Truth and Consequences

A Nation at Risk, Again! (Part One) The Imperative for preventing our leaders from selling a generation of children into indentured servitude.

2014-12-28T04:04:00.002-08:00

The once unchallenged moral authority of our nation is at risk. This source of pride and self-assuredness has been an implicit endorsement of policies from arming violent, extremist rebels; to nation-building; to extraordinary rendition; to a financial crisis where people hiding trillions, and losing billions, were rewarded with millions. Those gleaming successes of our great nation have been undermined with the blaming of the public sector for recent destruction caused by insatiable greed and the ownership of policy by the free market and the private sector. Instead of efforts to halt this assault on common sense and educate citizens to reverse continued moral erosion, what followed was a coordinated effort from the nation's leaders to drive public schools and their students to serve the same market that cripples the nation's economy and world-standing. If allowed to continue unchecked, misguided education reforms and the absence of accountability for leaders in policy and finance threaten to condemn generations to come to lives of dis-empowered indentured servitude: not free themselves, but working merely to survive and serve the "free market". The result would be the loss of the nation's status as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to the rest of the world.

Response to Cuomo letter

2014-12-21T16:41:00.000-08:00

This is my response to the letter written by Jim Malatras, Director of State Operations for Governor Cuomo. His letter to the NYSED chancellor and commissioner goes to great length to focus blame on teachers for supposed failings of public education, and highlights popular teacher-bashing statistics, while also asking that in response to his loaded questions: politicizing is avoided. My tone is a tad snarky because I mirror his tone and structure, but I hope to provide a counterpoint and provoke some thought.

Dear Mr. Jim Malatras, Governor Cuomo, Chancellor Tisch, and Commissioner King,

As you know, citizens of the state of New York have an obligation to hold their elected officials responsible for the policies they promote, the people they appoint, and the words they either write or speak-whether it's campaign season or not. It is one of the most important things we can do: model for our children and young learners (future citizens) the civic duties to promote honest, productive leadership for the good of all, and eliminate the destructive policy-making that promotes narrow interests and inequities in opportunity. Although those in education policy and in other leadership positions have spoken strongly about the need for improvement in educational outcomes for public school students, they have chosen to pursue this goal with an attack on public education while largely ignoring the greater burdens facing students, families, and schools. Despite the ongoing damage of market-based policies and data-driven, investment style formulas- this is the precise type of approach to education that is currently being called "reform".

We all can agree that this is simply unacceptable.

The citizens of New York believe in leadership with a foundation in good character, informed and guided by the people of the state over the narrow interests that have already divided wealth with growing disparity and reduced opportunity for the majority of people. Character-based leadership would be evident when citizens do not have their value, or the value of their children, defined by a market-driven approach where people are turned into data and that data gets churned in a so-called "value-added" system. A market based approach such as this prioritizes the goals of the market and squanders the public-the true value in public education. While citizens understand that it is difficult for politicians to free themselves from their intimate relationships with big-money donors, advisors driving policy while avoiding accountability, and the desire to remain politically positioned for future campaigns and opportunities, it is more important to promote the needs of the many over the greed of the few. So let's reframe the narrative regarding education reform. Instead of blatant attack on those coming to schools burdened by the failures in our leadership, and those serving the public in order to address those failures, let's focus on systemic reform. It is time for leaders to own up to their responsibilities and submit themselves to evaluation and accountability with the same fervor with which they demand those from the public.

As you know, the public has had little influence over the roll-out and roll-ahead of destructive forces behind misguided reforms in our state. The most that concerned citizens have been able to get is a short-lived "listening tour" from Commissioner King, a campaign-season admission from the governor that common core standards were rolled out ineffectively and a television ad regarding the importance of kitchen tables and parents. For the most part, though, officials at the state level have essentially gave up listening long ago and continue repeating talking points and party lines. But parents, students and educators have had, from the beginning, many questions about how leadership in our state and in education policy could have degraded to this extent. What can be done to answer these questions?

In essence, how can we address what is really wrong with how education is currently funded, organized, and evaluated in New York, where the root causes of student-struggles are ignored and the one group continually burdened with undoing the damage done by lack of character in leadership and failed economic and social policies gets blamed?

Please give your opinion on these questions without the typical parsing of words that is the hallmark of those wishing to sound willing and interested while at the same time avoiding responsibility. Truly enlightened policy comes when citizens know what policy makers think.

1. How is the current lack of equity in funding and opportunity for students in public schools a defensible condition if the future of public school systems and teaching careers hang in the balance based results impacted by funding inequities? Data shows that the best funded schools spend in the neighborhood of 80% more per-pupil and enjoy about double the proficiency rates on state tests. State test results being the governor's go-to criticism of public education should ride tandem with his admission that funding inequities need to be addressed. How does the governor plan on addressing funding inequities?

2. Should students, families, schools and educators be reaped for private and personal data to serve commercial interests? In addition, should testing companies enjoy privacy and protection in the process of test design and scoring when the tests themselves are intended to be used on public school students with results to be shared publicly? The governor's own reform commission cited the importance of collaboration in moving forward with reform and this approach to assessment is in opposition to that goal. How will the governor increase collaboration with the professionals who understand teaching, learning and the best use for assessments?

3. Along with number 2, should testing companies and third-party vendors enjoy profitable state contracts for creating high stakes tests when actual educators could design and use tests as intended-not as high stakes end-product but to inform instruction and intervention going into the future?

4. Should educators be elevated to enemy number one in the battle for student outcomes when it is the investment/banking/finance industry that has done the most damage to parents and kitchen tables (the most important tools a student can have)and has still enjoyed the greatest protection from policy makers?

5. Should charter schools enjoy promotion and praise without operating under the same level of scrutiny and mandates? Often, charter schools are run by those with few (if any) credentials, have enrollment that can be shaped and filtered, and students that prove difficult or may threaten high proficiency rates are counseled out. How will the practice of creating charters ensure that it is about all students, not just a few, and prevents public dollars from going into the pockets of undeserving private charter-school operators?

6. While promotion to the national level seems to be the reward for an education commissioner that appeared disconnected from the citizens and students of New York, the opportunity for new leadership and a new direction holds promise. What new approach is planned for the next commissioner?

7. Can the many hundreds of thousands of teachers in New York, being paid quite poorly compared to other professionals with graduate degrees, serving in some cases difficult and dangerous student populations in under-funded and over-mandated schools really be called a "special interest"? Can the small group of very wealthy individuals and the corporations looking to cash in on the standards-curriculum-testing-"school choice" agendas be less of a "special interest"? Teachers' special interest is being allowed and empowered to do what is best for students and to not be made to suffer for doing it. How will education policy moving forward make this possible?

8. While the state regulations describe pathways and opportunities available to all students, the reality is that funding does not support availability of these opportunities to all students in all schools. Can teachers be blamed for this? How will the governor address this?

9. Can the governor, the commissioner, or most of the regents look into the eyes of a student who comes from a violent and broken home and know instinctively how to approach that student first thing in the morning to make the rest of the day go as well as possible? Who among you is willing to admit that the ability to teach, to an extent, is a gift that often can't be reduced to data on a spreadsheet and the positive gains realized with this type of student are outside of what any standardized test can show. How does the governor plan to honor that gift and reverse the tide of turning education into sterilized training?

It is clear that powerful people are driving the agenda to turn public education into a game of numbers that absolves leaders from the moral obligation to target the true areas of need for reform. The bureaucracy of the wealthy minority (silent advisors, campaign donors and private interests) that enjoys influence over policy that restricts opportunity for the majority of citizens presents a challenge we must face cooperatively. As the commissioner prepares to take his reform agenda to the national level, it will be good to hear his thoughts on how to break free of the status quo of wealth-driven inequity for public school students.

Sincerely,

Dan McConnell

In keeping with the holiday spirit: thankfulness, a Christmas wish, and a new year's resolution.

2014-12-14T16:11:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving has passed, and Christmas is around the corner with a new year not far behind. It's a strange day in New York public schools (and I mean real public schools where doors, desks, programs and services are available to all students in its area), and it would be easy to give in to cynicism and pessimism when things being done in the name of children are so wrong for us all-but giving in is not my style. My style is to start with being thankful- having a full awareness of how fortunate I am. Then, I consider carefully how I can do for others as has been done for me (only the good stuff, of course), and who around me can I rally to make these good things happen. This is where reality and the wish-zone begin to blend. It's easy, after all, to go all Norma Rae (a link for those too young to know that name) in your mind-but the real world rule-makers and game-players present a challenge. After reminding myself of how lucky I am, and then contemplating who is on my side, I make plans and promises to myself. These resolutions are most often about trying harder to change the world. Think big or go home, right? It's the same this year, with the 40-something amendment of dropping ten to fifteen pounds and getting my cholesterol down.

Being thankful

I am thankful for my childhood, my family, and all the experiences I have had. I catch myself sometimes making a reflexive mental-diagnosis for students who come from broken homes and bad influences. Judgements regarding why work doesn't get done, why they behave a certain way, and so-on. Despite what education attackers want as the overriding narrative to explain student struggles (failing schools, overpaid/overprotected teachers, unions...)-poverty and school funding inequities (the real "status quo") prevail as the most correlative factors. But after I mentally slap myself for making that mental diagnosis-I stop and do an assessment of my childhood, and it goes something like this:

1) My mother was a sixteen year old high school girl when I was born.

2) My father was twenty, from the same high school, recently graduated and enlisted in the military during the Vietnam War (it was 1967). I was born on a military base in Georgia, far away from our home state of New York.

3) I was born full-term in October, at a healthy 8lbs 11oz. If I do the mental math and count nine months backwards past my dad's birthday in June, and my mom's birthday in February-I figure my dad was 19 and probably breaking some kind of law with my mother.

4) While there are pictures of my dad, in uniform, holding me as a baby-I cannot remember a day when my parents were "together" living as a couple.

5) When I was little, my dad would pick me up for the weekend, or have me for some extra time on holidays and summer vacations, and we would often hit several bars or visit with his friends where I saw and did stuff that kids shouldn't see and do. Today, as a teacher, if I suspected a student was involved in or exposed to the same-I would be obligated to make a "hotline" call.

