Is NYSED Admitting EngageNY Modules Are Crap?

Chris Cerrone tweeted the following this afternoon:

​Is NYSED admitting modules are flawed? Do taxpayers get a $12.9 million refund? http://t.co/Y1SUna6f9b via @AlbanyBizReview
— Chris Cerrone (@Stoptesting15) April 27, 2014

Megan Rogers of the Albany Business Review reports this:

The New York state education department wants teachers to revamp the state's online curriculum resources for the Common Core learning standards.

The state education department released a request for information on a proposal to create regional Common Core Institutes, where educators from school districts, BOCES or charter schools would work full-time to develop new online instructional materials for the 2015-16 academic year.

Educators would serve as Common Core Institute Fellows during the 2014-15 academic year. The teachers would work on one grade level in K-12 math or 9-12 English language arts.

The state has some curricular materials on EngageNY.org.

I've covered the EngageNY modules a bit here at Perdido Street School blog:

NYSED ELA Lesson Module - 17 Days On One Short Story

EngageNY Modules Make No Sense - An Emblem For Common Core As A Whole

The NYSED Common Core Modules - Meant To Dumb Down A Whole Generation Of Children 

The EngageNY modules have been widely mocked, ridiculed and criticized by parents and educators, students have complained about the drudgery of the lessons, so perhaps the flacks at SED have just gotten sick of defending the indefensible and are ready to throw even more cash into the Common Core curriculum development process.

This time they seem to want to hire actual teachers to do the development work, as opposed to ferreting out the work to private corporations to the tune of $12.9 million Race to the Top dollars.

Nonetheless, this is the kind of thing that could have been avoided if the autocrats at SED and the Board of Regents had slowed down the implementation process and taken the time to think through and collaborate on that process - including the curriculum development, the test development, the evaluation system for teachers, etc.

Instead everything got shoved through at once, a la Shock Doctrine-style, with top-down mandates coming from the self-described geniuses at SED and the Board of Regents, with an assist from another self-described genius in the governor's office.

So now SED seems to be admitting that they lit the $12.9 million they spent on EngageNY modules on fire, that the entire process needs to be redone, this time by actual teachers (though we'll see about that - I suspect the "teachers" SED looks to get for these Common Core Institutes will have to be Common Core-friendly ones, though this is a group that gets smaller and smaller by the week.)

This is just another sign of how the corporate education reform agenda as developed by Regents Chancellor Tisch, SED Commissioner King, Governor Cuomo and the Abany educrats/Gates Foundation employees is falling apart.

One of the fatal flaws of the Common Core/education reform agenda was the hurried way everything was shoved through, which ensured much of the reforms were going to be half-assed and badly done.

The autocrats and plutocrats running the system wanted everything shoved through at once so that no dissent would be encountered.

That worked initially, but now that hurried agenda implementation is helping to mobilize critics across the state to the reforms and getting much of the public on board as they see just what crap the EngageNY module material is.

We'll just have to see if SED and the Regents can salvage this mess by creating these Common Core Institutes (how Orwellian a name!) and developing new CCSS modules and resources for 2015-2016.

The problem for SED and the Regents is that the opposition to the CCSS reforms may be so broad and widespread by that time frame that even if the CCSS Institutes developed useful materials, the whole process may be so poisoned by what came beforehand that no one will dare to use any of it anyway.

EngageNY Modules Make No Sense - An Emblem For Common Core As A Whole

Kindergarten math homework. Makes no sense whatsoever. #CommonCore should be ashamed. pic.twitter.com/emnxjUwRrU
— Chris Zoller (@ChrisZFitness) February 27, 2014

This is the "rigor" of the Common Core in crystallized form.

It's needlessly complex and makes no sense.

It does, however, make children cry and parents scratch their heads and wonder what the hell is going on in schools these days.

It is also a great symbol for why so many parents and teachers are rising up against the Common Core State (sic) Standards - not just the tests aligned to the standards or the teacher evaluation systems that rate teachers based on the CCSS-aligned tests but the the Common Core State (sic) Standards themselves.

In my school, the 9th grade teachers are spending endless days teaching "The Tell-Tale Heart" - the SED EngageNY module says teachers should spend eight days teaching these lessons, but the lessons themselves take much longer than that.

Students are asked the same kinds of questions over and over and over ad nauseaum about each paragraph - here's an example:

What information does the narrator reveal about himself in paragraph 1?

Who is the narrator speaking to? 

What does Poe’s use of punctuation in the first sentence reveal about the narrator?

