Andrew Cuomo's New York: The State Where Teachers Get Fired Based Upon "Meaningless" Test Scores

Here's a tweet I sent to Governor Cuomo this morning:

.@NYGovCuomo CCSS tests are "meaningless" for students, just "practice," but you fire teachers based on the scores?
— rbe (@perdidostschool) April 26, 2015

Now the governor's probably still shaking off the sugar coma from last night's Sandra Lee Margarita Mix cupcakes, so he hasn't responded to my tweet just yet, but I do hope somebody from the state can explain to me, if the state test scores are "meaningless" as Governor Cuomo said Friday and students should just take the tests for "practice," how they can be used to rate teachers and sort them out for either bonuses on the high end or firing on the low end.

Here, again, is what Cuomo said Friday (courtesy of Jessica Bakeman and Laura Nahimas at Capital NY)

Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday said parents who have chosen to have their children “opt out” of taking this month’s state exams don’t understand that the scores are “meaningless” in terms of students' grades.

“That’s their option,” Cuomo, referring to parents who have participated in the unprecedented boycott of state exams, told reporters after an Association for a Better New York breakfast in Manhattan. “What I don’t think has been adequately communicated is, we passed a law that stops the use of the grades on the test for the student. So the grades are meaningless to the student.”

...

“My position was, the department of education had not done a good job in introducing the Common Core, and they had rushed it, so we said, for a period of five years, the test scores won’t count,” Cuomo continued. “So they can opt out if they want to, but on the other hand, if the child takes the test as practice, then the score doesn't count anyway.”

Cuomo went on to hail his new teacher evaluation system, the third in the last four years in New York State, as an improvement over recent iterations:

Cuomo argued the new system cuts down on testing, addressing parents’ and students’ concerns.

“It also reduces student testing, because we believe they’re over-tested and over-stressed, and that’s generating a lot of angst among parents,” Cuomo said, inspiring hesitant applause from a few audience members.

“You should applaud for that,” the governor said, “because it’s true.”

A few more people clapped.

What Cuomo doesn't seem to understand or doesn't care to understand is that you can't say testing anxiety and overtesting have been reduced in the state if you put through an education reform agenda that forces schools to be taken over and teachers to be fired based upon the state tests.

It may be technically true that the new system includes fewer tests, what with the local performance measures going away, but a system with fewer tests doesn't translate into less test anxiety or, for that matter, less emphasis on testing, not when those fewer tests count so much more for teachers and schools.

What's made even worse is that the tests themselves are, as the governor said, "meaningless" for students and should just be taken with the mindset that they're "practice" tests.

Now I don't know about you, but I'm not all that thrilled to hear that the governor thinks it's perfectly okay to make my teaching job contingent in part on "practice" tests that are "meaningless" to students.

That Cuomo thinks it's a swell defense of his education reform agenda to say the test grades are "meaningless" and just "practice" for students but high stakes for teachers and schools tells you everything you need to know about his education reform agenda.

It has nothing to do with children and everything to do with firing teachers and closing schools so they can be handed over to his charter school supporters.

Time To Thank Andrew Cuomo For His "Monumental Gaffe" That The Common Core Tests Are "Meaningless"

I've been hitting on Governor Cuomo's remark to reporters late last week that students should take Common Core state tests because the scores don't count for them for a couple of days now (see here, here and here.).

The governor said the scores are "meaningless" for students, so they should take the tests because they are just "practice".

Given that he was adamant the scores should be used to fire teachers and close schools, I thought that "meaningless" statement was quite an admission by the governor and many readers of Perdido Street School blog thought the same, but I haven't seen much in the news media about the statement.

Until today, when Fred LeBrun wrote about it today in the Times-Union:

The New York opt-out movement will only grow next year, especially in light of Cuomo's monumental gaffe on Friday.

"The grades are meaningless to the students," Cuomo emphasized to a group of reporters, obviously reacting to the success of the opt-outers. Meaningless for the next five years, he said. Meaningless. So, remind us why they're taking these tests, if they aren't being used to steer and model learning and personal improvement?

"They can opt out if they want to, but on the other hand if the child takes the test, it's practice and the score doesn't count."

Ah, practice. So, all the anxiety and tears by young learners, parental anguish, all for nothing but practice. I'm sure parents especially will be pleased to hear they've been played for suckers and their children used as pawns.

Because those tests do count, just not for the kids. Those standardized tests which now the kids know they can fail with impunity, which they will give the effort the lack of accountability deserves, will be used to rank, grade and fire teachers.

What the governor has told us here with the back of his hand is that his fiercely imposed teacher evaluation plan is not just deeply flawed and outrageously unfair, it's — his word — meaningless.

LeBrun nails it as usual - Cuomo, the Regents and the state educrats are playing parents for suckers and using children as pawns in order to impose their "accountability" system onto schools and teachers that is, in the end, "meaningless."

This statement by Governor Cuomo that the tests are "meaningless" for students will be used again and again and again in the battle against Endless Testing and the state's education reform agenda.

It is, as LeBrun wrote, a "monumental gaffe" that puts Cuomo's whole education reform agenda into perspective.

That reform agenda is "meaningless" in any productive sense and is only meant to be used as a bludgeon to close schools, fire teachers and instill fear and anxiety in a system already rife with both.

200,000+ parents understood that and sent a message to the state politicians and educrats that they will no longer enable that system to flourish by providing its precious "data" by opting their children out of the state tests.

When next year's tests come, we will use Cuomo's "the grades are meaningless" statement over and over and over in the lead up to the state testing period to add to this year's opt-out numbers and put even more of a shiv into the system.

If you're an opponent of the Endless Testing regime, the Common Core, teacher evaluations tied to test scores and other tenets of the corporate education reform agenda, you have to give Andrew Cuomo credit where credit is due.

He helped out greatly with the opt-out movement this year by imposing his draconian education reforms in the budget and essentially forcing the legislature to either take them or vote down the budget.

Coming just a few weeks before the state testing period, that threw a lot of fuel onto the fire against the Endless Testing regime.

And now he's done an even bigger favor to the movement by admitting the tests are "meaningless" to students.

Thanks, Governor Cuomo.

That's an admission that is going to keep on giving and giving.