So how is it I stayed out of trouble, got good grades, didn't have whatever served as child protective services investigating my situation, basically turned out okay with a beautiful family and what I would call (despite my wife's objections) a pretty good head on my shoulders...?

Easy answer:

I had and have incredible people in my family, with a combination of depth in character and experiences not often found in this world-especially in this day and age. While I don't remember my parents together, my dad was always there. Calling during the week, picking me up on weekends and whenever he could. To this day my parents come together at my family events and talk, joke, laugh. I have never once seen them be unkind to each other-ever. He has always been the most generous and gentle soul I know, with the funniest, raunchiest sense of humor. To this day, anyone who has ever known him or worked with him can't stop describing what a great guy he is and I always agree: he's the best man I know. That's why he was the best man at my wedding. Everyone should have a dad like mine. His father (my grandfather) was no different, and I recall stories he told of his childhood and youth that serve to illustrate how much this world has changed in a relatively small amount of time. They also serve as the foundation of character I had and try to create for my family.
Character meant so much more in those days, more than what you owned and who you knew. My great grandmother (grandpa's mother) taught in a one room common schoolhouse in Summerhill, NY, and my grandfather attended the Cortland Normal School located in a building called Old Main on the campus of SUNY Cortland College. In those days there was an honest-to-goodness constable who patrolled the county on horseback, staying with host families as he made his rounds through towns and villages and on the country roads through state forests. Gramp told of how the constable stayed with our family and how he would drop a scoop of wood stove ash into the constable's boots as a joke, and how the constable caught him out skipping school to pheasant hunt one day. Emerging from the woods onto the secluded dirt road, my grandfather found the constable there on his horse. The constable traded silence for one of Gramp's pheasants and Gramp's word that their meeting would be a shared secret. It was the same constable who years later would meet my grandfather at the train station when he returned from World War II. Having traded up the horse for a car, the constable took my grandfather out for a couple welcome home drinks.
Of his time as a soldier in Europe, one story stands out. It was a story of the German prisoners being held near the end of the war, some of whom my grandfather was in charge of guarding. The officers, he said, were arrogant-believing themselves above even their captors (while likely feeling grateful they weren't being held on the eastern front in Russian camps where the Red Cross wasn't allowed in that often and Geneva Conventions weren't binding principles). The regular soldiers, on the other hand, were happy to have been captured for the most part. Most having been in miserable conditions and often not agreeing with the Nazi agenda, they found themselves better cared for and fed at the hands of the Allies. My grandfather's charges liked being assigned to him very much, for whatever reason, and he could often grab a quick nap-the German prisoners waking him quickly if a superior officer approached. Gramp said when it came time for duty assignment and those German soldiers would practically run to his side he had to tell them to "cool it" or the jig would be up. My grandfather was that kind of guy.
These stories would sometimes be shared from the front seat between my grandfather and father, as me and my younger brother sat in the back seat driving the roads between Moravia, behind Fillmore Glenn State Park, and back to my grandparents house on Lake Como Road. It would be a warm summer Sunday after church, with a cheap twelve pack of Genny or Old Mil in back with us and empties back, refills up. My grandfather had worked for the state planting trees in some of those out of the way places and he knew exactly where the nudist colony was. Driving with his left elbow out the driver's side window and the can in his hand dangling out of view, his right hand holding the wheel and a well-chewed cigar. "Keep your eyes open boys, you might see something" he'd say.
When I think of my childhood, there is no regret, no shame. These rides happened after being sent to church with my grandmother where (as it goes in tiny little baptist churches) we learned how sinful we were and how to save ourselves. Some praying, a car ride, and some chicken barbeque usual had us whipped right into shape, and I kept good grades, good attendance, had a room full of books and weekends full of outdoor fun. When I had read all my books, I got into my mother's (a few of which were maybe too "mature" for me). I grew up listening to Joplin, Croce, Hendrix, and the best worst country music there is- staying out and up late doing things that I will publicly say kids should never do and privately say that this is part of what made me who I am.
For what my family has provided me with in the past, and what my family provides me with today I am most thankful. As I look at and listen to kids today I know that they have probably done less of the stuff most people would consider near-horrifying for children, but I know that their real struggles have less to do with failing schools and failing teachers. They are losing out on the economic, social, and moral stability this nation once provided. The so called "free market" has bled our nation of it and now it has turned it's sights upon our schools.

A Christmas Wish

I wish for more character in the leadership of our country, our state, and in the direction of "education reform". I wish for our our unions to step up and people to rise up. When NYSUT agreed to a flawed standards/curriculum/evaluation system here in New York-I understood: it was a necessity resulting from Governor Cuomo and the Obama administration's coercion. Had our unions not cooperated-federal funds would have been withheld and that would be political suicide. But our unions have, at times, been front and center in the call for better teachers first, dropping the ball on the call for honesty in the reform debate. When I have to choke down a Governor posing as a "lobbyist for the students", and his complaints about how much is spent on education, I spit back out the fact that evaluating teachers (not providing equity in student opportunity) has been his number one priority and that in New York, best funded schools spend about 80% more per students than worst-funded schools-and get double the proficiency rates on state tests. Disingenuousness isn't limited to where the governor lives with his girlfriend, though: it has infected the state education department. Here is NYSED's soon to be former Commissioner John King in January of this year:

"... They’re committed to the Common Core, they’re committed to the evaluation system; they have to explain why they think we should change the evaluation that we all agreed to that we all believed is in the interest of students.”

This quote, demonstrating the carefully parsed words of leaders undermining public education in the name of reform, and an honest look at the role teacher unions have played can be found in this excellent blog post from January of this year. But the bottom line is that this sort of politico-speak is running rampant over an endeavor that should have a foundation in honesty, credibility and character. Education should prepare students for truly critical thinking-the kind that enables capable citizens to tell the difference between shit and shinola. Only lately have unions started an attemp at honesty, but in the governor and the commissioner-I am having a hard time locating it. Coercion and agreeing are different things. Yes-to an extent teachers have been sold out by union leaders, but it was for survival (and they all know it). For the governor, the commissioner, NYSED...it seems to be business as usual.
So my Christmas wish is for an end of this abuse of democracy in the nation that is supposed to exemplify it (even spread it around the world), and a safe and hasty exit from policy-making for all who are making real education less possible for those needing it most. Uber-testing, evaluations and accountability are only going to further inequity because this approach will identify and further disempower those with the fewest resources-resources leaders are reluctant to provide. Same goes for what is being sold as "choice" in education. Market-izing public education is the same as selling out the public. It is wrong. Even our president avoids a competition to be more like developed countries where educational outcomes surpass our own, and chooses countries like India and China as our competion. The President of these united states! Driving us to compete with places where economies are growing because people are crushed and repurposed to serve a heartless market devalues humanity, worships wealth, and is unbecoming of a true leader.

My New Year's Resolution

My New Year's Resolution is to speak up, and speak out. Right now, though, my beautiful family needs my attention.

Wondering what it's worth

2014-10-26T06:03:00.000-07:00

Times Union's opinion blog featured a story about NYSED's 10/20 announcement that there were new pathways to graduation-ones that would do more to honor, support and prepare a wider variety of students and their interests, skills, talents, dreams for college and career. I was interested in finding out more because this was the exact subject of an exchange I described earlier this year-one that started late in 2013 as my wife and I sought the opportunity of these multiple pathways (that already existed then) for our daughter in her school.

Now NYSED is trying to sell us on its worth by promoting their efforts regarding the very pathways that were at that time denied, downplayed then apologetically brushed aside when my wife and I tried to verify them. My fear is that NYSED and PEARSON have simply aligned to sell NY on tests for everything under the sun, and multiple pathways which aren't really new are a cover for a whole slew of tests from PEARSON. Has our NYSED become their PEARSED?

The link below will take you to NYSED, the description they give of and the video promoting these opportunities.

NYS Board of Regents approves 'Multiple Pathways' for high school graduation

The New York State Board of Regents approved a ground-breaking initiative (my emphasis) that will offer students new opportunities to develop college and career-ready skills in the arts, humanities, CTE and STEM fields. 'Multiple Pathways' will provide technical skills and work-based learning opportunities, paving the way for students to take a rigorous approved exam within a pathway to fulfill part of the Regents examination graduation requirement.

Check out the page for that Times Union opinion piece, and my comment is further below as well, in case it doesn't get posted (it is awaiting moderation). Included are links to my original posts from when I tried to pursue this issue with NYSED associates. I have spoken with associates, NY Assembly members, had contact with my local regent (J. Tallon), Congressman Hannah...little of substance comes from any of these people regarding the truth: opportunities are not equal. regardless of what NYSED sells as it's efforts to improve student outcomes. The paraphrase of insights and opinions collected as I meet with and make these contacts amounts to:

Cuomo is all powerful, and uses that power to secure himself politically, and if you oppose his agenda your future will be uncertain.

King is arrogant an cannot be swayed from what he feels is adequate for our children (but not for his own

The current state of turmoil in public education is a result of complacent and inactive unions and citizens

Dan McConnell says:
Your comment is awaiting moderation.

October 25, 2014 at 9:14 pm

While this may be a step in the right direction, I wonder if it is more self-congratulatory PR on the part of NYSED with little investigation into substance. Language for multiple pathways to regents diplomas and even alternative pathways to regents with advanced designation existed already-in regs (100.2h) and described in this NYSED chart:

http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/gradreq/diploma-credential-summary.pdf

This made little difference when I pursued this type of opportunity for my daughter. On February 14th of this year my wife and I reached the sad conclusion of communications with NYSED where we asked about these supposed pathways and opportunities that ALL STUDENTS in ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS in this state should be getting. Told first by an associate that yes, your school needs to offer this, then suddenly overridden by another saying “no, there is no language saying that” was confusing.

When I brought up the “all students” and “all schools” language with that second associate in a phone conversation, the response was a sympathetic

“Well, ‘all schools’ really means all schools that want to or can afford to.”

