Cuomo Is Rigging His New Common Core Panel Just The Way He Did The Old One

Cuomo on his new Common Core/Testing/Curriculum review commission:

"The fact is that the current Common Core program in New York is not working, and must be fixed," Cuomo said in a statement released Thursday afternoon. "To that end, the time has come for a comprehensive review of the implementation of the Common Core Standards, curriculum, guidance and tests in order to address local concerns."

Cuomo said he will appoint a "representative group" from a pre-existing education commission he created to study the Common Core, and has asked that group to release its findings before his State of the State address in January.

Cuomo ordered a similar investigation to study the state's Common Core rollout last year. It produced a set of recommendations that had already been largely adopted by the state.

A "representative group" from the pre-existing education commission he created to study Common Core last year?

That commission was rigged, per teacher Todd Hathaway, who sat on the commission and had his name attached to the report even though he didn't agree with its findings:

I will issue a further statement tomorrow on the sham of @NYGovCuomo CCLS implementation panel. No dissent allowed, no discussion allowed!

— Todd Hathaway (@toddjhathaway) March 11, 2014

More:

Todd Hathaway, a teacher at East Aurora High School and a member of the Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Common Core panel, ripped the process today after the panel released its report last night.

The recommendations include what Cuomo wanted: holding students harmless for the tougher exams, but not a three-year moratorium on using the tests to evaluate teachers.

Hathaway said, “The report – and the process that produced it — is incomplete. the report was released suddenly, even as final comments were still being solicited. I had indicated the likelihood I would dissent and not allow the report to be spun as ‘consensus.'” Nevertheless, the report was issued with my name attached. I am very concerned that the report tries to make it seem like all the discussion had been completed.”

Here’s the rest of his statement:

“In fact, the Executive Office repeatedly ignored my concerns and the legitimate concerns of others about inappropriate state testing, the misuse of invalid tests for evaluations and the lack of transparency in state testing. The result is that some of the report’s conclusions and suggestions do not hold up to scrutiny. I wouldn’t accept this kind of work from my students and I don’t accept it here.”

“The failure to address testing and evaluation issues in a comprehensive way suggests the dynamics of the classroom will not change. The report seems to blame everybody else for the problems of the Common Core learning standards without adequately addressing the appropriateness of some of the standards and the testing that goes with it. This report should have addressed serious deficiencies in state testing. It should have discussed the lack of transparency in tests; the lack of diagnostic and prescriptive worth to teachers; the unacceptable delays in returning scores to school districts and the insanity of pretending there is validity to teacher ratings that are derived from student scores widely acknowledged to be invalid.”

“Finally, this panel should have recognized the need to pause in the use of assessments for high-stakes decisions for students and teachers. This would have allowed the State Education Department, as well as school districts, to refine the tests and testing materials; teachers to engage in the standards and develop a variety of lessons to meet them instead of just relying on modules; parents to understand the role and utility of data in education; and for teachers to receive the necessary professional development. Implementing massive curriculum changes do not just happen overnight. They take time. I fully support a delay in the use of tests in high-stakes decisions for students and teachers, but that issue was never fully explored. You can’t put students first if you put their teachers last.”

Anybody who thinks the latest iteration of a Cuomo education panel will be any less-rigged than the last iteration is fooling themselves.

The Common Core/Testing/Curriculum review Cuomo is ordering here is nothing more than PR made to make it look like he's addressing parental concerns over CCSS and testing without actually addressing those concerns.

Truth is, Cuomo can't address those concerns because he's been bought and paid for by the hedge fundies and Wall Street donors who seek the total destruction of public education and the privatization of the system.

But even Cuomo can read polls and opt out rates and when he sees a Gallup poll showing growing opposition to testing and Common Core and opt out rates of 220,000 across New York, he knows his continued support of his education reform agenda is a political problem for him.

So, time for another sham commission to make it look like he's doing something about the problem without really doing something about the problem.

Classic Cuomo all the way.

Do not be fooled, though - nothing substantive is happening here with this commission or it's so-called review.

