t.co/GRjz84YtzJ

— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) July 10, 2015

.@allionthemove @SOTHVNY any articles re @pearson overlap Questar mention waste of overlapping contracts?

— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) July 10, 2015

Jon Campbell reported:

Pearson, which has developed the state’s grade 3-8 tests since 2011, was passed over for a new, five-year contract by the state Education Department, which announced Thursday it would award the $44 million deal to Minneapolis-based Questar Assessment Inc.

...

The Questar contract still has to be approved by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

The state’s current contract with Pearson runs through June 2016 after it was granted a short-term extension early this year, which pushed the contract total to $38 million. It was first signed in 2011.

So Pearson was granted a short-term extension at the beginning of the year, then NYSED signed a deal with Questar that runs concurrent with Pearson for one year.

The original contract was for $32 million.

The extension added a few million more to the deal.

NYSED paid Pearson $2,626,780 in January 2015 for the contract extension after paying them an additional $1,237,828 for "additional deliverables" in December 2014.

In total, Pearson got $6 million more than the original $32 million contract, with an additional $3,864,608 coming between December 2014 and January 2015.

Why was Pearson given an extension at the beginning of the year if the state was planning on dumping them later this year?

And why was Questar chosen?

Did anybody else bid for the contract?

Yes, but good luck finding out the details:

Four firms bid on the most recent contract, although the names of the other bidders weren't released on Thursday.

There was general relief around the state yesterday, from teachers and parents to the teachers union to reform organizations, that Pearson is out as the state test vendor.

The relief came in part from the statement by SED that teachers would be more involved in the creation of state tests under the Questar deal than they were with Pearson.

But given the lack of transparency around the Questar deal, the rumored problems with Questar itself (see here and here), and now the news that both Questar and Pearson are getting paid for the next year to make state tests, I'm not sure relief is the right emotion.

Someone at NYSED need to answer some questions:

Why was Pearson given an extension of the contract earlier this year that added $2.6 million to the contract if NYSED was planning on dumping them later in the year?

Why was Questar given a contract that starts paying out concurrent to the Pearson extension?

Who else bid on the contract and what were the figures?

Questar saw a 49.25% bump in trading yesterday.

Good for them and their stockholders.

But as for the tax payers of New York, as well as the students, parents and teachers, something smells rotten about this deal

Questar Assessment Up 49% In Trading Today

At yesterday's close, Questar Assessment was trading at $0.10.

It opened the day at $0.11.

It finished the trading day at $0.15.

Questar financial details here.

Just for some comparison, Pearson was up 1.53% today, opened high but traded a little lower as the day went on.

Pearson closed the day at $18.55. 

Pearson's a much larger company than Questar, of course, but gives you a sense of the type of company we're dealing with here that the stock was up 49% today - 5 cents.

NYSUT Declares Victory In Questar Testing Announcement

Another NYSUT victory:

The statewide teachers union on Thursday is cheering the decision by state education officials to dump controversial test publisher Pearson, Inc., in favor of the Minnesota-based firm Questar.

“Pearson offered a bad product and today Pearson got fired,” New York State United Teachers President Karen Magee said. “Teachers have called for this for years.”

The Department of Education on Thursday announced Questar Assessment, Inc. was awarded a $44 million contract to develop tests in English-Language Arts and math for grades three through eight.

Pearson has come under fire from both teachers and parents, in part, for its examination questions some considered too opaque as well as monitoring and collection of student data.

But the company was also the most prominent publisher nationally of Common Core-based examinations as the controversial standards were rolled out with hiccups in states like New York.

“It is a first step along the road toward ending New York’s failed testing policies, Magee said. “The Questar contract, in its promise to emulate New York’s successful test-development process for Regents exams, begins to restore the trust and confidence in teachers to do the job right. It says New York is going to trust its own teachers, not a corporation, to develop state tests.”

It remains to be seen if dumping Pearson for Questar is "a first step along the road toward ending New York’s failed testing policies" or a continuation on the same road.

I've seen some crowing on the Internet about Pearson losing the contract (and btw, this isn't the first contract Pearson has lost to Questar in the past few months), but my feeling about this best gets summed up in this twitter conversation with Mary Ahern:

@leoniehaimson Maybe have just gotten cynical, but this feels like state trying to "rebrand" Endless Testing regime.

— rbe (@perdidostschool) July 9, 2015

.@mayread3 @perdidostschool @leoniehaimson Pearson is just a company doing what it's paid to do. How tests are used is the bigger problem.