During what part of the action does Poe begin his story? 

What is the effect of Poe’s choice to begin the story after the action has taken place? 

What is the narrator's purpose in asking the two questions in paragraph 1?

Personal responses of any kind are not valued in these lessons - it's all about the text and the text alone.

Students are then given "Accountable Independent Reading" assignments for homework in which they are required to 

Instruct students to reread and annotate paragraph 1 to gather evidence about whether the narrator is mad. Instruct students to preview paragraph 2 and annotate using the annotation codes from Module 9.1. 

That's Day One of the lesson, but it actually takes longer than one class day to complete.

By the end of the lessons on Poe, students want to bury the Tell-Tale Heart in the floor and run from school screaming.

But it gets worse for them, because there is an Emily Dickinson poem waiting on the other side that they will find incomprehensible and will spend 10 days on (though the SED EngageNY module has five lessons based on Dickinson's "I felt a funeral in my brain," the actual lessons take closer to two weeks to complete.)

As I pointed out earlier in the school year with this post, these EngageNY modules are steadily killing the creativity and energy children and teachers have for school and learning.

You still see this jive in the media that the Common Core are a more rigorous set of standards that will help students be college and career ready when they graduate high school.

The truth is, the "rigor" of the Common Core is causing "rigor mortis" of the soul for students, parents and teachers and the only thing these standards are doing for children is preparing them to drop out of school because they hate every second they're in a classroom.

These are the standards that Governor Cuomo and State Senator John Flanagan support, these are the standards that they think can be better implemented if only John King and Merryl Tisch can get their acts together.

But these standards cannot be better implemented because they were written by people as delusional about what children need to learn in school as the narrator of Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart" is delusional about himself.

In the end, the Common Core State (sic) Standards will end up in the graveyard of education reforms past, but there is going to be a lot of damage done to children, parents, teachers, schools and public education as a whole first.

The Lie That "Many Educators Support The Common Core Standards"

Newsday has an article reporting parents protested the CCSS outside of State Senator John "I Love The Common Core Because Michelle Rhee Loves The Common Core!" Flanagan's office yesterday.

Flanagan makes pains in the article to say that he supports the CCSS, just thinks the implementation of the standards has been weak (a point which I posted about last week), then says this:

Flanagan (R-East Northport) said later Friday that he supports the tougher standards, which are backed by many educators.

"The basic thing is that every major educational organization -- teachers, superintendents, school administrators, school business administrators, the PTA . . . They all support Common Core standards," Flanagan said. "The frustration has been over the implementation, which has been suspect and flawed in many different ways."

Newsday reports the same lie later in the article (emphasis mine):

The controversy over the Common Core standards comes amid outrage from many parents and educators statewide. The tougher standards, adopted by the Board of Regents in 2010, were created with the aim of helping students better compete with their counterparts in other countries. They have been adopted by 44 other states and the District of Columbia.

In New York, which is among a handful of states in the forefront of Common Core implementation, the reforms have brought ire from school administrators and teachers, in addition to parents.

Many educators support the higher standards, but say changes in curricula and testing have been far too hasty and made more difficult because the state Education Department did not provide all curriculum guides needed to teach the more challenging concepts and course material.

A commenter calls out both Flanagan and Newsday on the "Many Educators Support The Standards" jive:

The article says "many educators support the higher standards". That statement is flawed as stated. It is stated as fact and there a two flaws with it. First, there is no evidence that "many" educators support it. There are a handful that might but they are overwhelmingly central office administrators and not classroom teachers. Second, they are not "higher" standards. They are more onerous, not more rigorous. To hold all students to the same standards based solely on their chronological age is not educationally sound. This whole movement is a scam backed by those looking to make a buck under the guise of helping children. I for one, do not believe the Common Core Standards descended from the throne above to bring educational salvation to our children. The laws of math, science and literacy have not changed. Our Long Island schools are the best in the nation and there is plenty of evidence to back that up, though it is hardly ever reported. Just another example of Reagan's famous quote of the nine most feared words in the english language, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help"

Now I know that both the Gates Foundation and the unions have financed "polls" which purport to show overwhelming support for the CCSS from teachers.

I can tell you that in my school building, there are very few still on board with the CCSS reforms.

In the ELA department, there is not one teacher who supports the CCSS.

Not one - and I work in a very large school with a lot of teachers.

I can tell you that when the standards were first announced years ago, there was support and excitement from quite a few ELA teachers over the standards (not from me, but that's because I'm a cynical old man who looks skeptically on all reforms that emanate from the Gates Foundation, Pearson, the Obama administration, et al.)

