Some Students Spent Between 6 And 13 And A 1/2 Hours On Testing Yesterday

Yesterday three Regents exams were given - Global History, English and Geometry.

All over the city, high school juniors who had previously failed the Global History and/or Geometry exams were taking those tests again.

Many were also taking the English exam.

Here's how the schedule went yesterday for students slated to take the ELA Regents exam and one or two more exams:

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM - Global History Regents Exam
1:00 PM - 4:00 PM - English Language Arts Exam
4:00 PM - 7:00 PM - Geometry Regents Exam

A student taking two exams yesterday spent six hours on the tests.

A student taking all three exams yesterday spent nine hours on the tests.

And some students from the special education department who receive extended time testing accommodations spent as long as 13 and a 1/2 hours on the tests.

Think about that for a moment.

Think about how much is riding on these tests for the students (who need them to graduate), for the teachers (many of whom are tied to the scores for their APPR teacher evaluation rating despite the claims of the UFT and NYSUT to the contrary) and for the schools (which can end up in receivership or closed based upon those scores.)

I keep hearing from Carl Korn of NYSUT that test scores don't count for teachers anymore, that the pressure is off for students and schools too.

I've heard similar from some of the UFT and NYSUT shills on Twitter (one of whom told me that there was "zilch, nada, bupkis" in his rating tied to test scores.)

Apparently the union hacks at NYSUT and the UFT are unaware of the stakes tied to tests that continue to ride high in high schools for students, teachers and the schools themselves.

Does anybody want to guess how well a student who took two tests back-to-back for six hours yesterday did on those tests?

How about students who took all three for a nine hour testing extravaganza?

How about special education students who had extended time and could have been taking the tests for as long as 13 and 1/2 hours?

Does anybody want to guess what the test component/teacher evaluation ratings for teachers whose student took three tests in one day are going to look like?

It's absurd to think that the geniuses at the Board of Regents and the State Education Department decided to shove as many tests as possible into as small a window as possible, knowing that some students would have to take more than one test a day, some as many as three.

But it's not a surprise.

Because these people DO NOT CARE about children or teachers or schools.

They care only about test scores, expediency and compliance.

And by that gauge, everything yesterday was swell - three tests knocked off, grading starts today for those three, some more tests today, with that grading to begin on tomorrow and so on until it's all done by Sunday.

And there you have it - testing on a tight schedule, all done so that schools can get the scores in by the weekend, the next semester's scheduling completed by Monday and the Spring Semester off to  a start by next Tuesday.

Now if you ask, does this system serve children, teachers or schools, the answer would have to be no.

But remember, the members of the Board of Regents and the educrats at NYSED don't really care about that.

Scores, expediency, compliance - that's what matters.

They ought to be brought up on child abuse charges for what was done yesterday and what will continue to be done this week.

But they won't be.

Hell, they won't even be taken to task by the union leaders at NYSUT or the UFT since the union heads are too busy claiming there's a test score moratorium in APPR and attacking any teachers who point out how wrong they are.

How much has changed as a consequence of Governor Cuomo's Common Core Task Force?

In high schools just about nothing has changed.

What will it take for NYSUT and the UFT to admit this?

I dunno, but it certainly will take more than my efforts, since I keep telling NYSUT's Carl Korn this and he keeps ignoring me.

In fact it seems politicians, the unions and reporters all keep saying so much has changed in education when, in reality, little has changed at all.

Yesterday's insane Regents exam scheduling was the latest iteration of that.

Governor Cuomo keeps telling us he's reduced testing in schools.

I wonder how well he would have fared taking 13 and a 1/2 hours of history, math and English tests yesterday?

Time For NYSUT To Take Real Steps To End The Endless Testing Regime

This is cross-posted from New York Rank & File and it's in response to the propaganda NYSUT has been spewing forth about there being a "moratorium" on the use of test scores in teacher evaluations (a claim that is patently false):

Rank and File Teachers Call on NYSUT Leadership to Do More

We are a coalition of educators motivated by a desire to provide our students with an authentic, developmentally appropriate, culturally relevant, and child-centered public education. As we near the 2016 testing season, hundreds of thousands of young learners will be asked to submit to 9 hours of flawed and harmful state assessments that reduce teaching and learning to a test score, narrow the curriculum, label the majority of children failures, and squander resources, ultimately providing no educational benefit.

 

While the opt out movement has captured the attention of policymakers,there has been no substantive change. The only change is that school districts must now use limited time and resources to negotiate another APPR plan that requires both more testing for NYS children and a continued focus on evaluating teachers through test scores.

Despite this glaring lack of relief for students, the state teachers union (NYSUT) has failed to sound the alarm, and instead has launched a million dollar member-funded “multi-media campaign to highlight progress.” While a campaign video vaguely states that “there is still a lot of work to do,” the campaign is absent of any call to action. A similar campaign by the UFT–the state’s largest local union, based in NYC–goes so far as to spread misinformation, making the false claim that teachers will not be evaluated by test scores for the next 4 years. Nothing could be further from the truth. 
As educators, we are committed to sharing factual information so that those impacted by these policies can make informed decisions. Here are the facts:

• The Education Transformation Act of 2015 requires that 50% of  a teacher’s evaluation be based on a student performance measure. This will not change unless the law is amended.  

• Although teachers will still receive a growth score based on state tests, a 4 year moratorium has been passed on the use of state-provided growth scores for NYS Grades 3-8 Common Core ELA and Math tests in teacher evaluations. 

• ALL teachers will still be subject to a 50% test-based evaluation as per the law. Schools must administer an additional, locally determined assessment  (approved by the state department of education), and scores from that test will supplant the state test derived growth score in a teacher’s evaluation. 

• Teachers will receive a “transitional score” during the moratorium. 50% of this score will be based on observation, and 50% will be based on the locally-determined assessment. This transitional score will be used for making tenure decisions, and as per the law can be used to fire a teacher.

• While growth scores derived from the state tests may not be used for purposes of evaluation during the moratorium, they will still be recorded, and upon request be made available to parents. Teachers evaluated by Regents exams and by the 4th and 8th grade science tests will still be evaluated using those scores.

• Once the moratorium is over, NYS will move to a three year average growth score. In other words, teachers will receive a growth score based on student performance from the previous 3 years. It is unclear whether or not state test growth scores captured during the moratorium will be used in the average growth score for the 2019-20 school year.

• Based on flawed growth scores, schools will continue to be placed into receivership and subject to autocratic control. This will happen disproportionately in schools located in economically disadvantaged Black and Brown communities, as laid out in the Economic Policy Institute’s report, “The Racial Achievement Gap, Segregated Schools, and Segregated Neighborhoods – A Constitutional Insult.”

NYSUT officials recently responded to educators on social media calling for NYSUT to pursue an amendment to the law by stating that they believe the Regents will enact the 21 recommendations of the Common Core Task Force. In a recent interview on The Capital Pressroom, NYSUT President Karen Magee opined that it is “premature” to call for changes to the law and reiterated NYSUT’s belief that the Regents will implement the Common Core Task Force recommendations.

