Time For Another Hedge Fund Manager-Funded Pro-Common Core Ad Buy

From State of Politics:

High Achievement New York, a group that has been supportive of Common Core, is launching a six-figure radio campaign aimed at boosting support for the education standards.

The campaign, set to run through December, is being launched as Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s task force convened to study and potentially recommend changes to the standards is concluding its round of public hearings.

In the ad, two Buffalo teachers discuss their support for the standards, saying they “are working” for students.

“But opponents want to pull the rug out on teachers,” says teacher Lucy Mendola in the spot.

Teacher Heather McCarthy adds: “Help us strengthen New York Standards, not dismantle them.” 

The ads will be targeted for audiences in New York City, the Capital Region, Buffalo and Rochester.

This isn't the first time pro-Common Core ad buys have run.

They haven't worked in the past.

I have a difficult time seeing these work either - the polling is pretty clear in its trends where the public at large stands on Common Core.

But there is a strategy, perhaps, behind the ads:

The spot...directs listeners to the task force’s comments page as well as the Department of Education’s feedback survey.

NYSED has already been touting its CCSS survey, the one that takes intimate knowledge of the standards and hours to fill out, as proof positive New Yorkers love them some Common Core.

Perhaps Hedge Fund, er, High Achievement New York wants to juice the numbers even more by directing people to that survey.

Then they'll point to the survey to say New Yorkers don't want any changes to the Common Core.

Perhaps this is all part of Cuomo's plan to make it look like changes are coming to the state's education policy when no real change is coming.

Quite frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't some coordination between the group and the Cuomo administration, since the backers of High Achievement come from the same place as his donor class, and Cuomo has been known to coordinate with ed deformers before (see here, for example.)

Ridiculous NYSED Claim About Common Core Support Will Add To Opt Out Numbers

Yesterday NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia said 71.5% of respondents to the rigged NYSED survey about Common Core support the standards.

Commenters at Perdido Street School responded with scorn:

Parents will provide NYSED all the feedback they need on the April "survey".

And:

When Elia proclaims that everyone loves the CC and it's still full speed ahead with the bullshit, she'll add another 200,000 to the opt outs in April.

And:

Amazing, anyone who has kids knows that number is a complete fabrication. It insults parents, teachers, the public and students. They must have used Common Core math to arrive at that figure.

I think the insulting treatment from Cuomo, Elia and company over education policy will end up backfiring on them too.

Cuomo rigged his CCSS public hearings for minimal attendance by having them in small spaces at times that are so close to school hours that many people can't get to them in time to sign up and speak (see here and here.)

Elia rigged the NYSED Common Core survey to make it as arduous, complex and jargon-laden as possible so that only the most committed would finish it (see here.)

Now she's claiming 71.5% support for CCSS when polling from Siena shows widespread opposition to the standards (see here and here.)

This comes on top of the Endless Testing propaganda site she put together, replete with talking points and sample tweets, for superintendents to use in communicating with parents and teachers about the wonders of the state's testing regime.

The powers that be continue to play games with parents and teachers, on the one hand saying that they're "listening" to the dissatisfaction over Common Core and Endless Testing (see Cuomo's approval numbers on education here and here) while doing all they can to ensure the status quo with the other.

But as the commenters noted, their gambits won't work - when the education policies of Endless Testing and Common Core do not change, parents and teachers will not be fooled by rigged surveys, rigged Common Core hearings, or "sample" pro-Common Core social media messages.

Paid Common Core Shills At Urban League Hold Common Core Propaganda Fest

Nick Reisman at State of Politics:

The group, High Achievement New York, will co-host a discussion on Common Core alongside the Urban League of Rochester on Wednesday.

The event is part of a series of discussions on Common Core, with events already held in Buffalo, New York City and Albany. Discussions are set to be held Rochester and Cortland this week.

In an email invitation to the Rochester event, William Clark of the Rochester Urban League writes the discussion is aimed at turning the temperature down on the heated debate over the standards.

“The goal of this event focuses upon sharing the experiences of the participants with New York’s transition to higher standards in education, without the charged rhetoric that so often affects discussions surrounding the Common Core Standards,” Clark wrote.

Future events will be held in Westchester County as well as the North Country region.
The Rochester event is due to include a participant from the Rochester Business Association, while the Cortland discussion will include someone from the American Association of University Women.