— Mary Ahern (@mma718) July 9, 2015

And therein lies the problem - Pearson's been replaced by Questar but the Endless Testing regime remains in place, doing as much destruction as ever.

Of course, NYSUT supports the Endless testing regime, so no wonder they're declaring victory with the Questar contract.

Questar Assessment Brands Itself As "Fresh, Innovative," But Sounds Just As Problematic As Pearson

Press release from Questar Assessment, loaded with the usual reformy claptrap:

MINNEAPOLIS, June 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Questar Assessment Inc., a K–12 assessment solutions provider focused on building a bridge between accountability and student learning, has announced a brand update to highlight its market-leading approach to large scale and local assessments. 

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150618/224255LOGO

 

Questar Assessment is reimagining how assessments can empower educators to see opportunities for change to improve instruction and fully prepare students for college or career. The new logo features bold colors and an open, dynamic form that brings the company's forward-thinking spirit to life, while the change to a sans serif font complements the logo and reflects the company's 21st century mindset. The new brand aligns Questar's visual identity to its mission of building a bridge between accountability and learning and shows the company's singular, creative, and technology-driven approach to both state and local assessments. 

"Questar is a unique assessment provider and our new brand speaks to our differences. We are helping states and districts rediscover the power of assessments and reimagine the value they can offer to educators, students, and parents," said Jamie Post Candee, Questar Assessment president and CEO. "Our new brand reflects the originality of our approach to student assessment and we are incredibly excited about the results and the new direction of the Questar brand."  

About Questar Assessment Inc.

Questar Assessment Inc. is a K–12 assessment solutions provider focused on building a bridge between accountability and student learning. We take a fresh and innovative approach to meaningful assessment design, delivery, scoring, analysis, and reporting. And we are reimagining how assessments can empower educators to see opportunities for change to improve instruction and fully prepare students for college or career. Our high-quality, reliable assessment products and services are easily scaled and tailored to meet state and districts' specific needs at an unprecedented value. 

Educators trust our high-performing teams and proven processes to minimize risks and ensure success for states, districts, schools, and students. Questar is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and can be reached at www.questarai.com/ or 800-800-2598.

Yes, they're excited at Questar about the direction of the new brand and they really like the new logo - isn't that swell!

Alas, some employees aren't so excited:

Too many chiefs in way over their heads. Let go many of the best and the brightest last July-the people with the experience, positive reputations, and contacts/relationships to move us forward. Remaining management got rid of people who they felt would not support their "new direction." However, it also left them without the knowledge and experience base to maintain the high standards we had always provided. What they really did was to eliminate anyone who would ask questions and not just blindly follow.

Advice to Management

You have created an atmosphere of anxiety because most of the people who did not lose their job last July are in constant fear of losing them now- either by being fired or because the company will go under. Many if us jumped switch when we saw the writing on the wall. Take care of the people you have left. Ask questions and really listen to the answers.

Sounds like they got rid of long-time employees, perhaps because they wanted to knock off the institutional memory to ease the "new direction" they wanted to pursue, perhaps because they wanted to cut costs, perhaps because of a combination of the two.

In any case, while Questar pushes its new brand with cliche-ridden press releases, the story from inside Questar from some current and some former employees seems to be there are a lot of problems (I covered complaints about cost-squeezing, a glitch-laden testing process, and managerial incompetence here.)

It's great that Pearson got the axe, but I'm not going to get too excited that New York dropped Pearson for Questar now that I see some red flags coming from current and former employees at the company.

Under-staffed, overworked, managers who can't answer questions about the tests, glitch-laden test scanning and scheduling, departments that don't communicate with each other and employees in constant fear and anxiety over their jobs - doesn't sound like much improvement to me over Pearson.

Pearson Out As NY's Test Provider For 3rd-8th Grade Common Core Tests

From Rich Karlin at Capitol Confidential:

The state Education Department is dropping its provider of standardized tests, Pearson LLC and has awarded the job to a competing firm, Questar Assessment (Not to be confused with the Rensselaer County-based Questar BOCES).

Notably, announcement of the bid states that teachers will play a role in developing the questions in the new Math and English assessments given to students in Grades 3-8.

And the new tests will move toward computer-based administrations if schools want that.

This comes amid ongoing anger over the way these test results will be used in part to rate teachers under a new employee evaluation program for schools across the state. And it comes amid continued criticism over the amount of standardized tests that students are being asked to take.