Cuomo Wants To Delay School Funding Until Teacher Evaluation Commission Completes Work In June

I keep reading how Governor Cuomo has been caving on that agenda of his that he said had better be in the budget or there would be no budget:

ALBANY – Tuesday at the State Capitol will go down as concession day.

Criminal justice, education, infrastructure, immigration and tax issues all started falling off the budget table as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and lawmakers erased their previous lines in the sand. It was a sure sign of a desperate push for an on-time state budget by next Wednesday.

For instance, soon after Catholic Church leaders mounted a last-ditch push for a tax-credit plan to help private and religious schools, Cuomo said the idea has been dropped from budget negotiations following stiff opposition by Assembly Democrats.

The education tax credit, Cuomo said, joined the DREAM Act, a proposal to provide college aid to children of undocumented immigrants, as just two of the issues being jettisoned from talks in the budget rush during the final week before the 2015-16 fiscal year begins.

Cuomo wasn’t ready to publicly concede on his insistence on state-imposed stronger job-performance evaluations for public school teachers. But lawmakers in both the Assembly and the Senate said Tuesday that an idea to form a commission – a go-to route in Albany when sides can’t agree – was under discussion to address changing how classroom teachers in the state’s 700 school districts are evaluated. Cuomo administration officials sought to tamp down “rumors,” later saying that nothing has been agreed to.

And yet, this doesn't sound like the work of somebody making concessions:

FUNDING TIED TO JUNE EVAL DEAL—Capital’s Jessica Bakeman: “Members of the State Assembly’s Democratic majority fumed Tuesday night over a plan they said was developed by Governor Andrew Cuomo and Senate Republicans to hold back a school funding increase until June, when an appointed commission would recommend a new teacher-evaluation system. After meeting privately for several hours, Assembly members accused Senate Republicans of reneging on an apparent understanding between the two chambers that education funding would not be contingent on the enactment of reforms, such as an overhaul of the performance rating system for educators, which Cuomo has pushed.

“According to the plan, Cuomo and lawmakers would establish in the budget a six-member commission with two appointees each for the governor and the legislative houses, members said. The panel would develop a new evaluation system and return it to the Legislature by June 1, at which point, schools would have access to an increase in aid.

“‘There is a great concern that the governor is trying to maneuver to accomplish an agenda that we all reject,’ Assemblyman Thomas Abinanti, a Democrat from Westchester, said after the conference’s meeting on Tuesday night. ‘[Setting] up another way to deal with the policy issue of teacher evaluations sounded like an attractive approach, but now all of a sudden, we’re hearing that [Senate Republican leader Dean] Skelos is backing away from what he said would be the pre-condition for that, which would be no linkage [to funding]. So if we can’t trust him on that, how can we trust him on the commission?’” http://bit.ly/1xwIxmY

That sounds like the work of somebody looking to get what he wants on teacher evaluation reforms and still using the stick approach by tying funding to his getting it.

Key word out of the Bakeman piece there is "trust".

Senate GOP and Assembly Dems had made a deal that there be "no linkage to funding."

Cuomo has a meeting with GOP Majority Leader Skelos and suddenly there is linkage to the funding.

That kind of thing is called "betrayal" and perhaps it's just payback for what Heastie and the Assembly Dems did to Skelos and the Senate GOP when they agreed to an ethics reform deal with Cuomo.

In any case, what it means outside Albany is that, contrary to what you may have heard in the news, Governor Cuomo is NOT backing away from his most damaging proposals to "break" public schools and public school teachers.

Cuomo's Moreland Commission Executive Director Sued 17 Times For Election Violations

On the plus side, I guess she knows what the criminals are doing because she's a criminal herself:

The executive director of Gov. Cuomo’s anti-corruption commission was sued 17 times by the state Board of Elections — an agency her panel is now charged with investigating.

Cuomo’s commission is set to focus on the influence of campaign contributions on government and compliance with election and lobbying laws.

From 2001 to 2009, commission executive director Regina Calcaterra was treasurer of Women PAC, which gave money to city candidates who supported women’s issues.

In 2002, Calcaterra was first sued twice in her role as the political action committee’s treasurer by the Board of Elections for failing to file two required financial disclosures. She received a $144 fine that she paid.

