Category: General

Heroic Superintendent William Cala

This story, which has made the rounds, tells of a heroic superintendent, William Cala, from Fairport, New York (Western New York) who wrote a letter to his staff in response to Cuomo’s education reform agenda, one that Cala terms an “assault on public education.”  Be sure to read the entire story.  More importantly, read the full text of Cala’s letter below…

Dr. Bill Cala
Superintendent, Fairport Central School District
Good Morning!

This week’s State of the State address by Governor Cuomo was what most of us expected. It was an all-out assault on public education, teachers, children, families and local control. It appears that breaking teachers is his solution to poverty, income inequality and inadequate school funding.

As we have experienced on a first-hand basis over the past few years, the APPR system is indeed a fatally flawed proxy for genuine evaluation done at the local level. The governor’s solution is to up the ante by increasing the tenure period to 5 years and making state test scores 50% of a teacher’s evaluation. Given the already bogus cut score setting process for the state exams, we are assured of a whole new wave of unreliable ratings designed to crush teachers, close schools and open the door to his other “reforms,” such as lifting the cap on charter schools and creating a tax credit for private schools and charters and increasing the amount the state gives charters per pupil. This last item of increasing charter aid is especially interesting as there are no strings attached. The regular public schools will only get an increase in aid if the legislature approves all of his draconian measures mentioned above. Two major studies have demonstrated with great clarity that charters perform worse than public schools and only 17% of charters perform equal or better to publics (CREDO 2013). Apparently, that’s fine….they get increases in spite of their failing performance.

Let’s be clear that the governor’s agenda has nothing to do with what is good for kids. Far from it. It is what is good for his financial supporters: the corporations who are making billions of dollars on the tests, the texts, the technology, the corporate professional development and the data collection, retrieval and distribution. 

As this country gets poorer and poorer and the few get richer and richer the pride of our nation, its public schools, are being disassembled while Bill Gates, The Walton’s, The Koch Brothers, Eli Broad and other scavengers are feasting at the table of greed. 

While the situation may seem hopeless, I believe parents are able to bring this tyranny to a screeching halt. Assessments should be used only for the benefit of students…..nothing else. Last year over 60,000 parents in New York refused the 3-8 tests. This year it is expect that number will triple. The refusal movement will indeed collapse the evaluation system and the governor’s plan to dismantle public education.

Parents will play a critical role. What role will we play? How will we speak out? This is our profession. These are our children. This is our responsibility.

Action and activism takes courage. Last week I spoke of my hero Rosa Parks. Let her courage and actions inspire us. I will close with the wisdom and inspiration of Frederick Douglass.

Where justice is denied; where poverty is enforced; where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress,; rob and degrade them; neither persons nor property will be safe.

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.

Time to start plowing.

Peace,
Bill

If that doesn’t inspire you to take action then you might not have a pulse.

Heroic PTA

We have seen organic opt-out movements over the past couple of years from parents in different parts of the state.  We have seen a few heroic teachers, including our very own Beth Dimino, refuse to administer state assessments in the spring.  Now it appears as though PTA’s are stepping up as well.  The Bennett School PTA, located in Shandaken New York, up in the Catskills region is now “encouraging our parent body in grades three to six to refuse the state tests in ELA, math and science this spring.”

Via the Daily Freeman…

Boycott state tests

Dear Editor:

There is growing frustration with the amount of testing our young children are subjected to. I have noticed a significant loss of instruction time, an increased level of stress in the classroom and a poor message to our children about the importance of tests.

The average fourth-grade student is 9 years old and is required by the state Department of Education to prepare for three state exams in the spring: English Language Arts, math and science. These tests total eight days of administration, as well as three to six weeks of test preparation. In total, our children are losing four to six weeks of in-class instruction time per test.

Our children also take ELA and math tests three times a year to monitor their progress. They also take pre- and post-assessment tests in art, music, library, physical education and social studies, totaling 21 standardized tests annually. The numbers are the same for grades three to six, with the exception of the state science test.

It is no wonder we are seeing a loss of hands-on, inquiry-based learning in our classrooms. With the emphasis on math and ELA testing, we are witnessing the erosion of science and social studies from the curriculum.