It should be noted that the Task Force has not recommended ANY changes to the focus on test scores in teacher evaluations, making this response irrelevant. While the task force pays lip service to the need for shorter tests, it fails to recommend any substantial change. For example, the Task Force report calls upon New York to follow the examples set by North Carolina, Texas, and New Mexico. The testing practices in these States are hardly positive role models for a reduction in testing. In North Carolina, testing has been reduced to a one day, four hour exam. In Texas, testing has been capped, forcing the average student to sit for 120 minutes, with no administration lasting more than eight hours. And in New Mexico, testing has been reduced by a paltry 15%. In New York, that would reduce 9 hours of testing for 10 year olds to 7.5 hours; some students with disabilities would still be forced to endure 15 hours of testing. This is cold comfort.

We call on the leaders of NYSUT and the UFT to suspend their misleading media campaigns. We also call for NYSUT to work for an immediate amendment to the education law 3012d, that requires teacher evaluations be based on high-stakes tests. Those tests will continue to count for 50% of teacher evaluations.  

Additionally, we call upon NYSUT leaders to launch a new, fact-based media campaign that will inform their members and the public that very little has changed for the children we serve. The continued requirement of students to participate in flawed and inappropriate testing this spring, as well as additional, local assessments (solely for the purposes of teacher evaluations) must stop. Furthermore, we demand that NYSUT urge all teachers to join the effort to save our profession, and to protect our students by refusing NYS tests in grades 3-8 for their own children.

Parents across New York State have labored for the past three years to protect their children and support educators. It is time that NYSUT and UFT leaders do the same. Now is not the time to lose the support of the public and our allies.

Signed,

BATs (Badass Teachers)

MORE (Movement of Rank & File Educators)

Stronger Together Caucus

Teachers of Conscience

**********************************************************************

The following organizations support The Call to Stand Up for Students:

Long Island Opt Out

Bronx Educators United for Justice

Opt Out CNY

Change the Stakes

New York State Allies For Public Education

Lace to the Top

NYC Opt Out

Pencils Down Rockland County

NYS Receivership and NYC Renewal Schools Action Group

ReThinking Testing MidHudson

The Paperclip Revolution

Note To MaryEllen Elia, NY Pols And NY Press: Test Scores Are Still Part Of APPR Evaluations

Keshia Clukey at Politico NY:

ALBANY — As education commissioner MaryEllen Elia updated a Senate panel on her agency's 2016 priorities Wednesday, lawmakers noted a "different vibe in the room.”

Her meeting with the Senate Education Committee came a little more than six months after she took over heading the agency from John King, a champion of the Common Core learning standards who became a polarizing figure in the state after their troubled rollout. He left for the federal agency and is now acting secretary of education there.

...

Among the priorities that Elia detailed Wednesday were revising the principal and teacher evaluation system, involving teachers in revising the Common Core learning standards and creating state assessments.

The Regents board has already put a moratorium on the use of student test scores in teacher and principal evaluations through the 2019-2020 school year while the system is under review. It has also made changes to the state tests, shortening them and increasing the time allotted, and the Education Department is reviewing the standards, assessments and evaluations.

Moratorium?

Is this a "moratorium"?

Common Core grade 3-8 scores won't be used for teacher evaluations until 2019 but other tests will still be in there including high school Regents Exams unless they are tied to a state growth model. Does going from a growth model to a Student Learning Objective (SLO) system constitute an end to high stakes testing?  I don't think so.

Footnote 10 in the SED Q & A states:
Teachers with SLOs that are based on Regents assessments will not be impacted and must continue to use SLOs with such assessments.

This is footnote 3 from the Q & A from SED:

Please note that teachers and principals whose APPRs do not include the grades 3-8 ELA and math State assessments or State-provided growth scores on Regents examinations are not impacted by the transition regulations and their evaluations shall be calculated pursuant to their district’s/BOCES’ approved APPR Plan without any changes. For example, a building principal of a CTE program whose APPR utilizes CTE assessments as part of the student performance component of their APPR will not be impacted by the transition regulations.

For math and ELA teachers, the Regents exams are the new Common Core exams, many with low passing rates - especially in math.

Moratorium on using Common Core test scores for teacher evaluations?

Hardly.

When will the education press stop writing stuff like "the Regents board has already put a moratorium on the use of student test scores in teacher and principal evaluations through the 2019-2020 school year while the system is under review"?

Because it's not true - NYSED's APPR Q&A lays that out quite specifically, as did Governor Cuomo a while back.

The more accurate description is, there is a partial moratorium on test scores for some teachers while the rest continue to be linked to test scores - including Common Core Regents test scores for some high school teachers.

Merryl Tisch Regrets Meeting Her Waterloo In The Suburbs

The Doyenne of Testing gives a farewell address to the troops on Tisch TV:

New York’s outgoing Board of Regents chancellor, Merryl Tisch, says the greatest disappointment of her tenure was being unable to convince suburban parents to “move the standards movement beyond the rhetoric and politics.”

The state’s top education policymaker, whose term expires in March, sat down this week for a two-part interview with MetroFocus, a public television station serving New York City and New Jersey that she and her husband help fund.

The first interview focused on why Tisch supported the Common Core’s rollout in New York and how it all went awry. The second interview was more of a reflection on her tenure with the Regents, which began in 1996 and culminated with some of the nation’s most controversial education reform.

Despite all the controversy, Tisch described her biggest accomplishment as New York’s move to higher standards.

The arrogance of the reformers, Tisch included, was on display when they thought they could rig the test scores and use that as the excuse for more system-breaking reform.

It seems to have never occurred to them that maybe, just maybe, parents wouldn't buy their bullshit story.

Well, they learned differently, didn't they?

Kingsie met his Waterloo in Poughkeepsie.

Tisch met hers on Long Island and western New York.

In any case, the interviewer has a happy ending for Tisch - this is, after all, Tisch TV, which is partly funded by Tisch herself:

As for her next move, Tisch would only say she hopes to stay involved in education policy, and asked everyone to stay tuned. And then the series ended with this interesting exchange.

Pi Roman: Some people are calling for you to run for mayor. If nominated, will you run? And if elected, will you serve?
Tisch: Oh, that’s — [laughs] — yeah, well, funny thing about that.

Oh, yeah - run for mayor, Merryl.

See how that goes.

What a stroke, er joke, from the interviewer.

MaryEllen Elia Says You'll Be Able To "Touch" All The Wonderful Changes Coming In Education

MaryEllen Elia, on the propaganda trail:

ALBANY — Substantive changes will be made to testing, teacher evaluations and the Common Core learning standards in New York State, state education commissioner MaryEllen Elia said in a television interview set to air Monday night.

“We’ve already started it,” Elia told WCNY’s Susan Arbetter on "Connect:NY," which airs on PBS.

...

 She said she understands the concerns of test refusal groups, which have said they will keep urging parents to opt their children out of the state and local exams linked to the teacher evaluations until they see change.

