Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a statement Thursday in which he said he agrees with those who found the implementation of Common Common Core problematic.
Cuomo said he sympathizes with parents who chose to have their children opt out of standardized tests.
“We must have standards for New York’s students, but those standards will only work if people – especially parents – have faith in them and in their ability to educate our children," Cuomo said. "The current Common Core program does not do that. It must."
Cuomo said Common Core must be fixed and he said the state will do a comprehensive review of the implementation of the Common Core standards.
Cuomo said he will ask a representative group from the State Education Commission, including education experts, teachers, parents, the Commissioner of Education and legislative representatives to review the issues raised above and provide recommendations in time for his State of the State Address in January.
And so we get another jive commission so that Cuomo can say he sympathizes with parents who opted their kids out of the tests, he sympathizes with those who do not have faith in the Common Core, he is one with the students and parents of this state.
But as I pointed out earlier, notice what's not in the statement - anything about APPR.
A Perdido Street School reader noticed that too and explained just what that means:
Before not-so-sophisticated folks have a premature climax here, some things must be made clear. (The none-to-sophisticated folks I am referring to are NYSUT leadership most especially and lots of others)
1) As RBE pointed out, NO MENTION OF APPR OR TEACHER EVALS. That is the biggest thing. Its not what is mentioned that is important...thats just noise. It is what is NOT mentioned that we have to be focused on.
2) This is a continuation and ramping-up of a campaign that was started a few weeks ago to try mightily to pacify parents and take the edge off testing in the face of opt out. It is and will be all about coming down hard on teachers over opt out.
3) We must be hyper-clear now. The reform movement is about privatizing how education is administered within the state (and nationally for sure). The people that administer education are teachers (not administrators in districts, in spite of their claims otherwise). The reform movement seeks, after all the bullshit is stripped away, to privatize the money states pay to teachers....to redirect those funds and more, into corporate coffers. Sure, it wants money to do the tests and run the schools, but the big $$ is in taking the funds states pay to teachers. Lets be real. So, the reform movement's entire goal is to remove current, organized teachers...to "scientifically" prove they are incompetent, deprofessionalize them, and then take over the task of delivering education and the said money. Make no mistake about this. The reform movement's deep-center is about removing teachers.
4) In light of #3 above, Governor Cuomo is a strident political spokesperson for the reform movement. They have paid him. He is invested in them and they in him. There are few bonds he has that are tighter. The reform movement and Cuomo are not particularly interested in testing, common core, etc. These are just tools they have used to pursue their real objective (stated above in #3). They know as well as we do, no doubt, that the tests and common core are bullshit. Sounds strange, but the tests, even common core itself...its all arbitrary. What they are really after is us. Turns out that that is still where the laser-beam focus is. Cuomo and his kind, reformers, etc...all will fart around with the arbitrary stuff....they'll add, take away, throw out, change, manipulate, modify all day long and twice on sunday all of the testing stuff to keep parents calm. Its not what they care about. A commission (wow!!!) will be formed and testing will be modified within the state. (Cuomo and reformers inside their heads are saying "so what?") However, the absolute, laser-like focus on damaging and eventually removing teachers will continue and most likely pick up pace.
This commission means nothing and its results will mean nothing. That is for sure.
Exactly right - Cuomo, perhaps with input from Tisch and Elia, perhaps on his own as damage control, is looking to save his reform agenda from the angry parents.
This is all about trying to pacify the parents and get the opt out rates down for next year so that they can use the tests to rate teachers, schools and districts with impunity again.
I wonder, how does Cuomo defend his APPR rating system that uses tests based upon the Common Core State Standards now that he admits those standards were implemented badly and the tests are problematic?
Will the press ask him about this curious contradiction - APPR swell, CCSS and CCSS tests not so swell?