New York is not the first contract Questar Assessment took from Pearson - in April, Mississippi awarded a $122 million contract to Questar to develop 3rd-8th grade state tests, replacing Pearson there as well.

I don't have much insight into this company but there are some interesting findings if you search around the Internet.

This, for example, is an "assessment" of Questar Assessment by an employee on Glassdoor.com:

Questar gives disheveled new meaning. The disconnect between departments is worse than ever, despite the assurance from top brass that we've been moving in a positive direction. Employees have been quitting left and right from Fall '14 to Summer '15.

Most departments are short-staffed and greatly overworked with little to no resolution (or mostly ineffectual resolutions) being provided by the responsible management staff. Frustration is rampant. We are told that upward mobility is quick and easy within the company, when the reality is that you will be largely left to your own devices when applying and offered little to no support from direct superiors - best of luck to you if that's your goal. They sure talk the talk with regard to this.

The benefits are quite poor in spite of a recent overhaul (even worse prior to 2015).

Procedures and certain important information is still compartmentalized amongst departments, making most collaboration supremely frustrating - Interdepartmental communication leaves much to be desired.

Short-staffed and overworked, disconnect between departments, huge turnover, gives disheveled new meaning - gee, sounds swell.

Here's how the test scorers are treated, courtesy of another reviewer at Glassdoor.com:

The people scheduling the temp scorers are not very competent. Perhaps someone needs to write them some better software? I noted that I could not possibly work in June. I then received an assignment letter with a little sticker attached saying that the assignment had been switched to June.

-Scorers are treated like kindergarteners - you sit in an assigned spot, aren't allowed to get up to go to the bathroom very often, are talked down to.

-Regular staff looks at scorers like they are cattle - barely acknowledges them.

-Scoring is surprisingly imprecise - managers weren't able to answer many of scorers' questions about how to score things and, on one occasion, really coached the scorers in how to pass the qualifying exam.

-Many scheduling glitches - tests often aren't scanned quickly enough, so that scorers are sent home early for lack of work.

Advice to Management

I guess it stands to reason that, in a company that tries to create standardized widgets out of schoolchildren, you manage your employees as standardized entities as well. But really - could you even give some minimum acknowledgement that we're human?

Test scorers treated like cattle, imprecise scoring, managers who can't answer scorers questions, scanning glitches, incompetent schedulers - sounds even better.

Meet the new company for 3rd-8th grade testing.

Sounds a lot like the old company, doesn't it?

John Oliver: Let's Put The Tests To The Test

NYSED Employee Indicted For Stealing $2.5 Million

Been saying for a while now that the NYSED is rife for investigation:

"Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced the indictment of Keisha Relf Davis, an employee of the New York State Department of Education, and an accomplice for stealing over $2.5 million from the state by diverting funds to NYC-area driving schools for services that were never rendered. As alleged, Davis received bribes in the form of regular cash payments for her role in the scheme. Together, Davis and Steven Washington, the schools’ program director, have been charged today with 19 felony counts including Grand Larceny and Bribery and face up to 25 years in state prison."

“Today’s indictment sends a clear message: no one is above the law and there must be one set of rules for everyone,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “Taking advantage of a government job to steal millions of dollars from New York taxpayers is a shameful violation of the public’s trust. My office must and will remain vigilant for such blatant acts of fraud.”

“These criminal actions are reprehensible and demand severe penalties,” said Kevin Smith, New York State Education Department Deputy Commissioner. “The employees of the Office of Adult Career and Continuing Education Services (ACCES) work toward the education and employment needs of New York State’s disabled adults. The actions of this one counselor exploited New York’s most vulnerable citizens for personal gain. When Education Department internal controls uncovered this criminal activity an immediate referral was made to the Attorney General for prosecution. Agency protocols will be tightened further to ensure that such criminality cannot again stand in the way of our mission to provide individuals with disabilities every opportunity for employment, economic self-sufficiency and independence.”

Davis was a vocational counselor for DOE’s Office of Adult Career and Continuation Education Services’ (ACCES) Vocational Rehabilitation program, which offers state-funded access to services like driver education to New Yorkers with qualifying disabilities and functional limitations. The investigation, which was conducted by the Attorney General’s Public Integrity Bureau, revealed that Davis allegedly worked in concert with Washington, the program director of Americana Commercial Driving School, in Manhattan, and Roadway Driving School, in the Bronx. (The owners of those two schools, Juani Ortiz and Juan Cabrera, respectively, pleaded guilty last month in connection with this scheme.)