“I understand people saying, ‘Let me see it. I want to see it. I want to touch it. I want to make sure it’s there.’ Well, they’re going to be able to see it and touch it. That’s what we’re doing,” she said.

Uh, huh.

Sure you are.

So far, here's a rundown of the wonderful changes we've gotten in education policy.

Changing the Common Core but keeping the "instructional focus" the same.

De-linking state tests from teacher evaluations for four years, but elevating "local" tests to take their place.

Dunno how delusional Elia is, but if she thinks rhetoric and tweaks are going to fool anybody, she's kidding herself.

Regents Vote To Continue Using Test Scores To Rate Teachers

The Regents voted for a four year moratorium from using state test scores in teacher evaluations - but there's a catch:

A four-year moratorium on use of state standardized test scores to rate — or penalize — the job performance of schoolteachers and principals gained overwhelming preliminary approval Monday from the state Board of Regents.

The policymaking board passed the “emergency regulation” in a 15-1 vote, with the only “no” cast by Chancellor Merryl Tisch.

The catch?

They're still using test scores to rate you, just not "state" test scores:

Under a complex four-year transition, teachers would receive new “transition scores” calculated by the state, based on information provided by local school districts. Such ratings would come from results of classroom observations and tests selected locally by school districts.

So don't believe the hype - Regents vote for moratorium on state test scores in teacher evaluations blah blah blah.

Means nothing so long as "local" tests will be used on you because in the end, whether the voodoo VAM is based on local test scores or state test scores, it's still voodoo.

So call the Regents on their manipulation here and spread the word - the Endless Testing regime and voodoo VAM is alive and well in APPR.

Board Of Regents Will Form Panel To "Consider Improvements" To Cuomo's APPR Teacher Evaluation System

From the "Putting Lipstick On A Pig" file:

The state Board of Regents will form a panel to consider improvements to the state's new and controversial teacher evaluation system, the board announced during its Monday meeting.

The work group — whose members have not yet been named — will be similar to others empaneled by the Regents. It is separate from the task force recently convened by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to address issues surrounding the Common Core.

Critics of the new teacher evaluation have expressed concern about the weight it affords to the results of standardized student tests. At their September meeting, the Regents approved the evaluation system, but said the current version is in need of amendment before it can be implemented.

One possible change would be the addition of an appeals board that would let teachers contest poor ratings if they stem from standardized test scores.

A "work panel" to "consider improvements" to the fatally flawed APPR teacher evaluation system doesn't seem particularly meaningful to me.

APPR is currently being challenged in court because of wide and irrational swings in the test component part.

That iteration of APPR that is being challenged only has a teacher rated 20% based upon test scores - since then Governor Cuomo pushed through an increase in test score weight on a teacher's APPR evaluation to 50%.

Trying to improve an evaluation system that uses a flawed test score component with wide and irrational swings is, quite frankly, like putting lip stick on a pig and calling it a debutante.

This is more jive, just like the Obama administration announcing they're using the John King 2% rule for testing (I'll have more on that joke later.)

Given that so much weight is put on testing in rating schools and teachers, the 2% rule is meaningless - and until APPR is scrapped and redone completely, whatever "recommendations" the Regents work panel comes up with won't mean much in the grand scheme.

Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch Will Not Seek Re-Election To Board Of Regents

Nick Reisman at State of Politics:

Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch on Monday said she would step down from her post when it ends in March.  

Tisch made the surprise announcement in Albany this morning at the board’s monthly meeting.  

She was first elected chancellor in 2009 and had served on the Regents board since 1996.

Keshia Clukey at Politico NY reports Tisch said she will spend the rest of her tenure trying to "calm the waters".

Given how polarizing Tisch has been, this statement is laughable.

In any case, your thought on Tisch's exit?

How Did Mary Ellen Elia Get Hired At NYSED Given the Mess She Left In Hillsborough?

The Tampa Times has another piece about the mess former Hillsborough Superintendent MaryEllen Elia left in the school district as a result of the "innovative" evaluation teacher evaluation system she pushed in partnership with the Gates Foundation.

Here's a summary of their findings:

• The Gates-funded program — which required Hillsborough to raise its own $100 million — ballooned beyond the district's ability to afford it, creating a new bureaucracy of mentors and "peer evaluators" who don't work with students.

• Nearly 3,000 employees got one-year raises of more than $8,000. Some were as high as $15,000, or 25 percent.

• Raises went to a wider group than envisioned, including close to 500 people who don't work in the classroom full time, if at all.

• The greatest share of large raises went to veteran teachers in stable suburban schools, despite the program's stated goal of channeling better and better-paid teachers into high-needs schools.

• More than $23 million of the Gates money went to consultants.

• The program's total cost has risen from $202 million to $271 million when related projects are factored in, with some of the money coming from private foundations in addition to Gates. The district's share now comes to $124 million.

• Millions of dollars were pledged to parts of the program that educators now doubt. After investing in an elaborate system of peer evaluations to improve teaching, district leaders are considering a retreat from that model. And Gates is withholding $20 million after deciding it does not, after all, favor the idea of teacher performance bonuses — a major change in philosophy.

• The end product — results in the classroom — is a mixed bag.

Hillsborough's graduation rate still lags behind other large school districts. Racial and economic achievement gaps remain pronounced, especially in middle school.

And poor schools still wind up with the newest, greenest teachers.

Financial instability and debt were not Elia's only track missteps - there were also the multiple instances of children dying under her watch without the district taking responsibility (and action) to make sure these tragedies didn't happen again.

Here's a post from May 28 that covers that:

Complicity And Cover-Up: MaryEllen Elia's Failure Of Leadership In The Deaths Of Hillsborough Students

The tragic stories of Isabella Herrera, a 7 year old who died in 2012 while on a Hillsborough school bus, and Keith Logan Coty, a 6 year old who died of a brain hemorrhage in 2014 after getting sick at his school, suggest the kind of leadership we'll get from new NYSED commissioner MaryEllen Elia.

Then Hillsborough superintendent, Elia never took responsibility for the failure of district personnel to call 911 in a timely manner when Isabellea Herrera was found unresponsive on a Hillsborough school bus.

In fact, Elia did all she could to deflect responsibility from herself and the district and cover-up district complicity in the child's death because of an outdated policy that had school bus drivers call dispatchers instead of 911 in an emergency.

As Joe Henderson of the Tampa Tribune wrote, if not for a lawsuit from the Herrera family, the circumstances of the girl's death - a direct consequence of school district policy continued under Elia - would not have come to light:

For all the community outrage over circumstances that contributed to the death of 7-year-old special-needs student Isabella Herrera, consider this: If her parents hadn't filed a federal lawsuit over the way her case was handled, the public still wouldn't know there was ever a problem.

There wouldn't be a task force to study ongoing problems with how issues with special-needs students are addressed.

School bus drivers would continue to follow the 21-year-old policy of calling dispatchers instead of 911 in an emergency such as the one that led to Isabella's death.

Six of seven members of the Hillsborough County School Board would still be in the dark about what happened that January day on the bus taking Isabella home from classes.