And when I asked if that means kids lucky enough to have money or go to a school that has money are the ones that get those pathways?

“Unfortunately that’s the state of school funding in our state”

My daughters are lucky enough to be in a school where we will get as much support as they can give, and they have me and their mother. We hunt down opportunities that our school can’t provide. What of other students?

I have emails saved, think I even have some voice mails saved. This isn’t just about my kids-it’s about ALL kids and holding these supposed ed-reform clowns responsible for earning their badges…not just posing and pretending.

See my account here:

http://dan-mcconnell.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_20.html

Reply

Just for the fun of it

2014-10-24T17:24:00.001-07:00

This was something I just had some fun with. Amtrak was doing a writing "residency" where aspiring writers applied and sent in writing samples, in the hopes of obtaining one of several private cars and long distance rides-in order to hone their craft. Of course many people besides me were interested. I didn't win, but enjoyed communicating with other would-be writers!

Goodsoutherngirl101

5 days ago

I assume this is closed to writers with pets? Who otherwise travel or live with their small, well behaved pets? As per Amtrak's asinine service-animals only policy?

DMaxMJ

4 days ago

@Goodsoutherngirl101 I had the same question about Huggy, my pet boa constrictor. He is my inspiration as a writer, especially in my apartment house where the neighbors tend to be a little noisy and thoughtless. I told Amtrak that Huggy has only gotten out of his cage three times, but always returns after a few days and is pretty calm for a couple weeks. We should travel together sometime with our pets. Huggy likes other animals...especially small well behaved ones. He is out and about somewhere right now (his 3rd escape...I'll have to do something about that cage lid!) It has gotten awfully quiet in the apartment house these days.

Goodsoutherngirl101

4 days ago

Well aren't we smarmy, @DJMaxMJ? That does sound awfully dramatic. And it Amtrak should decide to do what all major airlines and other modes of mass transit already do and let small dogs under 25 ( or 16 pounds depending) in carriers ride and some how those little dogs do what that have never done before and spontaneously flee their carriers, then perhaps you and your rouge snake can help out? Until then, there's always the (fake) service animal letter from a real doctor more and more dog owners seem to (mysteriously) need to ride the rails... Letters that don't require their furry friends to be contained or in carriers in anyway, by the way. But I'm sure that's as crazy a rumor as a boa constrictor named Huggy who likes to lift his lid, right?

ScottMohnkern

Apr 17, 2014

Does anyone know where a list of awardees will be posted?

@ScottMohnkern I just read the application again. They will be selected on a rolling basis, another words, ongoing throughout the year. They will notify the applicants they are interested in by e-mail. You only have 3 days to reply so watch your e-mail everyone and good luck! Wish I was on that train right now!

DMaxMJ

@ScottMohnkern I have won. At first, people assumed Veruca would win, but after I flushed her down the vacuum bowl commode on the Amtrak (which everyone had thought was mostly inactive until recently)- I was the soft-spoken but pure hearted shoe-in. Let the rides begin. Just don't push the red button.

NY Assembly members meet with educators

2014-10-06T03:02:00.001-07:00

It was nice to have been in a room with many others from so many different places. I have seen Assemblywoman Lifton in her office on a few occasions, and at SUNY last April. Still, it is difficult for me to wrap my mind around what the Assembly can/is willing to do-or what is the nature of what they have already done. During her appearance at SUNY Cortland this past April, I brought up the bill sponsored by Assemblyman Al Graf(R)-one that included a waiver from RTTT mandated responsibilities, an end to common core and common core testing, and had language for establishing a panel of twenty-some people appointed by a variety of leaders and educators who would have public meetings in several locations throughout the state.

I have the text, but believe it's still available online (A8844).

Lifton's response during her appearance was an "I hear your pain, but get more active, write your governor...we are sort of powerless in this..." type response. At Saturday's meeting Assemblywoman Nolan's response was to quickly brush aside bill numbers, describe how they go away and come back with different numbers and ask what is important...I think she knew the bill I was talking about but wanted to avoid getting too far into why good bills get killed by who, and why. It is a management technique (and looks good for a politician) to steer clear of details in the part they play and simply listen to you and let you get your stories off your chest. A person walks away feeling "Wow...they really listened to me!" Yeah, they did....aaannnd?

Here is a quote from someone who was there the day Al Graf's A8844 died (Cue Don McLean music), followed by a link to the page it is on:

"Then came Tuesday, June 3rd. The day that Assembly Bill 8844 was put to vote in the New York State Assembly Education Committee, chaired by Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan. Chairwoman Nolan had been advocating a HOLD on this bill meaning it would die in this legislative session if the vote took that path I had the opportunity to attend this meeting/vote along with about twenty other parents. We traveled from all over NYS to advocate for the bill one last time. As we know, the bill was killed. I was heartbroken to say the least. I couldn't believe what had just happened. After the meeting adjourned, we were given the opportunity for a seat a the table with Chairwoman Nolan. I thought that was pretty huge. We were able to go around the table and discuss specific issues. I had to hold back tears several times. I do think that Chairwoman Nolan hears us, but for some reason she doesn't think this bill was the answer. So I wonder, what is the recommendation then? My kids, and everyone else's kids don't get a do-over with their education. NO DO-OVER. This bill would've eased that worry for me. I'm afraid for today's students, especially those with an IEP. I was glad that Chairwoman Nolan was listening though."

http://www.wrightinnyack.com/blog/Assembly+Bill+A8844+And+The+Common+Core+In+New+York+State

The Graf Bill, A8844:

http://www.fixnyschools.com/read-the-bill/

An article describing the passing of Nolan's "put it in protected mode" bill

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2014/03/8541376/assembly-approves-common-core-delay

A link to the description of the "truth in testing" bill also sponsored by Nolan, but that she seemed unaware/unfamiliar with when I opened asking about it's status. Having sponsored then overseen the passing of the "on hold for two years" bill after the defeat of the "get rid of it now" bill...this testing related legislation seemed like a decent consolation prize. It calls for more transparency and review of testing companies, practices and results, as well as more access to old test items themselves. Good things, really, if we are to stick with no-bid contracting to testing companies sharing the revolving door between lobbying/policy making/politics:

http://www.billtrack50.com/BillDetail/417902

Sorry, I meant for this to be a simple share-contacts/it was nice to meet you message....but I've been a little steamed since Saturday and came away agreeing with only a few things said: 1) That Tennessee accent is beautiful 2) Our unions have been complacent and 3) We need to form alliances with each other and parents to shake up all the people who think they can get away with forcing this insanity on us, and those who protect the insanity.

Oh-there was one more thing. For the top quality, caring people at that table who hinted at getting out: please don't. Evil only wins when good gives up. Not to be melodramatic but our nation is investing too much in drones and data-mining, and avoiding the real responsibilities-which are then left to pile up on public school educators and the educators of educators.

So stay, play, fight and find a way.

You do "...the most important thing on the planet second to parenting." (Jenke, 2014)

My Father in Law. I'm sure he'll be watching my every move.

2014-09-11T17:57:00.004-07:00

My father-in-law. I could not have asked for a better "extra dad". This man was pretty damn awesome...I mean, he's the reason I have my wife, my kids...

What reformers cautiously avoid

2014-09-06T07:03:00.002-07:00

The conversation education reformers avoid

My first daughter was born five weeks early. I remember that night clearly: we had just got back from some shopping and my wife had sent me out for a Burger King cheeseburger (one of those pregnancy cravings that had to be satisfied occasionally). When I got home, not too many minutes later, I found her in our bedroom on the floor-laying on her side with a stopwatch in one hand, and the book "What to Expect When Expecting" next to her. It was one of those "triple-take" moments...my wife...the stopwatch...the book. Later I was to find out she had sent me out on purpose, and that she had felt "something" was happening.

Before long we were in the car, and on our way to the hospital, which was maybe 3 small village blocks away (a five minute walk). I was driving like she might give birth in the car and she had to let me know that I could slow down...that the baby wouldn't come in three minutes, but I had many memories of TV shows and movies where babies were delivered in the backseat of cars by husbands, cab drivers, firefighters, or some other random good Samaritan. It always happened quick with some yelling, screaming, crying, then smiling. Painful, messy, happy...and scary.

Needless to say, my wife was right and we had plenty of time-but I was right too-it was scary. Not just because it appeared that the moment may have arrived-but because it was five weeks early (at that stage, complications are more likely). But even though there was no backseat birth or waiting room delivery, it became clear that our first baby was coming when they could do nothing to stop the contractions with medication and decided instead to induce labor. The worry was that if birth-weight was too low, our baby would be whisked away to a hospital more than a half hour away, and my wife would remain.

I'm pretty sure someone had their thumb on the scale-she was so tiny! But she was able to stay in Cortland, close to us. Jen was in recovery, Chloe was taken to the newborn observation room, under a hood with oxygen being pumped into it and being monitored. I went back and forth between Jen and Baby Chloe. Sometimes I would sing softly to Chloe, leaning down close to do "You are my Sunshine", the same way I did while she was in Jen's belly and I would sing with my mouth pretty much on her. I can't remember how long I did this back-and-forth between rooms, singing/ talking/ comforting... but I finally went to one of the nurses on duty and asked if they could bring Chloe to Jen. Jen had just given birth to her first child, prematurely, and was stressed. Chloe hadn't really spent any time with her mother and was in a bright impersonal room under a plastic hood. It had probably been a few hours-but time gets warped in situations like this. It was almost as soon as Chloe was in Jen's arms that both seemed to be better.

Chloe is 15 years old now, one of three sisters, one of four of the loves of my life. Parenthood is an amazing, painful, wonderful, awe-inspiring responsibility, and as I write this, I am seeing my wife's post on Facebook. She is home with her own father and family right now. I won't share details, but home with her father is where she needs to be. There isn't much time left for that. I am home with our daughters. Jen's connection with her father is a powerful one-recognized and respected by everyone in her family (and me). She knows that she's his favorite, (so does everyone else), and while he isn't in the mood for much right now-she is the one he wants with him.