According to the indictment unsealed today in Bronx County Court, Washington charged non-disabled customers $300 to $500 cash and required a copy of their Social Security card in order to receive driving lessons. He then provided the students’ information and cash payments – which constituted an ongoing bribery scheme – directly to Davis, who created, submitted and approved falsified documents indicating that the students received their training through the ACCES program. (The students were not aware that ACCES services were being applied for and approved in their names.)

As a result, the driving schools received almost $5,000 in reimbursement from the state for each of the roughly 540 students for whom Davis submitted ACCES paperwork. As part of the alleged scheme, Davis would keep the cash payments, Washington was paid 12% of each reimbursement and the schools’ owners pocketed the rest.

The indictment charges Keisha Relf Davis and Washington with one count of Grand Larceny in the First Degree (a Class B felony); one count of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree (a Class C felony); four counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree (Class E felonies); and four counts of Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree (Class E felonies). The indictment charges Davis individually with two counts of Bribe Receiving in the Second Degree (a Class C felony), four counts of Forgery in the Second Degree (Class D felonies) and one count of Defrauding the Government (a Class E felony); it charges Washington individually with two counts of Bribery in the Second Degree (a Class C felony). The top count of the indictment carries a mandatory prison term, with a maximum sentence of 8 1/3 to 25 years. 

Somehow the former NYSED Commissioner, David Steiner, avoided indictment for taking bribes from Pearson in the form of overseas trips.

Still wondering how that happened.

Guess whether you get indicted or not depends upon whether you're stealing for yourself or taking bribes to help a well-connected multinational steal millions from taxpayers via no-bid contracts.

Pearson Owns New York

The gravy train for Pearson continues in John King's and Andy Cuomo's New York:

Becoming a teacher in New York state is getting more expensive.

The price of basic teacher certification exams has more than doubled this year and it's taking a toll, educators said.

...

Essentially, the regimen of tests and assessments needed for a certification degree has gone from $317 to $652 this year.

That's on top of other costs that have been in place for a while such as fingerprinting and required background checks, not to mention tuition.

The edTPA, which is an acronym for an assessment that includes a video of a student-teacher's performance along with lengthy explanations of their lesson plans and other activities, is a new requirement this year and costs $300.

...

The array of tests needed to become a certified teacher is complicated, but there used to be three core exams.

Those were Assessment of Teaching Skills-written, Liberal Arts and Science, and Content Specialty, according to state guidelines.

Each of those cost $119, although in years past some could be taken on paper rather than computer for $79. It wasn't clear why the price went up for the online version, which avoids printing and mailing costs.

Either way, the old package could cost as little as $317.

But starting this year, there are new tests: Educating All Students; Academic Literacy Skills and Content Specialty, which cost $102, $131 and $119 – and the $300 edTPA.

Most are written and administered by Pearson PLC, a global corporation that designs and sells tests as well as publish newspapers and books. They also score the edTPA.

Calls to Pearson were referred to Stanford University, which helped develop the edTPA.

Why did the costs of the ATS, LAST and Content Specialty exam go up when they moved from paper to computer?

Because Pearson wants more money in their coffers, that's why.

And because the politicians and the educrats in this state care more about what's good for Pearson than they do what's good for schools, students or teachers, what Pearson wants, Pearson gets.

We know that Pearson bribed the former NYSED Commissioner, David Steiner, with junkets - you can be sure that other pols and educrats are on the "unofficial" Pearson payroll as well, either with junkets and other favors now or with jobs and consultant gigs in the future.

It is becoming pretty clear as we go that Pearson runs the education policy in this state, from the testing policies to the teacher certification policies.

Just another example of the Cesspool of Corruption that is Andrew Cuomo's New York.

Juan Gonzalez: Ending Failed Education Policy Means Cleaning House At Tweed

In Juan Gonzalez's column on the Pearson field test protests arising around the state this week is this:

Students and teachers at 1,100 city schools — plus an additional 3,000 statewide — are confronting more state-mandated tests this week.

For the third straight year, the state and its testing company, Pearson, are conducting stand-alone field testing for several hundred thousand pupils — tests that don’t count but are used to identify possible items for next year’s state tests.


...

“We’re so overtested it’s beyond belief,” William Calla, the superintendent of the Fairport Central School District in suburban Rochester, said. That’s why he is among some 20 school superintendents who have rebelled this time.

“There’s absolutely nothing in the commissioner’s regulations or federal education law that requires us to give these tests,” Calla said. “I just shipped the test package back unopened.”

Their revolt is one more sign of the spreading furor nationwide against politicians’ obsession with test-taking.