Life would go on just always. Except, of course, for Isabella and her family.

She had a neuromuscular disease that made her neck muscles weak. She was supposed to have her head back as she sat in her wheelchair, but she tilted forward and it blocked her airway. When it was discovered, the driver called dispatch and the aide on board called Isabella's mother.

By the time Lisa Herrera arrived and dialed 911 herself, her daughter was blue and unresponsive. She was pronounced dead the next day.

But Superintendent MaryEllen Elia didn't make the news public. She relied on a sheriff's office investigation that she said found no criminal wrongdoing, and appeared to let it go at that. During an interview last week, I asked why she didn't release the news. She fell back on the sheriff's report.

If you're the parent of a special-needs student, though, you would have liked to know there was a problem. I should say, is a problem. There have been three other issues with special-needs kids just this year, including the recent death of a student with Down syndrome who wandered away unnoticed and drowned.

The Herrera family filed its lawsuit a few days after that — about nine months after Isabella died. Now we have a task force, and a policy change allowing bus drivers to call 911 if the situation warrants. As school board Vice Chairwoman April Griffin told The Tampa Tribune though, "It goes way, way deeper than that. But I think it's a start."

This would be a better start: Expand the task force to probe the circumstances of why it took a lawsuit to bring this to a head. This isn't a witch hunt, but there has to be accountability.

What happened in the aftermath of this tragedy was at best a case of bureaucratic bungling.

When a child dies, a leader doesn't fall back on official reports and policy excuses. A leader gets to the bottom of things and then lets everyone know what went wrong so it doesn't happen again. A leader asks uncomfortable questions about the culture in a school system that values policy and procedure over good judgment and common sense.

That didn't happen here. And if not for a lawsuit, no one would have known.

Two years later, another child died after Hillsborough school staff failed to call 911 in a timely manner:

TAMPA — Keith Logan Coty played baseball, soccer and football. He was a principal's honor roll student in the first grade at Seminole Heights Elementary School, his mother said.

He'd had a heart murmur, but the doctor had cleared him, his mother said.

He died a year ago at age 6 of a brain hemorrhage, and a lawsuit filed Friday blames staff at his school for failing to call for help quickly enough. The lapse is especially unfathomable, lawyers say, as the issue of timely 911 calls was cited in another high-profile student death in a Hillsborough public school.

"How many kids under the care of this school district must die before the district gets it right?" lawyer Steven Maher asked, announcing the federal suit in a news conference Friday.

Exactly a year ago — Jan. 17, 2014 — Keith began feeling sick after lunch, the suit says. He went back to his classroom about 12:24 p.m., complaining to his teacher about a severe headache. She told him to lie down. He did. Then he started vomiting.

About 12:51, the teacher called Keith's mother, Kaycee Teets. There was no sense of urgency in the voice mail message she left, which Maher played at the news conference. It simply asked Teets to pick up her son because he was throwing up.

Before Teets could arrive, another school employee entered the room and found Keith lying on his side, making a gurgling sound with foam streaming from his nose. "His lips were blue," the suit said. The school nurse was summoned. Although Keith was unresponsive, the suit alleges the nurse did not perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation; nor did she use the defibrillator at the school.

About 12:58 p.m., a worker in the front office called 911. The information given to the 911 operator was confusing, the suit alleges. At one point the caller said Keith was breathing. His mother insists he was not.

When an emergency vehicle arrived at 1:03 p.m., Keith was "in the corner, visibly blue, not breathing, and unresponsive." Paramedics were able to resuscitate the child, and they took him to St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa.

A scan revealed he had a brain hemorrhage. But, according to the suit, no one told the doctors about his headache, information Teets learned hours later when she spoke with Keith's teacher. Not suspecting a neurological problem, doctors focused on possible cardiac issues instead.

Keith "went without oxygen for at least 10 minutes as a result of the delay in commencing CPR," the suit alleges. He stayed on life support long enough for his organs to be taken for donation, and he was pronounced dead later in the day.

The suit, filed days before Superintendent MaryEllen Elia could face a School Board vote on terminating her contract, is reminiscent of a suit the same firm filed in 2012, also involving a child alleged to have died after emergency treatment was delayed.

Isabella Herrera suffered a neuromuscular disability and was on a school bus when she stopped breathing. No one called 911 until Isabella's mother arrived. The school district ultimately settled that lawsuit for $800,000.

The Herrera suit was filed in federal court, alleging a civil rights violation; rather than a negligence suit in state court, where the award would have been limited under sovereign immunity. Maher was trying to prove a districtwide lack of training and care so severe, it amounted to a level of indifference toward disabled students that qualified as discrimination.

This time, Maher said, the 911 policy and procedures amount to discrimination toward all of Hillsborough's 200,000 students.

The district argued in the 2012 suit that there was no pattern of indifference. And, after the drowning death of a second special-needs child that same year, Hillsborough revamped its training of staff, particularly those who care for disabled children.

But 911 calls have remained a source of confusion. While Elia quickly stated there is no prohibition against calling 911, administrators sometimes advise staff to let the front office make the calls. Phone service is not always reliable in the classrooms, they say, and it's easier for emergency workers to find the office than a particular classroom.

Maher and Teets said that makes no sense to them.

"I would call 911. There would be no question," Teets said. "Any person would do that. I walked into a classroom and found my child, blue on the ground."

Stephen Hegarty, the district's spokesman, said, "I cannot comment on pending litigation."

Maher said his firm is asking for monetary damages, but did not specify the amount.

Where are the great leadership qualities Elia supposedly has in the aftermath of these tragedies involving Hillsborough students?

If one student dies as a result of the failure of staff to call 911 in a timely manner, wouldn't you think a "great leader" would put together an effective protocol so that such a tragedy wouldn't happen a second time?

Elia instead did her best to cover up the circumstances surrounding Isabella Herrera's death - something that was noted when Elia was feted with a commendation by the Tampa Bay City Council after she was fired as Hillsborough superintendent.

Mary Mulhern, a council member who voted against the commendation for Elia, told the Tampa Tribune:

"MaryEllen Elia was fired by her employers — by her boss, the School Board," she said. "I can't think of another case where someone gets lauded and celebrated after they've been fired from a job that is a public responsibility. … When you are responsible for the lives of children, I think one strike is too many."

Elaborating, Mulhern cited the deaths of three students:

• 7-year-old disabled student Isabella Herrera, who died in January 2012 after suffering respiratory failure aboard a school bus. A bus video show that the driver and an aide did not call 911, but used a radio to try to reach their supervisor, as was protocol, then called Herrera's mother, who arrived and called 911. The School Board, most of whose members were unaware of the death until the girl's parents sued, agreed to pay $800,000 last year to settle a federal lawsuit.

• 11-year-old Jennifer Caballero, who had Down syndrome and drowned in a pond behind Rodgers Middle School after wandering away from a crowded gym class in October 2012. The school district agreed to pay a negotiated settlement estimated at more than $500,000. Investigations led to three firings and several resignations at the school. The district also took steps after the deaths to improve safety for special-needs students on buses and in school.