Excessive testing teaches our children that there is only one right answer in academics and in life. It takes the joy out of learning and minimizes the value and importance of taking a test when it really counts. And it is ruining public education.

As an immediate solution, members of the Bennett School PTA are encouraging our parent body in grades three to six to refuse the state tests in ELA, math and science this spring. These tests are inappropriate for our children, are unfair to our teachers, take away valuable classroom time and are not part of our child’s overall grade or individual assessment.

We intend to send a message to the state.

Heather Roberts, Vice President

Bennett School PTA

Shandaken, N.Y.

This is really great to see.  I hope this starts a trend among local PTA’s in the state!

How to Contribute to NYSAPE Opt-Out Billboards

NYSAPE has started a campaign to purchase “Refuse the Tests” ads on billboards placed strategically around the state.  This fall all PJSTA members reduced their VOTE-COPE contributions to $0 for the year.  Please consider putting some of that savings towards NYSAPE’s very worthy cause.

Via NYSAPE…

Our kids are being hurt by excessive testing that has taken over and replaced learning in our schools. And yet our elected leaders, including Gov. Cuomo, are doubling down on these damaging high-stakes tests.  More than 60,000 kids refused to take the state tests last year.  Help New York State Allies for Public Education, a coalition of more than 50 parent and community groups, pay for billboards in key areas of NY state to urge even more parents to opt their children out of these exams this spring.  Whether you can  donate $5, or $100, please help us reach our goal of $8,500.

Click here to contribute.

APPR Rumors

Our friend Arthur Goldstein, who blogs at NYC Educator, has heard a few rumors regarding a new APPR plan.

Via NYC Educator…

I don’t have a lot of time right now, but several sources I trust tell me there is already a deal in place for a new APPR plan. They think it will either be a 40% junk science plan, or that it may be a statewide model based on the NYC plan. The NYC plan, while we in NYC don’t much like it, is a better one than those in a few upstate cities that were poorly negotiated. It is not nearly as good as those many small locals came up with.

However, a UFT source I also trust tells me that Mulgrew will indeed fight Cuomo’s APPR efforts. Hopefully we’ll know more after Wednesday’s DA. An agreement could be made to make an NYC-style evaluation statewide, or 40% junk science, and UFT could argue that Cuomo wanted 50% and we kept it down to 40.

The problem with UFT leadership is that everything they do is a victory. When we got the UFT transfer plan it was a victory. When we lost it and got the ATR instead that was a victory. Getting artifacts for ratings was a victory, and losing them was a victory. Getting the entire Danielson Framework was a victory and cutting it down to 8 domains was a victory.

So Mike Mulgrew can’t lose, no matter how miserable UFT and NYSUT teachers become. He is King Midas and everything he punches turns to gold.

Both options are better than Cuomo’s proposal.  The NYC-style evaluation would be preferable to a plan in which 40% relies upon state test scores.  Still, as Arthur notes, both are far worse than what the PJSTA currently uses.

Heroic Teacher Jia Lee Once Again Refuses to Administer State Tests

Last year we directed you to the Teachers of Conscience position paper.  Teachers of Conscience, a group of New York City public schools teachers concerned about market-based reforms and the future of public education, was the group referenced by Beth Dimino in her letter to the Comsewogue School District indicating her decision not to administer state assessments this year.  The group includes Jia Lee.  Ms. Lee, of the MORE Caucus, was in Washington DC this week to testify in the U.S. Senate on NCLB.  Lee, who once again will be refusing to administer state tests this year, was articulate and brilliant in her heroic sppech.  Have a watch below.  It’s well worth the five minutes.
http://www.c-span.org/video/standalone/?c4524583

Sheldon Silver Arrested

Sheldon Silver, who likely would have provided the only resistance to Cuomo’s agenda that will destroy public education, has been arrested today on federal corruption charges.

Silver, the long time speaker of the New York State Assembly, will likely be replaced with a Cuomo ally.  With the Republican controlled Senate backing Cuomo’s agenda, it is now reasonable to expect that the governor will get everything he demanded yesterday.

The last layer of defense for students, teachers, and citizens who value locally controlled schools is the opt-out movement.

A Message From Beth Dimino

A message from PJSTA President Beth Dimino…

Governor Cuomo is wrong. He used junk science today to support his nonsensical theory that public education in NY is broken and that he alone has the “fix”. We can and will dissuade him of that opinion by each of us doing some or all of the following;

1) Refuse to allow your child to take the 3-8 tests.