City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña has joined the furor — at least in words. She has already declared standardized tests will no longer be used as a sole measure of performance in city schools.

“We understand the frustration among parents and educators with the frequency of testing,” Fariña’s spokeswoman, Devora Kaye, said. “This (field testing) is one of many practices we plan to review this summer and evaluate for the coming year.”

Unlike Superintendent Calla, however, Fariña allowed the state field tests to go ahead.

In doing so, she appears to be heeding those top-level holdovers from the Bloomberg era who, inexplicably, still surround her at Tweed.

(You don’t get rid of a failed policy, Chancellor, by keeping the very people who championed it.)

I understand that Farina took over mid-year and so it was difficult to do a total overhaul of both Tweed and the Bloomberg policies this academic year.

But here's an important question:

Will de Blasio and Farina end the failed Bloomberg education policies by cleaning house at Tweed over the summer or will the Bloomberg holdovers still be here in September?

Because if they are, then as Juan Gonzalez points out, the failed Bloomberg policies will still be here too and that means despite the words we have heard from both de Blasio and Farina about a new era of collaboration between educators and parents, a new era when students are more than their test scores, nothing of substance will have really changed from the Bloomberg Years to the De Blasio Years.

How To Fight The Testing Industrial Complex

Michael Fiorillo left this comment on NYC Educator's post about why NYSED and Pearson insist the NY State 3rd-8th grade tests must remain secret:

The destruction of public education hinges on everyone's passive acceptance of high stakes exams encroaching more deeply into every classroom. They are the weapon used to close schools, deprive students of a well-rounded education, and beat teachers into submission. They are the primary lever for getting everyone to accept the de-skilling of the teaching profession, and teaching's devolution into temporary, at-will employment.

The tests are also the primary tool for imposing the "social learning" embedded in the testing regime itself, whereby young people are socialized into passive acceptance of the exercise of arbitrary power, tolerance of tedium and absurdity and surveillance/data mining, so as to be powerless worker bees in the future.

Passive acceptance of the exercise of arbitrary power, a high tolerance for tedium, absurdity, and surveillance/data mining: that's what the so-called reformers really mean by students being "career ready."

This abuse will continue as long as we are cowed into respecting the "proprietary" claims of the test makers, which are totally illegitimate. These tests are paid for with public dollars, are used as gatekeepers for public school students, and are the de facto drivers of public school instruction; the public has an intrinsic right to see them and openly discuss their validity.

That right has moral, if not legal, precedence over any copyright claims.

As of now, the only way to force that debate is for teachers to engage in civil disobedience and provide the public service of making these exams available for open examination by all interested parties.

It's time for photocopies, or scanned and scrubbed digital photos of these exams, to be sent to the newspapers, elected officials, parent groups and blogs. They should be handed out at PEP meetings, so that the Chancellor is forced to acknowledge their presence. They need to be distributed so widely that their "secrecy" becomes a dead letter, the media cannot ignore them, and so that threats by Pearson and it's wholly-owned subsidiary, the New York State Department of Education, become irrelevant.

With the Associated Press picking up the stories circulating that the NYSED/Pearson tests have been loaded with product placements and brand name-dropping, NYSED and Pearson may be getting too cute by half trying to keep the tests secret.

As parent Olga Garica-Kaplan put it in response to the news of all the product placement and brand name-dropping in the NYSED/Pearson tests:

@perdidostschool And that is why I want to see what my 4th grader read on this test. I think it's a fair request - no?
— Olga Garcia-Kaplan (@OlgaKaplan) April 21, 2014

So far, SED and Pearson have gotten away with keeping the tests secret, threatening any teacher who divulges test items or tests themselves with legal action.

But the more these weird stories circulate of Pearson sticking brand names of companies with connections to Pearson into the tests themselves, the harder it becomes to keep these tests secret.

Frankly I don't care if Pearson is using the tests for branding or not - as Michael wrote in his comment, these tests are paid for NY State taxpayers to serve as gatekeepers for NY State students and to drive NY State classroom instruction.

NY State taxpayers have a right to see these tests in their entirety, along with the grading rubrics, "norming" materials used for grading, and the methodology used for the scores.

Pearson Fined $7.7 Million For Breaking Law - Why Isn't Former NYSED Commissioner Steiner Under Investigation For The Same Thing?

From the NY Times:

The Pearson Foundation, the charitable arm of one of the nation’s largest educational publishers, will pay $7.7 million to settle accusations that it repeatedly broke New York State law by assisting in for-profit ventures. 