But all of those teachers who once spoke excitedly about Common Core have either turned against CCSS with a vengeance or quit teaching totally.

I know this is anecdotal evidence and I in no way will extrapolate the lack of support for CCSS in my school to educators across the state of New York or the nation as a whole.

But I will say this - we need a poll done by some outfit that is not being paid by the pro-CCSS groups to ask teachers around the state of New York about CCSS.

That means a poll not conducted by the Gates Foundation or the NEA or AFT leaderships (which are on the Gates Foundation payroll and thus are being paid to shill for the CCSS.)

I would bet you two artifacts from my Danielson framework that poll does not find "many educators support the higher standards."

Not in NY State anymore - not after the CCSS tests, not after the SED modules, not after APPR, not after Danielson and all the other reforms that have been shoved through all at once and overwhelmed students, parents and teachers.

The politicians and the press continue to preach the Gospel of the Common Core even as the public begins to largely turn against the Core.

Poll after poll shows the public as a whole mixed on the Core, but those polls are asking everybody about the Core and many people do not have personal experience with it yet.

But those who do have personal knowledge and experience with the CCSS - students, parents, and teachers - are turning in large numbers against the Common Core and the rest of the testing/data/accountability reforms that have gone with the new standards.

You can see it in schools like mine and in the CCSS forum townhalls NYSED Commissioner King tried to cancel and in the protests parents are holding outside the offices of politicians.

Frankly this is all crystallized in the movement of some states to change the name of Common Core to something else in order to fool an increasingly anti-Common Core public that Common Core State (sic) Standards are no longer the standards of their particular state.

Support for CCSS was never more than a few miles wide and an inch or two deep (other than from the people making money off it.)

As more and more people become familiar with the Core, more and more people are coming to oppose the standards - and I believe this includes teachers too.

Now we just need an honest and fair poll to ask teachers around the state about CCSS and see if I'm right.

Some Of The Same CCSS/Students First Shills Show Up Two Nights Running

It's getting a little nauseating.Miranda Cohen FORMER teacher w/ StudentsFirst says she 150% supports CCSS & testing.She spoke last night 2.
— CriticalClassrooms (@lapham_katie) December 12, 2013

Leonie notes how even when the speakers are different, they all say the same things phrased in the same ways:

Guy next to me sez they're all saying same things where's the critical thinking?
— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) December 11, 2013

Talking points handed out, scripts stuck to as they went to the microphone, no deviation in thought or phrase.

It's perfect Common Core shilling since the Common Core SED modules require exactly that kind of teaching - stick to the script, repeat the lines fed to you, do no thinking of your own.

The Insanity Of Close Reading A Text Without Context Or Personal Connections

@leoniehaimson To teach without contact & context is bizarre, pointless, ineffective. Learning doesn't exist in a vacuum. Connection is all.
— JosieHolford (@JosieHolford) November 20, 2013

Read the whole Valerie Strauss post on Close Reading that they are talking about here - it is a horrifying tale of what is so wrong with Common Core and why kids and teachers hate it so much.

I am teaching annotation and close reading to seniors today.

In my department, it was strongly urged that we take the SED modules for 9th grade and adapt lessons for the 10th, 11th and 12th grades.

So today we practice close reading of a text over and over and over.

I cannot give students any historical context for the text, I cannot explain any words they do not know, and I cannot ask them to make personal connections to the text (after all, as Common Core ELA standards architect David Coleman said, no one gives a shit what students think or feel about anything, only that they can do the office work.)

The 9th graders hate school - the Common Core lessons they are being taught ensure that.

Today, I suspect the 12th graders will hate it too.

I know I will hate it.

In my experience, the foundation of education is helping students to learn new ideas and concepts by helping them to draw on prior knowledge and make connection to their own experiences.

The Common Core architects, in their words, don't give a shit about any of that.

They care only that students can read a text and make text to text connections.

As Josie Holford said, this kind of teaching is bizarre, pointless and ineffective - and yet it is being forced on us in NY State by the NYSED, the Regents, and Governor Cuomo.

This is why parents and teachers are up in arms all over the state.

These are not higher standards we work with here.

These are insane standards that are meant to make school into drudge work, teach kids just enough skills to do the office work, but not enough to help them to grow into emotionally aware and conscious human beings.

This is child abuse, plain and simple.

The state bureaucrats and Regents board members should be up on charges for forcing these harmful and damaging reforms on children.