• 6-year-old Keith Logan Coty, who died a day after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage in January 2014 at Seminole Heights Elementary School. In a lawsuit, his parents accuse the school district of being indifferent to student safety and of discouraging staffers from calling 911 in emergencies. The district denies the allegations.

"If somebody dies, it goes to the top," Mulhern said. In the Herrera case, she said, "her employers didn't know this happened for nine months. … For me, that's enough. That's three strikes."

Mulhern said she didn't "disagree that (Elia has) done very good work over 10 years," but the concerns about student safety were overriding for her.

"The powers that be in Tampa and Hillsborough County just circled the wagons around this powerful person," who, Mulhern noted, had the authority to give out contract. 

Say what you will about former NYSED commissioner John King's flaws as a leader - covering up district complicity in the death of a student and a failure to fix emergency protocol for 911 calls involving students weren't on the list.

The more you learn about MaryEllen Elia and her "leadership," the more you see the big mistake the Board of Regents made by hiring her as NYSED commissioner.

Also, the more you learn about Elia as a person, the more you see how appropriate her nickname - MaryEllen EVILia - is.

Did the members of the Board of Regents talked to anybody other than reformer cheerleaders when deciding to hire Elia to replace John King King at NYSED?

Here's a "great leader" who left behind her a financial disaster in the district, three dead students (two of whom might not have died had she not covered up the district's responsibility in the first death), a lot of enemies and a "mixed" academic record at best (as the Tampa Bay Times piece on the Gates Foundation/Elia evaluation mess noted.)

Why was someone this awful hired to run the New York State Education Department?

NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia Hasn't Met With Governor Andrew Cuomo Yet

What to make of this?

ALBANY — State education commissioner MaryEllen Elia said that her agency and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to be on the same page as the department and a Cuomo-created commission both push to review the Common Core standards and complete their reports before the governor's State of the State message in January.

“I don’t think that the work that’s being done by the governor’s commission excludes the work that’s being done by [the state education department], but clearly we need to work together,” Elia told POLITICO New York.

In another use of executive action to advance his education reform agenda, Cuomo earlier this month announced that his education commission also will do a comprehensive review of the implementation of the Common Core.

If I read that correctly, Elia's begging to not be thrown to the side as the "Common Core Review Party" gets under way.

And you can see why she's got that concern given this information:

The governor and the education commissioner have not discussed the matter in person, because they have yet to meet face to face, more than two months after Elia took over the department.

The commissioner and governor have spoken on the phone, Elia said.

“I’ve had multiple conversations with the governor. He’s been very busy, as have I," she said.

Oh, yeah, you're very busy and so is he, so you can't meet with him to discuss your joint plans on education because, well, you don't really have any joint plans because he's really running stuff even though nominally he has little power over education.

No wonder she's taken to begging Cuomo in public to be invited to the Common Core Review Party:

It’s a control issue, said former Bronx assemblyman Michael Benjamin, about Cuomo not meeting with Elia.

“The governor wants to do things on his own time table and kind of have her stew a bit before he meets her,” he said.

Unlike states where the education commissioner is appointed by the governor, New York's commissioner is appointed by the state Board of Regents, whose members are chosen by the Legislature.

“She is not his choice,” Gerald Benjamin, a professor of political science at SUNY New Paltz, said of Elia.

So here we are, just two and a half months into her NYSED tenure, and we're already seeing MaryEllen Elia having to fight to save herself from irrelevancy.

You know that over/under in Vegas on when Elia gets canned and/or decides to "spend time with her family"?

I think the odds are shifting a bit more toward "under."

Welcome Back To Another School Year Full Of Fear, Uncertainty And Constant Change

It's the Tuesday after Labor Day and you know what that means teachers:

Another day of meetings and professional development.

This year will be extra special since just last week, Governor Cuomo announced he was putting together yet another education commission/panel (the third since early 2014) to review the Common Core State (sic) Standards, the Common Core tests and the Common Core curriculum (EngageNY).

Hey, nothing like announcing a full review a couple of days before school starts, right?

Those tests you'll be talking about preparing your students for today so that you don't get declared an "ineffective" teacher and fired - well, Cuomo says he wants them "reviewed" (whatever that means.)

And that EngageNY curriculum that you're going to roll your eyes at today when it's handed to you at a teacher meeting because it has you spending 17 days on one short story - that's under review too.

Those Common Core State (sic) Standards you'll spend time talking about today, well, Cuomo's not so sure they're being implemented right and they just might need to be tweaked or changed or overhauled.

In short, you're starting the year with yet more uncertainty and change on the horizon, because the change in the standards, the high stakes testing, the curriculum and the evaluation system over the past few years wasn't enough change and now we'll need more of it.

Steve McLaughlin put all of this in perspective with a tweet (as McLaughlin is so good at doing):

Cuomo's act is the same every time; insist something be done fast, wreak havoc, deny responsibility, then claim he'll fix it. #CommonCore

— Steve McLaughlin (@SteveMcNY) September 7, 2015

And that's exactly what we have again this year.

The one thing on the education agenda Cuomo doesn't want reviewed is the APPR teacher evaluation system he shoved through in the budget, the one that makes test scores 50% of a teacher's rating and gives districts the discretion to fire teachers for two consecutive "ineffective" ratings and forces districts to fire teachers for three consecutive "ineffective" ratings.

That he doesn't want APPR reviewed even though the evaluation system is based in part upon teachers being able to teach the Common Core State (sic) Standards that are currently under review and the Common Core curriculum that is currently under review (EngageNY) as well as garner high test scores from their students on the Common Core tests that are also under review says a lot about how this year is going to go.

That evaluation system got shoved through last budget though almost nobody other than Cuomo's education reformer/hedge fundie donors wanted it and now Cuomo refuses to let it go.

Indeed, he is on record calling that system the "bedrock" of his education reform agenda, so you know it will be the kind of thing that has to be clawed out of his cold, handcuffed hands.

The new evaluation system is supposed to be in place by November or districts lose an increase in state aid, though there is a waiver system in place for districts that have a "hardship" in coming to an agreement under that timeline.

In any case, as the year starts, teachers do not know whether they will be evaluated under the old system or the new system and they don't know if the Common Core State (sic) Standards, Common Core curriculum and Common Core tests are going to get tweaked, changed or completely overhauled by Cuomo's vaunted third education commission/panel that will meet in the near future and hand Cuomo recommendations that he can announce in January.

Given all the uncertainty, this would seem to be an excellent time to step back and say "Time out!" from all the accountability measures for teachers and schools, but of course that isn't going to happen.

Indeed, Renewal Schools that the state has targeted for receivership have either one or two years to "improve" or get handed over to a charter operator or some other outside entity, all this uncertainty and change to the system be damned.

Same goes for teachers declared "ineffective" in the 2014-2015 year - get another "ineffective" rating and your district can fire you in an expedited process.

It doesn't matter that the whole system is under review, that all the reforms that got shoved through and implemented faster than you can say 3020a disciplinary process are falling apart and need to be "reviewed".