An inquiry by Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York State attorney general, found that the foundation had helped develop products for its corporate parent, including course materials and software. The investigation also showed that the foundation had helped woo clients to Pearson’s business side by paying their way to education conferences that were attended by its employees. 

...

The attorney general’s office also examined a series of education conferences sponsored by the Pearson Foundation, which paid for school officials to meet their foreign counterparts in places like Helsinki and Singapore. 

The trips were made public after a series of columns in The New York Times, which detailed the expensive hotels and meetings with corporate executives that were staples of the experience. 

Several school officials who went on the trips represented education departments that had contracts with Pearson. The investigation did not determine whether those officials had awarded any new contracts based on any improper influence. But the report found that executives from other companies were not invited to attend, giving Pearson’s corporate side a clear advantage. 

The attorney general portrayed a culture at Pearson in which the lines between business and charity were often blurred. Pearson remains the largest donor to the Pearson Foundation, and the staff of the foundation included several Pearson employees. The board was made up entirely of Pearson executives until 2012.

Former NYSED Commissioner David Steiner was one of the state officials on the other end of the Pearson largesse.

Why is it illegal for Pearson to improperly influence officials through the use of its non-profit but not illegal for those state officials to be improperly influenced?

Tear Up The Teaching Scripts - AND The Danielson Rubric

Great piece at Answer Sheet by a teacher sick of having to teach to scripts:

I can’t do projects with my students anymore because I have to teach the curriculum word-for word, and I am only allowed to use standards-based assessments (which I must create myself).   It doesn’t matter how my students learn best.  It doesn’t matter that the Common Core State Standards assume a steady progression of skills that my students have not been formerly taught.  It doesn’t matter that my students arrive at my door with a host of factors that I cannot control…their home situations, their former schooling, their attitudes toward school and learning and themselves, the neighborhood they live in, whether they are English Language Learners or have special needs, or whether they have just broken up with their girlfriend  in the cafeteria.  All those factors also affect student performance, but none of that matters.  What matters is how my students perform on the state test.  (And I must STOP teaching for 6 weeks in the spring to make sure our students pass that test.)

The teacher notes how the teaching scripts have come because standards-BASED education, aligned to high stakes stakes standards-BASED tests that are used to evaluate students, teachers and schools force this kind of scripted, dehumanized system:

Standards-BASED education gets it all wrong. They assume the best teaching and the best learning can be quantified with tests and data.  Yet I’ve never once had a student compliment me on my academic knowledge or my data collection skills.  I’ve never had a student thank me for writing insightful test questions or for staying up late to write a stunning lesson plan.  But students HAVE thanked me for being there, for listening to them, for encouraging them, for believing in them even before they could believe in themselves.  Meeting our student’s academic needs begins with seeing them as human beings with worth and capability and gifting, not as research subjects.

Chicken Soup for the Teacher’s Soul is full of stories of teachers who made a difference in student’s lives through their care, their courage, and their dedication…not their student’s test scores.   Judging the effectiveness of a teacher on only quantifiable data reduces the art of teaching children to a mathematical algorithm can that be performed more effectively by a hologram projected on the Smart board than by an old-fashioned, caring, humanly flawed teacher.

I would add the Danielson rubric to the list of weapons being used to ensure teachers stick to the scripts as envisioned by the Gates Foundation-funded Regents fellows and Pearson test developers.

I am awaiting my second observation this year, the 15 minute "mini" observation.

I am told by teachers in my department who have already undergone this that everybody is getting dinged on something connected to "questioning" and "assessment".

You see, teachers must constantly be assessing students in the classroom through written formative assessments, verbal questioning, interim assessments, exit slips, written class work, written group work, and summative assessments, not to mention the September and June performance assessments tied to teacher evaluations.

All of these "assessments" (one of those edu-speak words I despise) lead to the grand daddy of all "assessments - the state test that is used to rate students, teachers and schools.

But even if a teacher "adds" tons of "value" to her/his students' test scores, you still can get rated "ineffective" if the administrator observing you doesn't like your "questioning" or "assessment" strategies and techniques.

Danielson forces a "One Way To Teach" measurement onto teachers that allows for no freedom or autonomy to teach as a professional educator sees is best for her/his students.

We can try and get rid of the SED scripts (I suspect the crappy quality of these will help in that matter) and we can try and delink the standardized tests from the high stakes for students, teachers and schools.