Her FB post:

Me: Dad, remember when you used to take me fishing?

Dad: Yeah, Beansie (her younger sister's nickname, Jen's is "Ding-Ding"...don't know where these came from) went a lot too.

Me: How did we ever catch any fish? We sure did talk alot......... I guess is wasn't about the fishing was it???

Dad: I guess not...

Me: Thanks Dad.
*****sniff sniff*****

Chloe is sleeping right now. She's a teen, but gives us virtually no trouble. She is bright, beautiful, creative. Brenna, 13, could be described pretty much the same (in addition to the sleeping thing)-but is already taller and "leggier" than her mother and Chloe...a fact she enjoys razzing Chloe (and Jen) with. Our youngest, Ella (8), sits on the couch with the journal of letters Jen and I wrote to her when she was only "Little Fetus McConnell". There are too many great moments to remember, too many awesome things these kids do every day...We have from day one loved them, held them, supported them, encouraged them, and made it clear we love them unconditionally. And I think you can tell. If you are familiar with them, know them, or have seen any of the crazy stuff they do-you can probably get it. I'm not trying to brag, I think we've merely fulfilled a minimum requirement that many others do as well.

But fewer parents can or do these days-cut loose to the free market and investment wind as well as policy makers and the silent hands that guide them.There is our real achievement gap problem. Education reformers avoid this conversation like the plague, because it is impacting factor numero-uno on student outcomes. Finding someone in school to blame (not something outside of school they might have to help fix) is the current agenda because it holds opportunities in a new "education reform" market. But what reformers won't engage with is a meaningful discussion regarding the quality of the bond that parents and children share, and how significant that is in determining a student's ability to focus and achieve in school. If their basic needs are met, if they are emotionally secure, they are more likely to succeed. Reform stars would probably say that they understand and feel this love, this unbelievably strong bond that begins even before the moment you see and hold your baby in your arms. The feeling that parenting is the most important thing you can ever do-to unconditionally love; to put the needs of another first; to give the world the best possible future by laying a loving foundation in your family world first.

They would say they feel the same way, and that they know lots of others who do as well. Of course they do. That's likely how they were raised, that's the world they live in: where families have the resources and background to form these secure and loving bonds. For the sake of public relations, reformers cherry-pick just that type of family to put out front for their lawsuits or enroll in their semi-exclusive schools. What they are NOT getting, or willfully avoiding, is the fact that more children are coming to public school classrooms without that quality family foundation in place. They are unfamiliar with and/or unwilling to discuss a different type of family and dynamic that leads to a different sort of student coming to many public school classrooms. And more of them are coming as we sacrifice real life truths to the demands of market perspectives.

The arrogance of enjoying a gated sort of existence and undeserved influence over others, then using outcomes of inequity as criticisms of those combating inequity is aggravating. Using influence from within those equity gates to decide on and enforce a brand of generic education for the masses outside is wrong. All kids should have the connections I see in my family,many families I know. and that those driving reform likely have. But fewer and fewer do.

No amount of testing, no exclusive "public" charter school, no amount of arrogant rhetoric from those who will not take on the real burdens, no posturing from someone who themselves enjoys a gated sort of existence can do it. It is time for honestly "shared sacrifice". Those who already have sacrificed are being asked for more by those who continue to avoid it.

Think reformers will agree?

Why public schools and tenure are suddenly top priority

2014-09-01T18:33:00.003-07:00

Our public education system is not the source of our state of inequity and outcome-decay, it is a co-victim along with the learners hoping to be more than fuel for the current global economy furnace ( or the gravel under its feet). Still: public school reform has been made a top priority. Why have education reform, failing schools and bad teachers taken the lead position on the "things to do" list? Two possible reasons:

1) There is a lack of will to address the actual problem: economic policy that empowers the greedy and dismisses or covers for failures that result-impacting the economy for everyone else while still enriching the greedy.

2) True education, empowerment, critical thinking, and collaboration in the masses are a threat to the few in power (the greedy mentioned in 1), so education reform in its current form seeks to control the masses through a standardized education that will merely equip them to serve-not seek to lead.

Despite the rhetoric heard from leaders in policy and reform, there is no reason to believe that they really want a nation of empowered, well educated graduates-even though their language is centered around "college and career readiness" and "competition". The implication of the former is that college is appropriate for all, careers are there for the taking (or will be when the "jobs of tomorrow" arrive), or both. Our leaders and the politicians they have employed to play leader distract the citizenry by forcing responsibility for student outcomes entirely on public schools and teachers.

But little attention is given to either the massive college debt that already exists among the career un-and underemployed, or the debt awaiting all of those future "college ready" students who take on the challenge within a job market that holds little promise. The latter, "competition", is concerning because it reveals adherence to the cutthroat, me-first philosophy that leads to greed, inequity, market crashes, dishonesty and distrust. I'm not sure many in the forefront of education reform (being politicians, semi-celebrities, coached carefully by PR experts) would claim that economic competition and individual glory are the primary goals of an education, or that we want to compare ourselves and compete globally with countries like India and China (even though those are often given as examples of who our competitors in the global market are). No one who is calling for America to be economically competitive with these other nations also opens a discussion regarding what our core values as a nation are. They certainly don't discuss whether we really want held up as models either a country where 1 in 6 city dwellers live in conditions unfit for humans or another where child labor is exploited and factory workers sometimes live in filthy dorms working seven day weeks and twelve hour days.

Is reaching for these conditions the education reform plan for making American children (other than the more privileged) more competitive? I can't believe it, but I'm waiting for it to be proven wrong, namely with healthier models and clearly articulated and shared goals/values- "Common Core Values" (as opposed to standards). But in a world where advancements in technology mean fewer jobs for the majority, and more wealth and power for the minority. conflict is inevitable as inequity increases. Below is a list of five sources, lettered A through D. Each of the technology-related quotes below them can be matched to one of the sources.

Can you match source to quote correctly?

SCOURCES

A) From the "Manifesto" of Ted Kazinski (The "Unibomber") (1995)

B) From a song by Jimiroquai (1996)

C) From Bill Gates (2014)

D) From the July New Tech Schools Annual Conference Keynote Address by Paul Curtis (2014)

QUOTES

1. ____ Well, technology in general will make capital more attractive than labor over time. Software substitution, you know, whether it’s for drivers or waiters or nurses… It’s progressing. And that’s going to force us to rethink how these tax structures work in order to maximize employment, you know, given that, you know, capitalism in general, over time, will create more inequality and technology, over time, will reduce demand for jobs particularly at the lower end of the skill set. And so, you know, we have to adjust, and these things are coming fast. Twenty years from now, labor demand for lots of skill sets will be substantially lower, and I don’t think people have that in their mental model.

2. ____ The continued development of technology will worsen the situation. It will certainly subject human beings to greater indignities and inflict greater damage on the natural world, it will probably lead to greater social disruption and psychological suffering, and it may lead to increased physical suffering even in "advanced" countries.

3. ____ It takes fewer and fewer people to produce the things that we used to produce. And so the question for us is: where will the people go?...So if computers can access this kind of [massive amounts of] data, and compete against humans in something that we would have expected to be a uniquely human trait...again, what is it that human brings to the table...what's our "value add" to this economy, to society...?

4. ____ Futures made of virtual insanity - now
Always seem to, be govern'd by this love we have
For useless, twisting, our new technology
Oh, now there is no sound - for we all live underground

I'm starting to go stream of consciousness here. Let me just say that clearly, the education reform we are entrenched in is closely linked to the future (present?) conditions described above: class division driven by the market, technology, and who controls them. "Common" standards were not called "exceptional" standards for a reason. "Morality", "equity" and "honesty" aren't words heard when reformers disparage public schools. What would the global economy do with so many exceptional people raised with those values? Reformers will not target the true dangers, because they are the dangers that keep them in power, and everyone else under control. Public schools hold the potential to create change and reform from the base of society upward (not force it from above). Educators are the ones capable of challenging students to think exceptionally (not commonly).

This is why public education and tenure are being targeted.

(Answers to matching: 1:C ; 2:A ; 3:D; 4:B)

The things they say, the things they don't

2014-07-03T15:51:00.000-07:00

"StudentsFirst has taken the feedback from our membership and dozens of education policy experts and crafted a policy roadmap for lawmakers to consider as the new legislative year begins."

(Read: "The inner circle of StudentsFirst and some high-powered and wealthy insiders who shall go unnamed have pre-written some strategy, policy, and talking points for those who appear to be "elected" into decision-making positions.")

"Great teachers make a difference for children of all backgrounds. All children deserve great teachers."

(Read: "By saying something simplistic and universally agreeable, we can then hopefully fool you into accepting some of our more ridiculous nonsense...it's the Trojan horse logic offensive!)

These quotes come from a website describing the studentsfirst policy agenda, and they echo the type of quotes commonly heard from ed-reform leaders. The problem with this "our schools are failing and bad teachers need to be hunted like vampires" focus is not that schools shouldn't be re-tooled to an extent. If freed from state no-bid contract strangle-holds of canned curriculum and standardized cradle-to-grave test-shackles, real dedicated educators could do great things. The problem is who's defining the problem, what their agenda is, and what the likely consequences are. In addition, the refusal of this crop of non-educator education reformers (who are so far removed from the actual profession) to admit that the very real classrooms and the very real students involved are all very different from their rhetorical fantasy land...well, you have to wonder why they've been allowed a platform at all. The fantasy they are selling is one where great teachers and "choice" heal all failing schools and lift all students to achievement-nirvana.

But these reformers avoid inconvenient truths like the plague.

There are elementary school students who don't know for sure whether they will see their fathers or not that day-or that week. Visiting hours at the jail can be unpredictable, and mothers may or may not enforce the orders of protection that are supposed to keep some fathers away. Sometimes Dad might send a child off to live with the very Mom he openly disrespects because he wants some responsibility-free time to move his new girlfriend in (only to move her out and bring the child back a couple weeks later).