That's because the one real goal Cuomo has with public education - to "bust" the public school monopoly (here and here) - continues to be served by all the havoc Cuomo and his reformer buddies at the Regents and NYSED create with their half-baked schemes and reforms.

So welcome back, teachers, to another fear-filled year, another year of uncertainty and churn, another year where the powers that be look to destroy you, your school, your profession and public education.

As Sgt. Esterhaus on Hill Street Blues used to say:

Circular Firing Squad: Cuomo Blames NYSED For Common Core Woes, NYSED Blames Parents, Teachers

Susan Berry at Breitbart:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said Thursday that the Common Core “is not working” and announced a plan to form his own “education commission” to review the standards initiative and report back to him on how to “fix” it.

Cuomo’s announcement accompanied finger pointing on why the grossly unpopular education reform has failed in his state.

As Syracuse.com reports, Cuomo laid the blame for Common Core’s failure on the state’s Department of Education – the one state agency that is not directly under the control of the governor’s office. In turn, the relatively new education commissioner, MaryEllen Elia, who replaced Common Core champion John King — now “promoted” to adviser to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan – blamed New York’s Common Core problems on parents and school officials who were proponents of the state test opt-out movement.

Cuomo said in a statement that while he agrees “with the goal of Common Core Standards, I believe the implementation by the State Education Department (SED) has been deeply flawed."

“A growing chorus of experts have questioned the intelligence of SED’s Common Core program and objective educators across the state have found the implementation problematic, to say the least,” Cuomo added.

Berry writes that to blame NYSED for the implementation of the state's education reform agenda misses the "elephant in the room" - the popularity of Comon Core is plummeting all over the country.

Cuomo blaming NYSED, NYSED blaming parents and teachers - all the finger pointing in the world isn't going to improve the plummeting popularity of Common Core, the Endless testing regime and the corporate education reform agenda Cuomo is pursuing.

As NYSAPE put it yesterday:

 In a press release yesterday expressing “sympathy” for parents, Cuomo called for a review of the Common Core in New York, blaming the State Education Department’s implementation while vowing to revive his Common Core panel to review the mess.

Parents across the state are not fools.

They know the problems are hardly limited to implementation of the Common Core, but the actual Common Core itself, its excessive testing, and a fundamentally broken teacher evaluation system.

Parents know that Andrew Cuomo is not part of the solution. Cuomo is the problem.

It is Cuomo who forced his unproven teacher evaluation system down parents’ throats.

It is Cuomo who slashed and underfunded the State Education Department staffing.

It is Cuomo who accepted ‘Big Donor’ campaign money and enabled the build-up of a privatized, unaccountable shadow government within the State Education Department –The Regents Research Fellows—who created the “Implementation” mess Cuomo now blames.

It is Cuomo who repeatedly tramples on the New York State Constitution–which gives a NY Governor NO authority over education policy—with his serial habit of forming pro-corporate education reform stacked panels, complete with Washington lobbyists salivating to eliminate parental consent for data profiling of children.

Parents of New York are outraged and will continue the fight to take back their schools and classrooms from the Albany shenanigans of Andrew Cuomo, Merryl Tisch and MaryEllen Elia.

Cuomo can finger point and play games.

MaryEllen Elia and NYSED can finger point and play games.

The games and finger pointing aren't fooling anybody.

Neither is the latest Cuomo education reform commission (the third commission/panel since 2014.)

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.

Is NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia Really Softening Her Stance On Opt Out?

NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia made a couple of media appearances to try and calm the furor over her recent comments that parents who opt their children out of state tests are "not reasonable," teachers who support or encourage opting out are "unethical" and the state was looking into legal means to cut down on opt out rates next year.

The first was on NPR with Karen DeWitt:

“Superintendents have asked me, ‘Is it the law?’ ‘Exactly what does this mean for us?’ ‘What are the ramifications of (a high opt-out rate) in terms of the federal law?’,” Elia said. “So it would seem to me the logical thing for me to do as the commissioner in the state is to find out the answers to those questions, and tell my colleagues that. That’s what I said.

“This is not a threat — I’m just trying to get information out there so people understand it,” she said.

Elia discussed the “toolbox” SED is assembling to address a range of issues concerning the tests.

“Really, the idea of the toolbox for leaders in the state came from a request from a number of superintendents,” Elia said. “I think it’s really looking at what we can do to communicate better. I think the work that’s been done in New York, much of it is very good, but there are areas where we haven’t been on top of things like I think we could have been — and this is common across the country.

“Parents have a right to have their child test or not,” she continued. ” … But I think we haven’t done enough communication so that parents — if they understand it and they still want their child to opt out, that certainly is their right — but I think a lot of parents feel like the tests had problems with them, from their perspective.”

Elia then proceeded to list a number of the reasons why a parent might want their child to opt out — and seemed to agree with at least one of them.

“I’ve had teachers tell me the tests are too long. I’ve had them say they don’t think they’re matched to the standards. We’ve done a lot of work in matching and looking to see that that’s done,” she said. “But I would tell you, I think that they are long.”

Next was Capital Tonight:

During a CapTon interview last night, Elia said there’s definitely an ethical “line” teachers should not cross when it comes to the third-through-eighth-grade English and math exams.

The commissioner said educators should not use the “pulpit” provided by their positions to reach out to parents and encourage them to opt out, but should feel free to answer questions about their personal position on the issue when asked – especially if those questions are posed outside the classroom.

“What I’m concerned about is taking a position and influencing children and families simply because they know their telephone number or someone might come in,” Elia said.

Elia acknowledged that it is perfectly legal for parents to decide not to have their children sit for state tests, but also said she believes parents need to be educated about the importance of those tests as a diagnostic and “assessment” tool.

She said she isn’t threatening anyone with sanctions, but is reaching out to superintendents to provide them with information to give to parents on this issue. At the moment, Elia confirmed, no districts will be losing federal funding as a result of unusually high opt-out rates.

These interviews came on the same day that she backed up the right for parents to opt their children out of vaccinations for religious reasons.

She's still hammering home the idea that parents who are opting their kids out just don't know any better but by golly, she's going to educate them by communicating with them (“Parents have a right to have their child test or not…But I think we haven’t done enough communication so that parents..."; she believes parents need to be educated about the importance of those tests as a diagnostic and “assessment” tool.)

The State of Politics blog described Elia's media tour yesterday as Elia's "softening" her stance on the Opt Out movement, but I didn't hear much different from her yesterday on opt out at all.

She did acknowledge the tests are too long, so there's one minor concession from her, though she has always said the state was going to review the tests for quality, so presumably that length critique comes under that purview.

But other than the critique about the length of the tests, I didn't hear much that was new.

She has acknowledged parents have the right to opt their children out of the state tests (including parents who are also teachers), so that isn't new.

She's claimed before that her NYSED "toolbox" project isn't going to be a way for the state to coerce parents to have their children sit for the tests, so that isn't new either.

Quite frankly, I heard more that was new in her statement supporting the parent's right to opt her child out of the MMR vaccines for religious reasons than I did in her media tour yesterday.