The Urban League is on the Gates Foundation payroll - they've been bought and paid for on the Common Core issue.

So this is less about turning down the temperature on a controversial issue and more about selling their product to the public - the Common Core.

NY Times Shills For Common Core

At the end of a Motoko Rich NY Times piece on how states are manipulating Common Core test scores comes this bit of shillery:

Despite the pushback, teachers here continue to infuse their lessons with Common Core principles.

In a seventh-grade English class at Berwick recently, Rashaun James had posted this thought, paraphrased from the Common Core: “Gather relevant information from multiple sources and draw conclusions.”

Her teaching methods were more creative than the dry standard suggested. Cordoning off a large space in the middle of the classroom with yellow caution tape, she had faked a crime scene, strewing dirt and gravel from the school garden across a large piece of butcher paper on which she had drawn outlines of two bodies and stamped footprints of shoes dipped in red paint.

Ms. James urged the students to analyze the clues and come up with possible victims, suspects and motives for an ultimate assignment of writing a narrative about the crime.

She was not too concerned how the assignment would affect test performance. In 10 years of teaching, she said, tests changed and policies came and went. The Common Core could “go away tomorrow,” she said.

“But does it make a difference in terms of whether I have a crime scene in my classroom?” she added. “There will always be a crime scene in my classroom.”

How is this lesson "infused" with Common Core principles?

Students were never asked to analyze clues before the advent of Common Core?

Students were never asked to "gather relevant evidence from multiple sources and draw conclusions" before the advent of Common Core?

Also would note, what is "Common Core" about asking students to "write a narrative"?

Students were never asked to write narratives before the Common Core Era?

Actually, given how much emphasis is put on argumentative writing these days, having students write a narrative seems like a pre-Common Core lesson to me.

I've tried to get out of the educator reporter-bashing business the past few years, having realized it's mostly counterproductive, but I have to say that the NY Times education coverage is awful.

Rich pieces in particular tend toward offering conventional education reform wisdom framed as reporting.

Daily News Carries Andrew Cuomo's Education Reform Water

No links to these stories (they don't need the extra traffic) but the Daily News is doing a five days "New York's Schools In Crisis" extravaganza that is intended to help Governor Cuomo push through his education reform agenda - including "toughened" teacher evaluations, a lifted charter cap, more money for charter schools and state takeover of "failing" schools and districts.

The stories use the same frame that Families For Excellent Schools uses for their "Schools In Crisis" meme, the same frame Governor Cuomo has used in speeches and his budget proposal - public schools suck and it's the fault of the teachers.

They use the new Common Core test scores - the ones the state deliberately set for 70% failing rates - to prove that NYC schools are failing and something dramatic needs to be done.

The stories have parents directly blaming the teachers at their children's schools for why the scores are so low, why the schools are struggling (one parent blames her child's public school for "destroying" his whole outlook on school and life.)

This is "New York Schools In Crisis" extravaganza isn't journalism, it's advocacy intended to push a set of policies the owner of the Daily News, Mort Zuckerman, and his editors want.

The DN claims this is "comprehensive" look at what's working in the system and what isn't, but as far as I could tell, this was a propaganda piece to highlight the worst parts of the system and ignore everything else.

The Daily News itself is a newspaper in crisis - it loses $20 million a year and is up for sale - so this ed deform extravaganza is just another way they're trying to drive some traffic, sell some papers and pick up a little advertising revenue.

It certainly is NOT a fair and honest look at the city school system, however - not when they use the same misleading stats that FES and Cuomo does (like the rigged Common Core tests) and ignore the many great schools in this system to focus on the one's they call most "dire," all in order to prove the system is failing and needs to be dramatically overhauled.

Make no mistake, this five part series coming right as budget talks in Albany are heating up and just two weeks before the deadline for an on-time budget is meant to help Governor Cuomo get his education reforms enshrined into law.

SUNY Chancellor Shills For Common Core

As criticism and opposition to the Common Core mount, the SUNY chancellor is doubling down on her support:

A coalition of higher education institutions Tuesday waded into the national debate over Common Core education standards, arguing that the higher standards in math, reading and writing will help remedy the problem of too many unprepared students entering college and universities.