Sometimes it isn't even mothers or fathers that are the issue. Many times, grandparents and/or aunts and uncles are the primary caregivers in situations where the actual parents have either given up their rights or had them taken away by family courts. It's hard to imagine what goes through the mind of a young child who entered this life with the natural inclination to view their mother and father as the most important connections they could have: the source of love and information; the model of how to feel about themselves and relate to others; how to relate to and find their way in the world... It's even harder to imagine what goes through that same mind when those things we take for granted are absent or warped.

While it's hard to imagine some of this stuff, those in a growing number of public schools and classrooms don't have to imagine it. It's their reality, or the reality for others in that school or in their classrooms. Peers see it, teachers see it, principals see it, other members of those communities see it.

But "reformers" don't see it. They seem to be able to buy time, buy the conversation, even buy teachers unions to an extent. Maybe even buy policy and court rulings. No, they don't see it, but do they know it? I think so, but it doesn't seem to matter.

It isn't likely that their own children will ever sit in classrooms being more and more filled with classmates that bring those burdens into school from outside the school. It isn't likely that they will see neighbors, parents, children who want for what are considered the basics: running water, electricity, heat, decent meals. Their time outside of the school day and school year is likely spent in a way that seamlessly ushers their own young along the expected paths towards achievement: connecting more exclusive schooling experiences with lifelong social connections and later college and professional connections.

So when they promote "choice": is it really "choice" to separate the students and families with the resources from the students without-or is that "segregation"?

When they attack "tenure", are they really looking to weaken the defenses before the attack?

"Intentional" is the kindest way to describe it. "Calculated" is more truthful. The language of the public school/tenure attack includes insinuations of pedophiles and "bad" teachers lurking in classrooms protected by insurmountable union nepotism and red tape. "The most important IN SCHOOL factor..." is repeated often, with such stress placed on "in school" that this truth becomes clear:

The greatest, most pressing opponent is the greed and inequity that fund policies and fuel exploitation and PR smear campaigns OUTSIDE of the school. And guess which side the "reformers" are on?

Two barriers to true education reform

2014-05-26T09:13:00.002-07:00

There are many more, and these could be "unpacked" to delve more deeply-which I may do.

1) The purpose of education seems most recently to be a concept imposed upon us, not conceived/created/decided by us.

Education is not a machine, it's an endeavor. The end result is intended to be a capable American citizen. Yes- enabled with the skills needed to pursue a career path they choose, but more importantly: an understanding of their civic responsibilities and how to contribute to society or "the greater good". An even more important (and related) outcome should be the ability to discern shit from shinola and join with others endowed with the expected products of a sound basic education to drive our democracy and resist the tyranny of the privileged. This is not some Socialist concept, it is in line with the thinking of one of the most respected Founding Father-thinkers! What could be more FOX-Newsy or in line with GOP/capitalist thinking?

In 1786, Thomas Jefferson wrote to George Wythe:

"I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised, for the preservation of freedom and happiness...Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils [tyranny, oppression, etc.] and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance."

Education of late has started to become money-making for entrepreneurs and policymakers unwilling to meet their own obligation to the greater good-opting instead to protect and promote the system of inequities that serves them best.

2) Kids have changed...no, I mean really changed

It isn't just that "kids have changed". Yes, they most certainly have, but this is almost so accepted that it hasn't even entered into the school reform debate when reformers themselves begin talking about the apparent education pandemics: failing schools, under-achieving students, and overpaid/overprotected teachers.

They aren't about their schools, students and teachers, of course. The fact that their own kids have a consistent track record of success easing into a continuation of the socio-economic stability and security they enjoyed all through childhood is all the proof they need that the schools for the struggling many must be "failure factories" that are too costly, represent another investment opportunity, and need to be reformed.

The cold, hard truth is that many of those at the front of the reform movement have no connection to the real-life struggles of a growing number of people, or their children. Nor do they have a willingness to acknowledge the consequences of social policy failures taken on by educators in a building full of children who come with much more pressing concerns and needs.

Resisting the move to de-value educators

2014-05-23T02:24:00.004-07:00

What will happen if teaching continues to be treated as a workforce instead a profession?

This came to mind when thinking about whether or not teaching is "a calling", something a little more than just a chosen profession; or if it is a mechanized skill that can be scripted, planned, then executed by anyone capable of doing as they are told.

Certainly, money can be made by devaluing educators or educators in the making-first by weakening and cheapening the process and then by owning and selling the methods and measures in the execution of education for the masses.

But to what end?

Would the wealthy stand for simple politicians and policy makers telling them "This is what your children will learn, and how they will learn it."?

Not likely. In fact, we are seeing the movement towards a more segregated system, where a shrinking number of those with resources will have or be provided options for real learning that will promote access to economic and social mobility, while a growing number are subjected to federally mandated sustenance curriculum and educators confined to prescribed curriculum.

Education is meant to promote knowledge, freedom and a citizenry capable of not simply finding employment but resisting tyranny through participation in their government. Educators need to be capable of maintaining the processes that serve those purposes for all learners-not just a pre-chosen few.

Do you know the classic?

2014-05-23T02:07:00.002-07:00

An excerpt from a book that was a marker of the beginning of realistic fiction as a genre.

When I had considered this a little, it followed necessarily that I was certainly in the wrong in it; that these people were not murderers in the sense that I had before condemned them in my thoughts; any more than those Christians were murderers who often put to death the prisoners taken in battle; or, more frequently, upon many occasions put whole troops of men to the sword, without giving quarter, though they threw down their arms and submitted.

Bring back the joy

2014-05-03T13:40:00.001-07:00

Re: the concept of joyless schools for the already joy-deprived (read “common core”, “rigor”, “grit”, “standardization”, “raising the bar”…you know, the things those with death grips on obscene wealth do when they refuse to acknowledge the power of equity in building a nation strong in moral fiber and character-not just equipped with data warehouses, drones, and nuclear powered aircraft carriers)...

This is the one thing that has me questioning the value of “hanging in there” as a teacher.

Joy is already so lacking in the lives of a growing number of children coming into public school classrooms-and it is more and more evident in the youngest kids. Once upon a time you had to wait for the jaded adolescent to maybe give up and grow distrustful of adults and distance themselves from peers. But the failure of trickle down economics policy to work, and the refusal of those in power (on BOTH sides of “the aisle”) to admit this failure and their own reasons for sticking with it, has led to a deteriorating morale and deteriorating economic and emotional security that DOES trickle down…right into and onto the hearts and heads of our youngest students

The privileged and pompous who would offer themselves as fit to reform the rest of us need to have their power and privilege taken away.

When true equity in opportunity becomes the goal; when we stop revering “investors and job creators” that have done little more the raze the public commons; when bankers, lobbyists and politicians are as accountable as the rest of us; when the middle class families that made this country great are employed and empowered to be at home to model, guide, love and tuck their children in at night…

Well then, our nation will truly thrive and joy will return to our schools-not just those cushy charters and private schools-but ones like the one I teach at and my girls attend as well!

I hope they live to see it.

My Letter to NYT regarding space for "Success Academy"

2014-04-28T04:08:00.001-07:00

The April 26th New York Times included this article by Daniel Slotnik.

Below, is the letter I sent this morning

I am pleased that space is being found for the students in any one of Eva Moskowitz's academies. All students deserve equal access to a good public education. But I'm not sure that this is a "feel good" story, or that the treatment of public school choice has gotten the thorough examination needed.

The Times, in 2011, featured an article about Katherin Sprowal, a mother who was initially thrilled that her son had won a "lottery" to attend one of Moskowitz's academies. Very quickly it became clear to Ms.Sprowal that this high performing academy was either unable to or unwilling to educate her son, who presented the everyday kind of challenges real public schools and the educators in them handle daily. Ms. Sprowal's son went from poster boy for advertising purposes to being counseled out by academy officials and referred to a public school that was willing to meet his needs. Is preventing access of challenging students to the success miracle still the practice at Success Academy schools, and if so-can we truly say that this promotes school "choice"? Should this be called "high performing"?

Regent Tallon helps me track down the truth

2014-04-25T05:43:00.001-07:00

Below, is my most recent letter to Regent Tallon. He responded to my first contact with him, letting me know that he would be seeing Deputy Commissioner Wagner and would discuss my issue(s). Regent Tallon also acknowledged that district resources can impact what is provided, especially on the heels of the 2008 financial crisis.
Mr. Tallon was suggested as a contact by a long time friend and his wife, two people who I have known for decades. They have always had the integrity of heart and mind that make me both proud to have known them for this long (and still have them in my life), and believe them when they say Regent Tallon is someone who cares about student opportunities-someone I should get in touch with when other NYSED contacts have been confusing or less than satisfactory.

This has been altered somewhat to protect the innocent.

Mr. Tallon,

Thank you for your response. I was prompted to get in touch following a conversation with a long time friend and his wife, who I have known for more than thirty years. They described you as a person concerned with ensuring opportunity for students and someone I should contact.

My daughter attends (and I also teach in) the ******** Central School District, one of several tiny rural schools in the County. While lack of resources have historically been an issue (even prior to 2008), my district does offer students a "business sequence" as a path to an advanced regents diploma. But this approach ignores students like my daughter who excel in and intend to pursue careers that would be supported by opportunities in the arts, or the reality that an arts sequence is necessary for students pursuing this path in order to compile a portfolio and set of experiences to be competitive college candidates.

If you get a chance to talk with Deputy Commissioner Wagner, please relay:

1) Gratitude to Leslie Yolen, NYSED associate in the arts who advocated repeatedly for the need for access to the arts sequence described in the regulations. During the conversations we had, and in messages she has left for me, I can tell Leslie understands that all students should be respected and supported through the regulations coming out of NYSED, not just the easiest or least expensive students. It would be my tendency to defer to the person with years of experience in the arts and Leslie appears to have loyalty to the students in our public schools as priority one.

2) Gratitude as well to Marybeth Casey. While I don't agree with her, and I wonder what network of contacts and supports empowered her to become involved and override an associate in the arts regarding an issue in the arts, I think Marybeth is doing what she was told/asked to do and is also loyal. I admire that.