It seems that Elia's trying to walk back the mess she made by calling parents who opt their children out of state tests "unreasonable" and teachers who support or encourage opt out "unethical," but that kind of language isn't easily erased from the minds of those who were targeted with it and while news reporters might have heard her "softening" her stance against opt out in yesterday's media tour, I heard much of the same old, same old message offered with less strident language.

She's still claiming parents who opt their children out need to be educated about the swellness of the tests.

She's still saying the "toolbox" will be a way for districts to educate these parents.

The threat is still implicit in the "It's the law..." remarks that districts that don't get parents to comply are going to have some legal trouble from the state (e.g., "at the moment" no districts will lose funding as a result of high opt out rates...)

Meet the new MaryEllen Elia message, same as the old MaryEllen Elia message, just with slightly less judgmental language.

NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia Puts Together A "Goon Squad" To Intimidate Parents, Teachers

Readers of Perdido Street School blog will not be surprised to find out that NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia is fast wearing out her welcome as the new head of the New York State Education Department nor that she is proving to be a tone deaf figure with a talent for divisiveness and controversy.

Elia was fired from her previous gig as superintendent of Hillsborough School District because she openly feuded with members of the school board, treated many of those who worked with her or under her with disdain and scorn, and refused to take responsibility for student safety problems or  district complicity in the deaths of three students.

In sum:

She had a reputation for creating a "culture of fear" in her office where subordinates felt "browbeaten" and "bullied."

Was accused of trying to cover up district complicity in the death of a 7 year old special needs child.

Was the target of parent protest for lack of district response after a second special needs child died at a Hillsborough school.

Oversaw a school district that has been accused of racial discrimination in its discipline policies and is the target of a federal complaint.

Oversaw a school busing and choice program that created a "reign of chaos" at McLane Middle School for ten years.

Was dubbed "MaryEllen EVILia" by some parents for pursuing district policies that harmed children with special needs.

Couldn't play nice with the school board and was ultimately whacked in a 4-3 vote in January.

When Elia was hired to replace John King at NYSED, she was hailed by members of the Board of Regents, many in the Legislature, the education reform community and NYSUT as a great hire, someone who would listen to and work well with others.

Given her track record at Hillsborough, it was absurd to think that she wouldn't be as divisive, controversial and tone deaf here in New York as she was in Tampa.

It hasn't taken too long for Elia to demonstrate exactly that.

Last week she said parents who choose to opt their children out of the state standardized tests are "not reasonable" and called teachers who support or encourage opt out "unethical."

She threatened "ramifications" for schools and/or districts with high opt rates in 2015, then after that "tool" was taken from her when Regents Chancellor Tisch and Governor Cuomo both stated there wouldn't be punitive measures taken against parents or schools for opt outs this year, promised that she would engage parents and teachers for next year to make sure that opt out rates drop in a way that sounded awfully threatening.

Elia has said "it's the law" that students take standardized tests and she's going to make sure that educators are aware of where the line in the law is drawn over what they can and can't say about opt out.

Her engagement plan has some thinking that she plans legal action against teachers who encourage or even support opt out, like this commenter at Perdido Street School blog:

Cuomo's, Tisch's, and now Elia's recent statements are suggesting how they will be approaching Opt Out.....3020A'ing any "educator," Admin or teacher, who in any way support or do not OPPOSE opt out. Cuomo and Tisch were putting the happy face on it to parents.....no penalties! And Elia was very clear in saying that any educators who support opt out are "unethical." That suggests the "moral character" language of a 3020A.

Their path forward cannot be penalizing parents, kids, or funding of schools...that's a political shit storm and they know it. The only thing left on the table are those that they are trying to destroy anyway.....educators....so that's where the hammer will fall for opt out.

Today some members of the Assembly have joined in the public warnings over Elia's parent and teacher engagement plans:

Elia told Politco New York that she’s putting together a “tool kit” to help school superintendents reverse the boycotts in their schools, and has been talking to the education department’s legal staff, in order to provide the school administrators with more information on laws requiring that the exams be administered.  Those remarks set off some lawmakers.

Assemblyman Jim Tedisco spent a decade as a special education teacher in the Schenectady school system.

“I call this the goon squad,” said Tedisco. “ They are going to intimidate the parents.”

Assemblyman Bill Nojay, a Republican from the Rochester area who describes himself as libertarian leaning, was never a teacher, but his mother was one. He says education officials should be listening to the parents instead.

“The parents, the teachers and the students have got more than enough information,” Nojay said. “They don’t need somebody who is new to New York State to say ‘listen to me, I know better than you do’.” 

In addition, Al Graf has started a petition to call on the Legislature to pull back support from both the Common Core and NYSED Commissioner Elia.

Graf, Tedisco and Nojay are part of a Republican minority in the Assembly, so they will have little opportunity to influence policy in the Legislature, but their public statements warning over Elia's so-called engagement plans with parents and teachers will put pressure on Assembly Dems in the majority carrying water for NYSED and the Cuomo education agenda as well as Cuomo himself.

As Elia goes to war with parents and teachers over opt out (and make no mistake, that's what she's doing by threatening legal action), Assembly Dems and Cuomo are going to have to decide whether they want to back her in that war and risk enmity from the growing number of public school parents who are opposed to the state's education reform agenda and Endless Testing regime.

Same goes for the Board of Regents.

We know that both Regents Chancellor Tisch and Governor Cuomo support that reform agenda and Endless Testing regime but neither wants to be the face of it - that's why Tisch made some soothing statements about opt out and special needs children and Cuomo backed parent right to opt children out of state tests.

Nonetheless as Elia gets more and more shrill over opt out and threatens punitive measures (or even levies them) - as she puts together her "goon squad" to fight her war against opt out - the Board of Regents, the Legislature and Governor Cuomo are eventually going to have to take sides.

You would have to think given Cuomo's careful statements over opt out, given Tisch's softening tone on whether children with special needs should take the standardized exams, given Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie's recent statements that maybe there's more to education than just testing, that Elia may not get the public support she's going to need in her war against opt out.

Elia can only use her goon squad if she's got the political support for it.

Her political support is already waning - you can see that in the statements from Graf, Tedisco and Nojay as well as the anger she is engendering among some parents for her opt out threats.

When a member of the Legislature says the NYSED Commissioner is preparing a "goon squad" to intimidate parents and teachers over state tests, the writing is already on the wall:

MaryEllen Elia is wearing out her welcome in a New York minute and whatever political support and leverage she thinks she has to threaten parents and teachers is tenuous and thin.

To top it all off, Elia's going to war over opt out at the same time she is fighting a second front back in Tampa - she has had to defend herself from allegations by some members of the Hillsborough School Board and her successor as Hillsborough superintendent that she left a financial mess in the district.

For some reason, the New York press and political establishment haven't taken an interest in the mess Elia made in Tampa nor in the harm she has done to students there, but as the political fallout from her Hillsborough days continues to follow her, it won't be long before they do.