State University of New York Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher, who in recent months has become a highly visible advocate of the Common Core standards, joined others in announcing the creation of “Higher Ed for Higher Standards.”

The coalition of more than 200 colleges and universities from 33 states, including all of the SUNY colleges and universities, defended the need for the Common Core and will counter the “misinformation” about the state-based efforts to improve student achievement and learning, Zimpher said.

Anybody know how much Gates Foundation payola is making its way to either SUNY or Chancellor Zimpher?

You rarely see anybody these days shill for the CCSS who isn't on the payroll or going to benefit in some way from the education reform agenda.

The New Teacher Project Attacks The Unions For Pulling Back On Common Core

New Teacher Project leader Tim Daly wrote the following on his official TNTP blog today in response to NEA President Van Roekel calling for a "course correction" on Common Core:

1. Change is hard – but this has almost nothing to do with “botched” implementation. Or standards. “Implementation” is a catch-all complaint that union leaders have often—and successfully—used to extract themselves from commitments they no longer wish to keep.  Aiding in the rollout of Common Core is just such a commitment. The unions routinely complain that states are moving too fast in transitioning to the new standards, but the truth is that educators have already had years to prepare. In New York, for instance, the standards were adopted in 2010—four years ago. Implementation was always going to be difficult and, with a change of this magnitude, no one could ever be 100 percent ready. No matter how long the lead-up time, it’s easy to balk when you are staring at the year when it all counts. If four years is not sufficient, how long is? Eight years? Ten? Stretching out the timeline amounts to nothing more than a slow pull of the band aid.
    
2. This has everything to do with politics and job protection. On the right, debate about Common Core has been clouded by the Tea Party’s dislike of anything associated with the federal government. The debate on the left is clouded, too. There, the discussion about Common Core is really a discussion about accountability in the form of stronger teacher evaluation systems that factor in student learning results alongside other measures. The standards themselves are incidental. Unions hoped that the occasion of Common Core (and their support for it) might present an opportunity to roll back or dilute teachers’ accountability for results. (Never mind that, even when students begin to be measured against tougher, Common Core-aligned tests, there’s little evidence to suggest a drop in scores will put teachers at any real risk.) As it has become clearer that no such accountability holiday is forthcoming—and that educators, in addition to schools, will be on the hook for advancing students toward the standards—the union withdrawal has been a foregone conclusion. Many policy leaders were awaiting this moment for a year or more.
    
3. There will be more political fallout ahead. The long-term implications of the loss of the unions from the Common Core coalition are meaningful. It’s easy to exaggerate the short-term effect of the NEA announcement or the AFT announcement that preceded it. Unions were already fighting accountability measures associated with Common Core at the state and district level. But officially, it was possible for the unions to claim some form of alliance with the Obama administration, however strained it might have been. That’s no longer possible. The unions are now taking aim at the administration’s central education policies. There isn’t much ground left for alliance in this fractured marriage. Going forward, the question is whether the unions hold the Democratic Party to its own views or seek new political patrons. If you need an illustration of what the future may hold, look no further than my home state of Illinois, where the state NEA affiliate is spending heavily on behalf of a Republican primary candidate for governor who is a member of ALEC, while withholding support for the incumbent governor, a Democrat, who crossed them on pension reform. If Barack Obama could run for a third term as president, it’s a very good question whether he could garner an NEA or AFT endorsement. . . and whether he’d accept one.

Does this sound like a guy looking to fix the "chaos," "confusion," and "anxiety" over Common Core in NY State, as Governor Cuomo himself described the environment in a statement he made to the press yesterday, or a guy ready to push through the CCSS reforms no matter what and blame any problems on teachers and unions?

Remember, Cuomo put the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of The New Teacher Project, Dan Weisberg, on the Common Core panel, so what the president of The New Teacher Project is writing on his official TNTP blog matters.

Want to make a bet EVP Dan Weisberg, member of Cuomo's Common Core panel, feels the same way that Daly does over CCSS?

Want to make a bet Governor Cuomo knew that before putting Weisberg on the panel?

Want to bet that's the reason Weisberg is on the panel?

Michelle Rhee And MSNBC

Cheating allegations scandal?

What cheating allegations scandal?

It's like it never even existed over there at the Lean Forward Network.

Maybe now that the "cheating memo" has been found, they'll start to cover it and stop treating her like she's royalty?