3) My continued curiosity regarding the language "all public school districts" and "all student populations". If NYSED's official position is that opportunities are inequitable, then it needs to be acknowledged and we need to alter and/or soften the "accountability" and "achievement gap" rhetoric. It would be shameful to create and allow ed policy that would more or less ensure further divisions based on social/economic class while pretending that accountability is for the victims. Deputy Commissioner Wagner may be able to shed some light on this matter.

I invite any contact to help clarify this, and am very grateful for any effort you make to track down a bottom line for me.

Dan McConnell

The Search for NYSED Truth Continues

2014-04-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

Dear Regent Tallon

I am writing to you immediately following a CSE meeting for my 14 year old daughter, and a brief conversation with someone who suggested you as a person who is understanding, responsive and might be willing to lend some insight. I am having an issue with regulations that appear very clear to me, conflicting opinions from NYSED associates, and a school district caught confused and in-between- ending with the apparent NYSED position that districts can choose which regulations to adhere to as if it is a salad bar of options for schools and the state, as opposed to opportunities for students to be "college and career ready".

Earlier this school year (November-ish), my wife and I began pursuing education options for our very bright daughter (one of only 2 "level 4's" in her grade in our district on last year's 8th grade ELA exam) who has specific struggles with math and foreign language. She has been talking about her future and college for a couple of years, and is motivated to do as well as she can. Other than foreign language and math, she's an 80s-90s student, and she has been identified as having an isolated disability which allows the extra help to get her on the path she really wants to be on (arts/writing). Our efforts to seek for her a path to a Regents Diploma with an advanced designation through a sequence of high school courses in The Arts (a path described in The Regulations of The Commissioner), have been met with confusion and inconsistency-when the truth in the regulations as they exist seems to be clear. Following conversations with our district we began research and inquiries with NYSED regarding the regulations and the sequence in The Arts.

AVAILABILITY OF … ARTS SEQUENCES (100.2(h))

All public school districts shall offer students the opportunity to complete a three- or five-unit sequence in each of the following areas: career and technical education and the arts.
All public school districts shall offer students the opportunity to begin an approved sequence in the arts in grade nine.

There was contact through email with a NYSED Associate (Leslie Yolen, Arts Education) who verified in emails and over the phone that districts were required to provide students access to a sequence in The Arts as a path to a Regents Diploma with advanced designation. Ms. Yolen also contacted the Superintendent of our school to relay this information (along with the section of regulation above). Shortly after Ms. Yolen's message came another from a different NYSED Associate, Marybeth Casey. Ms. Casey's email contains statements inconsistent with the regulations, and uses a small phrase from the above 100.2(h) out of context to make a point in semantics that is unsupported by the substance (and we believe spirit and intent) of this section of regulations. Ms. Casey basically denies the obligation of any public school to provide these sequences or a path to a regents diploma with advanced designation.

Her response:

1) "After discussing the question and reviewing the Regulations, Leslie and I agree that the district cannot be compelled to offer a 5 unit sequence in the Arts. Part 100.2(h) clearly states districts must offer 3 or 5 units of Art" (Ms. Casey's bold on that "or")

2) "This regulation was crafted when sequences were required to earn a Regents diploma and while that is no longer the case, the regulation still exists as written. There is no basis in regulation to compel districts to offer an Arts pathway to a Regents Diploma with Advanced Designation. Part 100.2(e) as Leslie pointed out, requires that districts offer programs that lead to a Regents diploma. There is no language with respect to a requirement for a pathway to a Regents with Advanced Designation."

While I'm not convinced regarding "Leslie and I agree" (I have spoke with Leslie, and it is my impression that she was told and then later "steamrolled" at a meeting regarding this issue), I am concerned at how/why a second associate was sought and empowered to override the opinion of the first (who actually has long experience in the arts). But I have played it by the rules. After a follow up email to Ms. Casey asking what type of Regents Diplomas are available in New York, and what benefits there would be to one over another, Ms. Casey sent a link to a chart describing the types, and a statement that more or less said that the benefit would depend on what the student was choosing to do. The chart she linked to shows that clearly there is language for such a requirement to make the regents with advanced designation available to "All Student Populations", which couldn't be more clear regarding the Regents with Advanced Designation and who it needs to be available to (ALL student populations). In addition, the phrase from 1002.h (1) in each of the following areas: career and technical education and the arts indicates the requirement to provide opportunities in CTE as well as the arts, not a choice of one or the other.

In an attempt to find out if the NYSED position truly was that schools could choose which type of students they could make college and career ready, and which path they would provide, I made a phone call on Feb 14th, to the office of Ken Slentz, who at the time was the next step up the "chain of command" (for lack of a better way to put it). I was told that Ken Wagner was the new person to speak to regarding Regents Diplomas, and transferred to his office. When the phone was picked up, and I gave my name, my call was transferred to....Marybeth Casey (not Ken Wagner). Ms. Casey and I had a pleasant conversation where she explained that "all public schools" and "all student populations" really means all schools that want to or can afford to, and all students in schools that do. When I asked her if what she's saying is these opportunities to be "college and career ready" are only available in schools that can afford to provide them, and to students lucky enough to attend them, she sympathetically said that was the state of school funding in our state.

Mr. Tallon, I am trying to track down the truth. Is NYSED really in the business now of only creating and enforcing policies demanding "accountability" (test/assess/and data gathering), or does Commissioner King also want the regulations that support pathways to success adhered to? Are we supposed to tolerate the rhetoric of a commissioner who doggedly demands cooperation on an accountability path while NYSED itself is weak on the provisions in the regulations? Or is it simply that some of our students are being dismissed as unimportant and not worth those provisions? If you can provide any guidance and or support, I would greatly appreciate it, and my school district will only be made better with some clarity brought to this issue. My daughter cannot be the only bright, capable child who would benefit from the access to this sequence provided for in the regulations.

Thank you,

Dan McConnell

How has school reform helped?

2014-04-01T02:20:00.000-07:00

How has "school reform" helped?

This is how cautious conversations around the high-stakes testing paired with the current version of reform go, when they happen in school:

"It's really more stressful on the parents than it is on the children."

"The kids don't really care... they want to do well!"

And so on.

To me, it's not really the point. We can convince kids to do just about anything, and parents have always stressed over wanting the best for their children. But public education has been undermined and subject to almost constant attacks since the economic crash of 2007-2008. Parents, educators and students have good reason to be concerned, because no consistent or coherent explanation has yet been offered in support of the education reform model being packaged and sold to the public. There are enough well connected and aware citizens out there to know that "greedy public workers and their pensions", "failing schools", "college and career ready" and "competition in the global economy" are ill-defined specters served up to gobble airwaves and attention. They mean little when college is financially either out-of-reach, or a life-killing debt for future graduates with sense enough to look and see that billionaires, politicians, and their wealthy financiers are the very few who are thriving in this competition to serve the global economy. Those same powerful and well-connected people who, by the way, are looking to profit from the public dollars left because they couldn't be openly grabbed in the years leading up to and immediately following that economic crash. These same powerful people are the ones who sold the call for "shared sacrifice", then promptly avoided it themselves, opting instead for even more slop at the public trough while pressing hard against entitlements and public workers.

How has "school reform" helped?

We shelter our kids as much as possible from the specific dangers that lurk out and about, and try to equip them with the skills and common sense to stay safe. We don't tell them exactly what is done to kids who are harmed by scuzziest of creeps that really do exist and sometimes don't get caught, and we end up conflicted when the most harm is done by our elected leaders, those they appoint, and the shadowy private funding behind all of it. We work hard as parents to create doers, livers, survivors- and happy ones at that. We send them to school, hoping that they will be equipped with the essential academic skills needed to then join society-capable of seeking a path towards independence and self-reliance. School is where they become integrated into a peer group, hopefully becoming comfortable with how their personal and academic abilities mesh with what will be their generation of future citizens. And in school, educators, support staff, and everyone else there work together to try and provide what is needed to prepare those future citizens.

Accountants
Construction workers?
Doctors, lawyers, investment bankers?
Computer programmers, or code-writing video game creators?
Technicians for a giant data-gathering company that will collect, store and analyze data on millions of U.S. citizens from cradle to grave?
Teachers?

How has "school reform" helped?

Keeping them off the street and out of jail is, of course, always a priority. But if you spend any amount of time watching the news coming out of some of the more urban areas you will be concerned. Young men are playing "knockout", a game where they try to one-punch sucker punch an unsuspecting stranger in a way that drops them unconscious to the ground. Teens on a Florida bus gang-beat a young boy who was going to report their efforts to sell him drugs. Under-supervised and morally/socially lost teens bully and hound others openly and or anonymously with social media and technology they aren't mature enough to use responsibly, and a couple generations of class and character have been lost to cable TV trash and mega-rich mega-idols who give the impression that wealth and respect are just some bad behavior and a photo opportunity away. These are the kids coming to classrooms where they need to be taught. Clearly, there are obstacles that those pushing for "accountability" are less than willing to discuss, because they are unfamiliar with those types of challenges; uncomfortable admitting that there are people who contend with those challenges and deserve recognition for it; and because they smell money and opportunity in scapegoating others rather than participating in honest reforms.

How has "school reform" helped?

What is the point, really, if the most that's been offered is a coercive system that allows the unaccountable to impose accountability, the benefactors of inequitable policy to impose inequity (code-named "school choice"), and politicians to grow secure and safe on campaign contributions funded in part by this diversion of public dollars? Has the decision been made regarding the value of a hedge fund manager vs the value of firefighters, police, teachers? Has rewarding public workers for a career of service with modest or less pension benefits lost value in comparison to risky wagers and artificially bloated speculative wealth for a few in the financial sector?

Whatever the path my daughters choose, I want them to be happy, productive, and smart...not victims of someone else's plans. But really, reform isn't about my kids... really. They are collateral damage, and that disrespect to and disregard for them is angering enough-but it isn't about them. It's about the ever-increasing number of little lost souls left behind in this economic "competition" that makes making a living so hard these days. More and more kids coming to school tired, hungry, emotionally and economically insecure, with school and academics falling on their list of priorities. These kids benefit when their schools are empowered and funded well enough to at least attempt to address these needs in order to get to the academics.