And once that happens, Elia will have the notoriety she truly deserves as just another incompetent, tone deaf educrat who refuses to take responsibility for the messes she makes even as she threatens accountability and responsibility for others.

NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia Threatens Legal Action Against Educators Who Support Opt Out

Just as some commenters on Perdido Street School blog pointed out would happen, NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia is going to target educators who support the Opt Out movement with legal action:

ALBANY — Education commissioner MaryEllen Elia already has begun a battle to stop the rapidly growing opt-out movement before next year’s state tests, reaching out to department attorneys and meeting with superintendents, she told POLITICO New York.

“We’re trying to pull together a tool kit, if you will, to support superintendents in how we can communicate in a much more effective way to people across the state,” Elia said.

That kit will include legal information, which is why she has reached out to lawyers, Elia said.

“I want the superintendents to understand the reflections and law that they can use as an information piece when they talk to people in their community … It’s important for them to be able to say, ‘Listen, it’s the law.’”

Ooh, it's the law!

I am so impressed by that statement.

Segregation and slavery were the law too, but that didn't make those laws right or just.

Many states continue to have sodomy laws on the books too, but that doesn't make those laws right or just either.

Same goes with the "law" regarding standardized testing in New York State.

Giving standardized tests that have been rigged to fail 70% of the children in the state may be the law, but that doesn't make that law right or just.

Implicit in her statement that giving the tests is "the law" is that legal action can be used against people who flout that law.

She has already said any educator who supports or encourages opt outs is "unethical," so you know when she dangles legal threats around over opt out, that's who she's aiming at.

If Elia wants to threaten legal action against teachers who support the Opt Out movement - go for it.

With opt out rates going from 5% in 2014 to 20% in 2015, I can understand why Elia feels threatened over the Opt Out movement.

But threatening legal action against teachers who support opt out, I don't think that's going to be a winning proposition for her.

When push comes to shove, will she get back-up from the Legislature or the governor in a battle over the tests?

Governor Cuomo is a huge fan of bashing and scapegoating teachers, but even he has tread lightly around the testing and opt out issue, knowing that there is a growing opt out movement in the state that can hurt him politically.

It remains to be seen what Elia can do to teachers other than threaten them for supporting opt out - unless she wants NYSED to engage in thousands of 3020a disciplinary cases over opt out, that is.

Is that the plan?

If so, it will be interesting to see how that goes.

Another thing that's not a winning proposition for Elia - equating support for opt out with ignorance on the part of parents.

Elia keeps saying (echoing Regents Chancellor Tisch) that NYSED has to get the message out to parents why testing is swell and kids should shut up and take their tests.

Elia even said last week that support for opt out is "not reasonable" - a statement that equates parent support for opt out with insanity.

This isn't sitting well with some parents:

When asked if she thinks opt out will continue to grow, Elia replied: “It’s incumbent upon us to get information and support out to those educators and leaders across New York … I think we have a lot of work to do in terms of communication and we have to do it a multiple levels.”

Some parents, like Jessica McNair, say they already are informed about Common Core and the opt-out movement should not be dismissed as a lack of information.

“I think she has a lot to learn about the parents in New York State,” McNair said. “We’re not going to back down until we see tests that are developmentally appropriate, and tests that are decoupled from the teacher evaluations.”

Opt Out CNY, which has 4,120 members, already has a 2015-16 refusal letter available to parents on its website — and some already have it signed and in their child’s book bags for the first day of school, McNair said.

Elia was supposedly hired because she is a "listener" and "consensus-builder."

From what I see so far, we've got John King Part Deaux, another a tone deaf corporate education reform water carrier for an NYSED Commissioner who reflexively attacks parents and teachers when they don't agree with her.

Let's see how that show plays over the next school year.

MaryEllen Elia Loses No Matter What She Does With The Opt Out "Problem"

NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia has twice said there may be consequences for high opt out rates, last week saying there could be "ramifications" and this week saying she was working with the feds on a possible sanction plan for schools and/or districts with high opt out numbers.

The NY Times reports this morning that considering the politics around punishing schools/districts for parents who opt their children out from the state tests, she may just be talking empty threats.

The NY Times report notes that Elia tried to "walk a fine line" over the issue:

“I do think it’s good for kids to take the assessments,” she said. “I don’t think that it necessarily is good for kids to have resources taken away that should be supporting them in their classrooms.”

The Times also reports that Elia says she has no plan for what to do with districts with high opt rates:

Ms. Elia said that federal officials had asked her what her plan was for dealing with districts that had large numbers students opting out, and that she did not have one. But she said she would be speaking to superintendents and seeking to understand why districts with similar demographics had very different opt-out rates.

The truth is, if the feds force the state to impose sanctions or Elia herself decides to punish districts for high opt out rates, more fuel will be thrown onto the fire:

If state education officials “think parents are unhappy with them now, just wait until they take money away from school districts,” Loy Gross, co-founder of a test refusal group called United to Counter the Core, said.

Regardless of whether sanctions are imposed onto schools/districts for high opt out rates or not, parent leaders in the Opt Out movement are looking to expand the movement again next year:

Elaine Coleman, a parent in Yonkers who is active in opt-out and anti-Common Core groups, said she had already begun planning expanding the movement next year. “We’re hoping we’ll get double the number,” she said.

In 2014, 5% of students eligible to take the state tests opted out.

In 2015, 20% of students eligible to take the state tests opted out.

That's a clear trend line there, and state and federal officials are in a bind with what to do about it. 

The reality is, if they impose sanctions, they are going to increase the anger parents and teachers have toward the unelected educrats imposing an unpopular testing regime onto the children and schools of this state, but if they don't impose sanctions, the word is out - opt your children out next year because there's nothing they will do about it.

This problem could be solved if the federal and state educrats and the politicians who back them would come down off the Mount and stop dictating and imposing policies and instead legitimately consult with parents and teachers about education policy.

But in the oligarchy that is 2015 America, that kind of thing doesn't happen.

Instead educrats like Elia are tasked with carrying out the oligarchical agenda paid for by Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg and a whole host of Wall Street and hedge fund wealthy people irrespective of what parents or teachers think or feel about that agenda.

In effect, Elia loses no matter what she does here.

If she imposes sanctions, she will increase the anger toward her and NYSED exponentially and get some of what former NYSED Commissioner John King got at Poughkeepsie.

But if she doesn't impose sanctions, the message is plain for all to see - the state does not have the will to back up their threats over the state's testing regime.

I suspect she will look for a more middle course, where she says no sanctions will happen this year, in part because she wasn't around when the state tests were given, but next year, if opt out remains a problem, here is a specific and detailed plan for what will happen to schools/districts with high opt out rates.

But we'll see - that kind of approach is dangerous too, as it still risks fanning the flames of anger of parents who feel disenfranchised from their own children's education.

Frankly, I think it couldn't happen to a more deserving person that she be stuck between in a rock and a hard place with no good options.

That way, MaryEllen Elia gets to feel what many parents and teachers feel about the current education policies imposed upon them by educrats like herself.