2) Convince everyone you know to refuse to allow their child to take the tests. Last year, 60% of the students in Comsewogue did not take the tests and therefore the teachers could not be judged based on the student’s scores. No students take the test = No data to judge teachers. The opt out movement is the single best option to stop Cuomo’s testing agenda. Direct people to nysape.org for answers to their questions and a printable version of the IREFUSE letter.

3) Go to your local school board meetings and demand that your BOE pass resolutions against testing and in support of teachers and parents who refuse the tests.

4) Write letters, call, fax, and/or email your representatives and tell them some or all of the following;
Cuomo’s public school agenda is wrong, how public education is working in your district, that you will not support them if they do not support local control of your  district schools, that funding should not be tied to testing or a teacher evaluation system, that you are refusing to allow your child to take the tests because they serve no educational purpose, and that forcing children to sit through developmentally inappropriate tests for the sole purpose of evaluating teachers is hurtful to students and an ineffective way to judge effective pedagogy.

5) Get on Face book and Twitter daily for the purpose of staying up to date on current educational issues and to push a pro student, teacher and public education agenda. Go to thepjsta.org and read my emails daily for current PJSTA happenings.

I appreciate your support of me and my choice to refuse to administer the tests. I took this stand in defense of you and our students and yes I am fully cognizant of the personal risks that are attached to this choice.  Together, we can and will stop the Governor and the deformers!

In Solidarity,
Beth Dimino

Cuomo Lays Out Plan to Destroy Public Education

We have seen this coming for a while, but that didn’t lessen the sting of Governor Cuomo’s plan for public education that he laid out in his 2015 State of the State and budget proposal today.

Via Capitol Confidential…

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s combination State of the State and budget proposal includes tough reforms that would overhaul the teacher evaluation formula, require two more years on the job for a teacher to attain tenure, and make it easier to fire ineffective educators.

On evaluations, Cuomo wants to see the current formula — 20 percent based on state testing, 20 percent on a local standard, and 60 percent based on qualitative measures such as classroom observation — swapped out for a system that gives equal measure to state testing (or, in certain cases, some other standard that measures work over an academic year) and 50 percent based on at least two observations performed by an administrator, an independent evaluator or an appointed faculty member at a SUNY or CUNY school of education.

While teachers can now attain tenure after three years, Cuomo would push that to five years and require them to maintain ratings of “effective” or “highly effective.”

On teacher removal, Cuomo would reform the “3020-A” hearing process by creating a presumption in favor of administrators in cases of educational incompetence, and an expedited 60-day process for teachers accused of physical or sexual abuse of a child.

In another shot across the bow of state teachers unions, Cuomo wants to increase the current cap on charter schools by 100 schools (to 560), and dissolve the regional caps to make that number a statewide tally. New York City has only two dozen charter slots remaining under the current inventory.

To summarize the overall education proposal…

  • Cuomo wants the APPR revamped so that 50% of a teacher’s evaluation is based on standardized test scores.  The other 50% will be based on observations which could be conducted by an administrator, an “independent observer,” a SUNY or CUNY professor, or a “trained independent evaluator.”  Of course if the state test score shows you to be ineffective the observation doesn’t matter and you are judged to be “ineffective.”  Two consecutive such ratings results in your dismissal.
  • Cuomo wants to extend tenure for probationary teachers.  In order to receive tenure probationary teachers would now need to earn five consecutive “effective” or “highly effective” ratings.
  • The charter cap has been increased to allow 100 new charter schools to steal money from public schools.
  • The tax cap becomes permanent under Cuomo’s budget proposal as well.
  • Schools that are “failing schools” for three consecutive years would have their control turned over to “turnaround experts.”
  • The establishment of a backdoor voucher plan pushed by the Catholic Church described here by Reality-Based Educator.

Overall Cuomo called for an increase in state aid of $1.1 billion.  However, there is a catch.  If the legislature does not pass Cuomo’s reform agenda the budget will only include an increase of $377 million.  In other words Cuomo is bribing the state lawmakers to pass an agenda that is abusive to children and that seeks to eviscerate our profession.

Plenty more to come on this…