So when we talk "reform", maybe the first thing we need to reform is the conversation. It's not about the need for more testing, more mandates, more hurdles and less money. It's about equity, accountability, and honesty-and it needs to start at the top.

Less Testing, More Investing

2014-02-23T16:18:00.004-08:00

"Parents want more information, faster, about how their children are performing relative to their peers. And the state is demanding higher levels of measurement, information, and evidence of progress." This statement is from OSC (Educational Assessment Scoring Environment), a company that will be taking state tests of students from our upstate area to Long Island for cheaper, more efficient, computer-assisted scoring. OSC has been seeking certified teachers to participate in scoring for $30 to $40 an hour. An initial inquiry to the company for teachers from our area to participate in scoring got an enthusiastic initial response, but in follow-up, a more cautious request came from the same OSC employee, suggesting a conference call to discuss the "logistics" of upstate teacher participation. The motivation for a move to this type of scoring is described by this company as cost-effectiveness, and the desire to keep teachers in their classroom instead of pulling them away for scoring. While I think these are admirable motives that most would agree with, the "parents want" stuff seems to be more of the snake-oil salesmanship from proponents of what is being called education reform.

From new standards, to tests, to undermining the input of educators, to the collection and "uploading" of personal data of school students and their families: the increasingly opposed public has been told these efforts will benefit us all. But I am not so sure that parents need to have their priorities described for them by leaders in business and policy, or that any description of those priorities should could come from those intending to more efficiently turn children and their schools into data to serve the "free market", the "competitive global economy", or any political/financial bottom line. Education is intended to prepare students to navigate and master these forces; help them make the world their own-not hold them accountable to serving it as-is. Public schools, though, have been scapegoated instead of supported in this effort to serve a population whose struggles and instability are increasing as the wealth in our nation trickles up instead of down, and the school funding disparity in NY shows a clear connection between the resources a district is provided and the achievement of its students.

As a parent, I care little about what numbers the state would seek to stamp on my children, or how they compare to numbers of others. I've evaluated how politicians, corporations and investors handle such numbers and I'd say it's been two years plus of either ineffective or developing results. If our Governor wants to whine about unions and pretend he's on the side of parents, he needs to own up to his responsibilities for aggressively pushing the common core, "race to the top" package from day 1, not just point fingers at the Board of Regents. His failure to address school funding issues and his recent trip to the West Coast for what has been described as a "glitzy L.A. fund raiser" makes me question his priorities and his effectiveness.

Dan McConnell

Investing, not testing is the way forward

2014-02-20T05:07:00.002-08:00

The insistence/consistent focus on evaluation of teachers as the number one priority, combined with the denial of the role that funding and wealth play in student outcomes, is narrow-vision, uninspiring, and either dishonest or disingenuous.

Imagine a person (and/or a group of people) who had never ran on a track team, worked with a track team, maintained a track/field....suddenly being appointed authority over that area of athletics- in a school that had struggled to compete with wealthier neighboring district teams. The mission is stated as "close the win/loss gap", but the subtext is made clear in meetings, statements, the refusal to fund the necessities: trim costs. Pretend that a good track team is your priority in all memos, meetings, discussions, but spend less and redirect/place blame on athletic department staff for continued difficulties and losses to wealthier neighboring teams. The track is in shambles, dangerous to run on-not because the coaches and staff don't know how to do their jobs-but because the district can't/won't pay to resurface it. The hurdles, sand pit, pole for the vault...not useful for serious training to succeed/win/compete with peers. Because the area is a low socio-economic area, the students live in homes and with families that can't always provide square meals, comfortable beds, economic/emotional stability...the things that send a ready student/athlete to school.

So what do the non-track, my friends bought me this job, I'm empowered to set policy but have no real connection to the day-to-day workings of track coaching/managing in a real school with challenges team suggest? What do they INSIST IS THE PRIORITY AND VOW TO FIRE ANY WHO DON"T COOPERATE?

stopwatches.

That's right. Stopwatches. Forget the track, the equipment, the health of the kids, the involvement of the staff who really know what they're up against and have the experience to deal with it. Stopwatches.

Suddenly more stopwatches, and to make sure the ones your budget dollars were diverted from the resurfacing for are reliable-some different stopwatches to turn time into a "value added measure"! There are protests from experienced coaches and runners that start coming from all angles, the crumbling track surface, the hungry kids, etc... you paint these as the protests of the unwilling and greedy and insist that more stopwatches is the best investment in order to find bad coaches and athletic department staff to fire when the track teams in struggling schools don't produce the wins that wealthier schools in neighboring districts produce.

Not as many wins, not as many college-bound athletic scholarships...clearly, stopwatches will produce better outcomes, and if the stopwatches show less than desired improvement, we can fire athletic department staff...a win win! Sound data and consequences that matter.

Does this sound a little ridiculous? I hope so. But I have been involved in a discussion with NYSED associates with an outcome describing that regulations saying ALL PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS and available to ALL STUDENT POPULATIONS really mean "if your district can afford it" or "if you're lucky enough to be wealthy or live in a wealthy area". It wasn't an unpleasant conversation, but an affirmation that it is the result of the unfortunate state of school funding in our state. "College and career ready" is for those lucky enough to be born into it, or attend a school able to/willing to provide it.

This is what YOU are accountable for, Governor. Not stopwatches.

My suggestion is stop posturing and railing against unions, then own up to the impact poverty, joblessness and lack of character/morality in economic and education policy has on the most needy. There are people who know the daily struggles of an increasing number of students impacted by the crumbling condition of the track they are expected to run on. They are REAL EDUCATORS. Don't blow our money and place such reverent reliance/trust upon stopwatches (sold by eager stopwatch companies springing up everywhere these days).

I have metaphored long enough. Investing, not testing. That will get you results.

Any Input welcome

2014-02-09T05:41:00.000-08:00

http://dan-mcconnell.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_20.html

The link above takes you to a page where a summary of an issue involving NYSED and regulations is described. In preparing to enter into the appeals process regarding a recent NYSED decision. I have been made to believe that my family is not alone in wondering how NYSED could work so hard to create and enforce so many new regulations that suppress and control public education (under the guise of “college and career” readiness), but deny the mandates described in others that actually DO support student achievement. If you know anything, if you know someone, if you can help (or just want to keep up), contact me. Our governor’s lead when politically convenient-but wait ’til it is approach will leave destruction in his wake. We cannot let him have our schools, the governorship, or the WH.

Let Governor Cuomo Know.

2014-02-05T17:52:00.000-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 5, 2014

More information contact:

Eric Mihelbergel (716) 553-1123; nys.allies@gmail.com

Lisa Rudley (917) 414-9190; nys.allies@gmail.com

NYS Allies for Public Education www.nysape.org

NYS Leadership Falls Short to Reverse Course of the Flawed Regent Education Reforms

On Tuesday, February 4^th, the leadership in both the Assembly and Senate called for a two-year delay of the use of Common Core state assessments for high-stakes decisions for teachers, principals and students. The Senate also called for a one-year delay in the sharing of private student data with inBloom Inc., while the Assembly reiterated that there should be an indefinite halt to the disclosure of this information. Meanwhile, Governor Cuomo responded that the leadership’s announcement was premature and that he would await the recommendations of a Commission that he has yet to appoint. That Commission would issue its report in June.

The NYS Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) acknowledges the legislature’s efforts, but this delay will not satisfy parents or educators because it falls short of the real change that needs to occur to get our school system back on track. Thousands of parents and educators have testified at hearings and forums calling for a halt to the implementation of the Common Core and its aligned exams, and for the state to immediately cancel its contract with inBloom. A delay in uploading students’ private data or attaching stakes to the exams is insufficient and will merely stall needed change.

“The Common Core Learning Standards remain untested and there is no evidence that they will result in more learning or increased student achievement. Parents are frustrated with the assumption that the standards will be successful if teachers are only provided with more professional development and students with more time. The Common Core Standards are deeply flawed and the proposed moratorium falls short of the mark,” said Bianca Tanis, a New Paltz public school parent and member of Re-Thinking Testing, Mid-Hudson Region.

“For the next two years, children will be compelled to take grueling, inappropriate assessments that rob them of instructional time and force teachers to stick to a prescribed pace of instruction no matter the needs of their students,” said Jeanette Deutermann, Bellmore public school parent and founder of Long Island Opt-Out.

“Parents, teachers, school board members and superintendents throughout the state have testified that they overwhelmingly oppose the state’s plan to share sensitive personal student data with inBloom. We insist that the Regents immediately cancel the contract with inBloom; simply asking for a delay is not good enough,” said Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters and a leader in the fight to protect student privacy.

Not only does the proposed moratorium fall short, it is difficult to ascertain what it will include. "Although we appreciate the efforts of the legislature to be responsive to the concerns of parents and educators, the concept of a moratorium on the consequences of high-stakes testing needs to be defined. Will this, for example, mean a suspension of test scores in teacher evaluations, or simply a prohibition on the dismissal of teachers with “ineffective” scores? How will students be protected from the consequences of testing? Will the legislature prohibit the use of Common Core test scores for purposes of promotion and acceleration? Will they allow young students to be excused from six grueling testing sessions? All must be explained if we are to evaluate whether any real relief would be provided,” said Dr. Carol Burris, South Side High School Principal on Long Island and the 2013 High School Principal of the Year.

Jessica McNair, a New Hartford public school parent said, “Once again the legitimate concerns of New York parents are minimized with the suggestion of a moratorium. This would only allow more time for the damaging NYSED agenda to take hold. In discussing matters concerning children, it is imperative that the state’s leaders do more than simply slow down the train before it crashes. We must put a stop to high-stakes testing and to standards that are developmentally inappropriate. The time for a complete course correction is now, with no pause or delay.”