She subsequently was sued another 15 times for missing additional filing deadlines, with a judge backing the state at least nine times. The other cases were dropped because the state couldn’t serve her papers informing her of the lawsuits.

Calcaterra sources say she was unaware of the judgments until 2009 because the legal papers were not delivered to her directly--instead going to people and addresses with no associations to her.

They say she had believed the PAC was closed in 2003. A letter sent to the Board of Elections seems to back up the contention.

But Board of Elections spokesman John Conklin said the needed paperwork to close the PAC campaign account was never filed, which meant Calcaterra was required to make the filings. He also said Calcaterra filed notice that the PAC would not be raising or spending money in the 2004 election cycle — an odd move if she thought the PAC had been closed.

Conklin said that Calcaterra also called the Board of Elections in 2006 to talk about closing down the PAC — proof she knew it was still open — but never followed up.

Calcaterra next contacted the board in 2009, a year before she tried to run for state Senate as a Democrat in Suffolk County. A deal was quickly cut in which the state waived close to $5,400 in fines after she agreed to make up the PAC’s missed filings. The PAC account was then closed.

“This PAC had penalties levied against it, which were later waived, because the (Board of Elections) was not aware that we had filed to shut it down years earlier and that it was completely dormant with a near zero account balance,” Calcaterra said. “As soon as I became aware of administrative issues with the PAC I rectified them and the PAC paid a $100 fine.”

Conklin replied that “there were misunderstandings on both sides.”

This isn't the first time members of the Moreland Anti-Corruption Commission put together by Sheriff Cuomo have been accused of corruption themselves. 

Cuomo has put at least five people on this 25 member commission who have broken election laws.

Cuomo put this commission together to "restore public confidence" in state government by rooting out corruption and election violations.

Anybody with any hope that this commission will expose wrongdoing and corruption should disabuse themselves of that.

Cuomo hired crooks to mete out "justice".

Alliance for Quality Education: Cuomo, Lawmakers Get Failing Grade For School Improvement Policies

From the Times-Union:

The labor-backed Alliance for Quality Education released a report today that gives a failing grade to Albany for the way lawmakers have improved New York’s public schools.

Here’s the report  and here is the press release:

The report card found that the state was moving in the right direction in the areas of “Providing Quality Pre-K” and “Creating Community Schools.” However, the report card found that the state is moving in the wrong direction in the areas of “Expanding Learning Time,” “Providing Challenging and Engaging Curriculum,” “Creating a Positive School Climate and Reducing Suspensions,” and “Investing in Equity.” The report card gave the state an “Incomplete” in “Providing Quality Teaching Initiatives,” stating that there is not enough evidence to show whether or not the new teacher evaluation is a step in the right or wrong direction yet. 

“We agree with the Governor, the state should be investing in full-day pre-K, high quality curriculum, teacher mentoring, more time for student learning, and improving low-performing schools by creating community schools,” said Billy Easton, Executive Director of the Alliance for Quality Education. “Now that the state is funding these successful educational strategies for less than two percent of New York students, the next step should be for the state to embrace the reality that we have a moral obligation to make these programs available to students throughout the state.”

The report card finds that, overall, New York State is moving in the wrong direction because it is failing to provide large portions of students with these successful educational opportunities.  New York has created small grant programs in several of these areas, but those programs each serve less than two percent of students in the state.  

“The way that this state is treating my child’s education is just plain wrong,” said Natasha Capers, parent from Brooklyn. “The bare bones of education is unacceptable, and I’m angry that my child has less opportunities to succeed than other children in this state. The state must do its job, so that schools can do their job to give students an equal opportunity to succeed.”

Cuomo, of course, has moved on from education issues and was busy today giving himself a pat on the back for creating yet another blue ribbon state commission - this time on political corruption.

He ought to combine the two initiatives and take a look at some of the corruption at the NYSED over the testing contracts.

For that matter, he might want to get to the bottom of the last NYSED Commissioner, David Steiner, who was treated to junkets via Pearson.

Or the contracts the NYCDOE signed off on.

There is plenty of corruption to take on in education too.

But you can bet neither Cuomo nor his blue ribbon corruption commission will look at that issue.