But as long as the name "CHARLOTTE DANIELSON" is located anywhere on the high stakes observation rubric being used to evaluate teachers, the scripted lessons and the standards-BASED teaching (one way fits all!) will continue.

The powers that be know that - that's why they pushed for not only tying test scores to teacher ratings but also the Danielson rubric to be the classroom observation measurement.

Alas, too bad the UFT pushed for this piece of garbage too.

In short, we need to get rid of the Common Core, the Common Core tests, the APPR teacher evaluation system and the inBloom data project (which only NY is doing now anyway!)

But we ALSO must send the Danielson rubric to the dustbin of history as well.

Parents' Message To De Blasio

An extraordinary video from ParentVoices NY:

Daily News: Pearson's Common Core Kindergarten Curriculum Is A Mess

Yesterday I posted about complaints teachers and students have over the Engage NY Common Core ELA curriculum provided by the NY State Education Department for high school students.

Today the New York Daily News reports the Common Core curriculum developed by Pearson for kindergarten is problematic as well:

Are you smarter than a kindergartner?

Adults asked by the Daily News to complete a new vocabulary exercise offered to 4- and 5-year-olds as part of the city’s new Common Core curriculum weren’t so sure.

The curriculum, which is optional, aims to teach kindergartners higher-order thinking skills, and tasks them with drawing pictures of vocabulary words. The News chose the words “distance” and “responsibility” and told those who’ve long since finished grade school to put their thinking caps on.

“I’m glad I skipped kindergarten!” said Brian Schwartz, who graduated from Oxford University at 18 and is a member of the Omega Society, which professes to accept only the brightest of the bright. Schwartz drew an infinite road for “distance,” and declined to share his representation of responsibility, calling it “a total failure.”

The city estimated last spring that new Common Core textbooks, designed by education company Pearson, would cost $56 million. But more city schools than expected have ordered the new Department of Education-suggested textbooks and materials, so the final price tag is not yet available.

Schools chancellor Dennis Walcott, a former kindergarten teacher, declined to take the kindergarten challenge.

“I think, honestly, the City of New York should send the curriculum back to Pearson and get our money back,” said United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew. “As a taxpayer, I’m fuming.”

For kindergartners, the trouble with the exercise begins with the fact that the workbook forces kids to draw in a 2-inch-by 4-inch box.

“They can’t make anything in that small little space. That to me is a setup for failure,” said Sandra Fajgier, a kindergarten teacher at Public School 10 in Brooklyn, who said she was “totally stumped” when first approached about making a drawing. Department of Education spokeswoman Erin Hughes defended the agency, calling the curriculum “100% optional,” though 90% of schools have the adopted city-suggested texts.

Officials at Pearson, which designed the kindergarten ReadyGEN materials, noted the materials teach kids vocabulary words in multiple ways before they are asked to draw, including in this case by reading the award-winning book “Make Way for Ducklings.”

The city claims the Pearson Common Core curriculum is optional but a commenter at the DN notes:

Apparently even the DOE spokesperson has no idea what is happening in schools. The DOE took all of every school's New York State textbook money to buy this program. Nothing about that was optional. 

Another notes:

They claim it is "optional," but will punish you if you don't conform. It's "optional" in the old Nazi way. 

Another commenter sums the whole mess up:

Tragic, truly tragic. This could be the last straw. I can only hope that the children are charged with illustrating the word "devastation" to see exactly how a bewildered five year- old using a fat purple crayon would draw the current mayor and his hapless toadies imposing stupidity on a city. 

Indeed - a mess.

Back in January, I posted about the damage that the Common Core has done to kindergartners in the NYC school system.

Play has been replaced by test prep, hands on learning and activities have been replaced by drudgery and "rigorous" academic lessons.

And now from this Daily News story, you can see what those "rigorous" academic lessons are.

From kindergarten to high school, the reformers are wreaking devastation across the school system and doing permanent damage to children, the teaching profession and schools.

Pearson Screws Up Again - This Time In Virginia

The incompetents at Pearson do it again:

Pearson, the world’s largest education and testing company, provided incorrect scorecards for more than 4,000 students in Virginia who took an alternative assessment last school year.

That mistake led to many parents receiving news this summer that their children had passed the test when they had failed it.

“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has created for students, parents, schools and school divisions as well as to our colleagues at the Virginia Department of Education,” Susan Aspey, a spokesman for Pearson, said in a written statement. “We understand the importance of accurate reporting and know that the school divisions are now working very hard to make internal adjustments to their scores before reporting them to parents and the state.”

