Thursday, February 12, 2015

UFT President Michael Mulgrew Discovers Nixon's Silent Testing Majority

Mike Mulgrew and his Unity caucus speak for all parents:

Mike Schirtzer rises, raises motion for next month on behalf of MORE, to support I Refuse Movement. Circulates it. Mulgrew says it needs a simple majority to be placed on agenda. 

Mike says has been passed by several locals, that testing regime is out of hand, and that we should oppose high stakes testing. Says test prep saps joy from teaching, helps neither us nor our students. Kills creativity, critical thinking so we can do non stop test prep. Says we must starve the beast, that MOSL is junk science. Says if we’re gonna go to war against Cuomo, let’s take high stakes testing away from him.

...

Sterling Robeson rises to speak against resolution, says we are against overtesting, but that we need tools to help drive instruction. Says parents need tests to ensure that they’re getting the “education they deserve.” Says we’ve supported this issue “from teachers of Chicago,” and in early grades. Says we’ve enforced it and reemphasized it over and over. States there is difference between opting out and refusing. Says it tells folks to tell their kids to refuse. Although there are pieces that are appealing to us, it goes to far. Urges this motion be defeated.

Mulgrew holds vote, I did not hear him declare outcome (it was clearly voted down, I would say 2-1) takes point of personal privilege, says he understands passion around this issue. Says resolution is out of order because it asks us to make decision about NYSUT. Speaks of how parents want tests. Says we’re in a fight and have to be smart about it, that we ought not to take a boilerplate resolution that was put together in other places. Says we should be against high stake.

No surprise on this, of course - it's the same rationale the AFT used for pushing for testing to remain in the NCLB Jr. bill being cobbled together in Washington.

Thing is, I'm sure there are some parents who think standardized tests are useful and important.

And then there are a whole bunch of them who think they're harmful, especially when attached to high stakes.

That second group is much louder than the first - and, if protests and social media activity are any gauge, it's growing by the day

Perhaps Mulgrew knows something I don't know and he sees Nixon's "Silent Testing Majority" out there supporting high stakes tests.

But more than likely the UFT President has his marching orders from the AFT President who takes her marching orders from the moneyed interests she so respects (a la Bill Gates and the like) that testing must be defended no matter what.

Thing is, they're on the wrong side of history on this, as are many of the civil rights groups that defend high stakes testing as the only way to assure quality education for all (some of those groups are also on the Gates payroll, btw, so they have other interests besides looking out for civil rights.)

The opt out movement and the anti-testing movement will continue to grow, and if Cuomo gets his way on his reform agenda and gets to tie 50% of a teacher's rating to tests, he's just throwing wood on the bonfire.

The testing obsession has reached a tipping point with large numbers of parents (as has Common Core) and Mike Mulgrew's defense of it won't save the Endless Testing regime any more than his promise to punch anybody who takes away his Common Core will save CCSS.

9 comments:

  1. The minute things have clearly turned a corner WeinGrew will jump in and try to take control of the opt-out movement. Meanwhile watch their astroturf "community" groups like AQE dance around the issue.

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  2. Mulgrew showing NY state parents he is against them

    He's done

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  3. Do I really need to pay over a thousand dollars a year to listen to someone who misrepresents me and acts like a ventriloquist's doll for Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg and all the other so-called reform privateers? To say that tests should drive instruction, as Mr. Robeson did, is to repeat their phrasing word for word.

    The needs of children, not tests, should drive instruction.

    The reviving of democracy, not tests, should drive instruction.

    Education as a means of providing choices, and the ability to rationally judge them, not tests, should drive instruction.

    Yesterday's DA provided yet more proof, as if it was necessary, that the Weingrew regime fully accepts the premises of the so-called reformers, which pivot on high stakes testing. These people are there to manage and pacify us while the deal goes down.

    How these folks think they can maintain their dues machine once the union is so weakened and discredited (and make no mistake, any union where 80% of the active membership doesn't vote, where archipelagos of schools have no Chapter Leader, and where the contract is ignored with impunity, is racing there) that it can be drowned in the bathtub.

    That is exactly what Gates and company will do when Weingrew have outlived their usefulness: stop taking their phone calls and send them on their way to their double pensions.

    Apparently, they've signed a loyalty oath to Bill Gates, not that it will help when he's used them up.

    Perhaps they're operating under the assumption of the crooked bankers and mortgage brokers leading up to the financial crisis of 2008: IBGYBG, or "I'll Be Gone, You'll Be Gone."

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  4. I guess these parents must be the only ones refusing the test. Answer that Mulgrew!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ayYajsQjg8

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  5. Weingarten and Mulgrew better realize that the parents will soon have their pitchforks ready and they are coming for them

    Parents expect corporate jerks to not represent children but UNION LEADERS??

    Where is Weingrew's head at??

    How good a deal were they offered to blatantly show disregard for rank and file and STUDENTS????

    History will not be kind.

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  6. It's time to remove Weingarten and Mulgw from their dishonest perches. They are on the wrong side of history, and their names will forever be associated for the crimes their actions have, and continue to support against our communities, our public schools, and our children. It's time to have them removed in handcuffs, and prosecuted as enemies of our democratic society, bought and paid for, and found guilty of committing high crimes and treasonous acts against the people of New York, and also against the United States!

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  7. The only way is through conflict of interest charges related to racketeering with Bill Gates to promote the Common Core.

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  8. Back to the future on this DN article regarding teachers evaluation being used prior to its implementation.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/teachers-city-fight-nasty-article-1.1228637

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  9. What a load of bullshit. Parents do not want tests, nor do they want to see how their kids measure against other kids. Mulgrew is a liar, and as long as he does not support the opt out movement, he is not supporting parents.

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