Education Commissioner John King noted at last week’s budget hearings that he has been meeting regularly with the Governor. “The relationship between NYSED and the Governor’s office must be questioned, especially as Governor Cuomo called a moratorium ‘premature’ as he awaits the results of his own panel's review of the Common Core,” said Lisa Rudley, Ossining public school parent and a founding member of NYSAPE. “We continue to call for the Commissioner’s resignation and the appointment of new Regents, because our children should not have to bear the brunt of a State Education Department whose agenda is out of control.”

The New York State Allies for Public Education represent forty-five grassroots parent groups from every corner of the Empire State, calling for a change in direction and policy, beginning with new leadership at the New York State Education Department and the Board of Regents. See www.nysape.org for more details.

###

What is "choice"? Who will get to choose?

2014-01-25T18:31:00.000-08:00

As I type, my oldest is enjoying her 15th birthday party, and there are ten teenagers in my house. The group sang around the table, they have been in the far room sing/yelling to High School Musical, playing cards and telling weird pervy jokes and cursing occasionally...She really has made a fantastic choice of friends, and they compliment her personality-great kids, every one of them. It makes me feel pretty good about the project I have in front of me: pressing NYSED for clarification on paths students should have available to them. Are our education officials as willing to support our driven, talented artists and creative thinkers of the future as they are the tech-sector servants of the future? More to the point: are they willing to protect these arts paths for students in low socioeconomic status schools where students often face limited choices for a variety of reasons to begin with?

Is the state now in the business of discriminating ala' Romney (people should get the education they can "afford")? Are are we providing "choice" to everyone?

Our time is coming...

2014-01-18T15:02:00.002-08:00

The state of public education in New York State is concerning. Public schools, students, educators and administrators are being subjected to criticism and stress as a result of:

Implicit blame for economic and employment conditions resulting from failed supply side economics
Evaluations based on high stakes testing centered around curriculum, standards, and the tests that are all in a state of transition
Lack of truth, responsiveness, and a failure to "own up" to destructive social and economic policies from state level officials
The decision to gather data on public student students and their families-personal data to be stored in "the cloud" and provided to education product vendors (companies-with no real guarantee in terms of privacy and security of that data).

These these things and more have been happening in the name of education reform (the catchy name given the intentional distractions from corporate, banking, and investment games that perpetually damage our economy and society).

But "reform" should make improvements that are agreed to by the majority, move an undesirable condition towards a shared goal- not impose the values and conditions beneficial only to those driving the reform. Children and their families do not depend on their community schools to focus on testing, or to collect and store personal (sometimes sensitive) data for later sale to unknown vendors. Policies that are harmful to public education are being pushed by supposed leaders in government and education with scant experience-in the classroom, and even less familiarity with the day to day existence of people who have seen their jobs and prospects continually exploited for further gains of the already wealthy. Each new step and statement has pointed us in the wrong direction.

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo

Now, though, there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel. Kept in the dark for so long as Governor Cuomo, state education officials, and private interests misguide policy, communities have taken interest and are starting to wake up and get involved. Parents and even the students themselves are speaking out in a way that can't be calmly smiled and nodded at, with superficial and safe "we are listening to you" responses combined with failures to truly listen or adequately respond when what you hear is the uncomfortable truth. Questions and concerns of the public need to be addressed to the public's satisfaction, and we are starting to see examples of brave educators speaking out to defend students and their schools from public officials who haven't truly seemed interested in listening.

For example, Red Hook (N.Y.) Principal Katie Zahedi recently gave testimony regarding a conversation she had with Chancellor Tisch, where Tisch (apparently becoming defensive in the face of concerns over misguided policies) claimed Governor Cuomo pressured her to push APPR ahead:

“She said to me: ‘How would you like to be in my position?’” Zahedi continued. “This is what she says: ‘I’m at the governor’s mansion and he shouts at me that if you don’t get this done, if you don’t get this through, I’ll put three geniuses in a room and I’ll force it down your throats.’”

Tisch differs on that conversation but whether or not the words were recalled precisely by Zahedi, the fact is that the essence of the conversation (the governor using his position to "bully" policy) remains-unless you want to believe that Zahedi is lying. And if you watch the video that link takes you to, you'll see the description of Governor Cuomo's behavior is not perceived as uncharacteristic.

NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi

Teacher unions are not exempt from some responsibility in how we have gotten where we are. Having agreed to the new teacher evaluation system, it became necessary to protect dues generating professionals. But turning education into a numbers game, especially for the most needy, ignores the market-induced ravages of poverty, and the reality that those with resources can either escape many of the reform mandates or have the economic and social stability correlated with academic success and positive life-outcomes. Union leadership in it's collaboration (albeit coerced by the funding game trap set at the federal level by RTTT ) called a play that led to a ten yard loss that we will be battling back from for some time to come.

NY Education Commissioner John King

The most recent effort to bring transparency and collaboration into education reform comes from NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi's proposed vote of "no confidence" in the leadership of Education Commissioner John King (if he fails to enact a three year moratorium on the use of high stakes testing in New York). But King's initial response to this "no confidence" proposal, once again, reveals dishonesty and evasiveness:

"They’re committed to the Common Core; they're committed to the evaluation system. They have to explain why they think we should change the evaluation laws that we all agreed to and all believe is in the interest of students," said King.

You cannot pack any more careful politic-ism than that into a statement. Let's look at it more closely:

They’re committed to the Common Core; they're committed to the evaluation system.

Because we had to. Funding would have been withheld from the neediest if we hadn't, and threats of takeover and imposition of the governor's plan (if the deadline wasn't met) made clear the nature of what you're calling "committed" (read forced, coerced...)

They have to explain why they think we should change the evaluation laws that we all agreed to and all believe is in the interest of students...

See the last snippet above, and: "we all agreed to" and "best interest of students" are disingenuous statements that King is either clever enough to come up with on his own or dishonest enough to say for someone else. The "no confidence" motion being considered by NYSUT's Dick Iannuzzi is more about the continued King claims to be listening, while clearly unwilling to truthfully address what he has heard.

Statements like these are emblematic of the school reformer agenda, which includes denial and deflection of outside-the-school influences on student success. All it takes is a great teacher, they would say, and student achievement gaps are simply a result of bad teachers in schools that coincidentally serve a low income population. For children of the wealthy, in private schools (or "public" schools inaccesible to most), what paves the path to success for these students is their great teachers, not their comfortable homes, enriched experiences, trust funds...There has been a persistent refusal like this to acknowledge influences upon student achievement that educators have little responsibility for.

In May of 2012 Commissioner king responded to Frank Mesiah (President of Buffalo Branch NAACP, former teacher and administrator) regarding concerns that chronically absent students would negatively impact teacher evaluations-punishing teachers for the low achievement of students rarely in school.

King's response:

"As educators, we cannot abdicate all responsibility for students who are chronically absent. Instead, we must work with them and their families to help them get back on track. These students have been forgotten too many times already."

This is another example of the cautious messaging coming from education reform talking heads. The fact that not being in school has an undeniable negative impact on achievement is un-examined, and instead of reconsidering irresponsible policy that causes educators to be undervalued due to influences outside of their control- double down on the blame game. Teachers are now also responsible for getting kids out of bed, dressed, fed, out the door, and on their way to school!

As an aside: I have found no reference to Commissioner King suggesting promotions, bonuses or raises to educators who meet and or excel in their duty to get their students out of bed, dressed, fed, out the door, and on their way to school- achieving excellent attendance.

How does so much narrow minded, agenda driven, bad education policy make it's way into our lives? It must take some mad money to convince people that your bad ideas are good.

(see here to link to an article about this wealthy non-educator with big education opinions)

*Bill Gates, the soft-spoken philanthropist and former Microsoft CEO, was on the attack today, complaining about schools that don't teach kids and teachers who get raises anyhow.

*Speaking at the 2011 TED Conference (Technology, Education, Design), Gates sharply criticized states for the waste in American education.

"The guys at Enron never would have done this! I mean this is so blatant, so extreme that, is anybody paying attention to what these guys do?" Gates said.

Gates pushed and paid for systems that would follow Microsoft's approach at the time, measuring employees and paying extra to those who performed well, firing those who didn't. This "stacked ranking" approach which Gates credited as the key to Microsoft's success has recently been dropped in favor of a more collaborative approach focusing on teamwork and the growth and development of it's employees. Will his push for education "reform" include this more sensible approach to the evaluation of professionals who are already doing one of the most difficult and vital jobs/callings there is? I'm not holding my breath.

This absolute insensitivity to the realities in today's public schools and society in general might seem like a sort of Thurston Howell III stupidity born from a privileged and sheltered life; a conceited and arrogant assholery-not necessarily intentional, just hapless ignorance of other people's circumstances, priorities or feelings. But at some point, in the face of research, evidence, experienced professionals in the field you've claimed undeserved authority in (all indicating a need to rethink your direction): you would think there 'd be a pause for reflection.

The Dec. 28th NY Post and my response

2013-12-30T05:42:00.000-08:00

The Dec. 28th New York Post had an editorial that shouldn't have surprised me, but it did. The focus was on testing in New York, and the thrust was that we owed more rigorous and lengthier tests to our students...as a demonstration of "genuine achievement". How else can we possibly make schools better; of course the unions and the parents oppose this; other countries want their kids to be smart...shouldn't we?...and so on. I know this paper is a rag-but why does this tripe go unsubstantiated and unchallenged so often?

Here's my response.

The Post December 28th editorial (NY's proficiency exams should demand more from

students...) is another example of misdirection and misinformation. More difficult and

lengthier testing doesn't "raise the bar", it diverts resources of time, money, and expertise

away from learners-trading these things for profit in the testing, data collection, and

curriculum industries. While little is said, the public is becoming more aware that some

countries that outperform us academically test far less, and focus far more on equity and

social structure. While "reformers" would like to drive us to compete with countries whose

economies grow through exploitation of labor and the environment, the truth of how

"trickle down" continues to fail, and how unwilling the greediest are to be held

accountable is becoming more apparent. This focus on creating a generation of workers

to serve an unfeeling exterior "global economy" further diminishes what is already sorely

lacking: character and substance within.

If we want to truly "raise the bar", that bar needs to be in the area of character and

accountability in policy making and the media coverage it receives: who directs it and

how.