Pearson issued a similar apology last spring for making mistakes in the scoring of admissions tests for gifted and talented programs in New York City public schools. Other scoring problems by Pearson in recent years caused delays in final test results in Florida and Minnesota.

Pearson and state education officials said the problem in Virginia was not in the scoring but in how the scores were converted into proficiency levels: fail, pass/proficient or pass/advanced.

The testing company provided miscalculated scorecards to school divisions this summer. Some school districts, including Alexandria’s, Arlington County’s and Prince William County’s, had already given parents the results before the error was flagged in late July.

Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education, called the mistake “truly regrettable.” Virginia has a three-year, $110 million contract, which began July 2011, with Pearson to administer and score the state tests. Virginia education officials plan to meet with Pearson representatives later in the week to discuss the technical problems and whether the state might receive any financial compensation.

The botched scorecards were for the Virginia Alternative Assessment Program, given to students with serious cognitive disabilities who are unable to take regular Standards of Learning tests.

The portfolio-style tests review student work that is compiled throughout the school year. Usually, the portfolios are evaluated on the local level, Pyle said. But this year, because the state is moving to new standards, Pearson was given the job of judging and scoring them.

Screw-ups in Florida, Minnesota, New York, and now Virginia.

Isn't it clear this company cannot handle the contracts it is given?

Isn't it time states stop giving this company money to do the job that teachers can do and used to do?

Teachers used to review these portfolios in Virginia, but because of "new standards," Pearson was "given the job" of reviewing the student work and scoring it.

More than likely Pearson greased the way to being "given that job" with lots and lots of campaign donations to state officials and politicians.

Now they have a $110 million dollar contract and already one major screw-up in the state.

Given their track record, more will undoubtedly follow.

The name "Pearson" is synonymous with "screw-up."

It is time to end their reign of error.

Can you imagine if a government entity had this kind of track record?

What would the free marketeers be saying about that?

And yet, private company Pearson keeps getting these contracts in state after state, and keeps making mistakes in state after state, with total impunity and no accountability.

Why Are Tisch And King So Afraid To Reveal The Common Core Test Contents?

The scores from the Common Core tests - the one's the kids didn't have the time to finish - are going to be released this week and NYSED Commissioner/rookie teacher John King says they are really, really bad:

State education officials will drop a bomb on thousands of city kids and parents Wednesday when they release scores from the controversial and tougher reading and math exams.

State Education Commissioner John King sounded the alarm for disastrous results with a letter sent to principals Friday afternoon.

“Scores are expected to be significantly lower than the 2011-’12 scores,” he wrote, adding that principals should use the scores “judiciously” when making decisions about whether to fire teachers.

King and his buddy in corporate reform Merryl Tisch cannot wait for these scores to be released and for parents to freak out so they can use this moment to scapegoat teachers and schools and further their privatization goals for the public school system.

But let's recall that these vaunted new Common Core tests developed by Pearson have been kept secret by the state so that parents cannot get a look at them and teachers cannot point out the problems with them.

Let's remember too that Pearson is the fine, fine company that brought us the Pineapple and the Hare debacle a year ago and brought us not one but two sets of egregious errors on the Gifted and Talented test that only got resolved because parents found the problems.

King and Tisch are going to try and use these tests to scapegoat teachers and schools and mobilize horrified parents to jump on board their reformy bandwagon.

But before that happens, it behooves the taxpayers in this state - the one's who pay the salaries for King and his NYSED reformers - to get a look at the tests and see just how valid and fair these were.

King and Tisch do not want that because they know the tests will not stand up to public scrutiny.

That's why they threatened to fire any teacher who released any of the test questions publicly.

We know the timing of these tests was ridiculous and many students were not able to finish them.

We know that they did that on purpose in order to set up just the kind of results we're going to see on Wednesday.

We also know Pearson screwed up the Gifted and Talented test results twice.

We know that after the first screw up, Pearson did some "quality control" and assured parents there were no more problems with the tests - but parents found more errors anyway!

If Tisch and King are so certain that these test scores are "disastrous" and demonstrate the reason why the education system is in need of drastic and disruptive reform, then why are they so afraid to reveal the test contents so people in this state can see them for themselves?

What are they afraid of that they need to operate in secrecy?

Light and air are healthy for a good many things in life - and they're especially healthy when state officials with pro-charter/pro-privatization agendas say "Trust us!" on test scores they're using to further their pro-charter/pro-privatization agendas.

Tisch and King cannot be trusted and the test contents need to be revealed.

It's that simple.