The New York Post made me smile this morning (didn’t think I’d ever utter those words together) with this article, claiming that if elected mayor Bill de Blasio is going to be a problem for our God awful governor. Particularly appealing is the supposed stance de Blasio will take against charter schools. Color me skeptical, given the fact that every politician of prominence tends to cave to school deformers like Cuomo. Still it’s nice to dream.
Our friends at the MORE Caucus have begun to circulate a petition calling for a moratorium on the new teacher evaluation system in New York City. The PJSTA stands in solidarity with our brothers and sisters from MORE and opposes any teacher evaluation system based upon standardized test scores. Please take a moment to sign their petition. To read a bit about their evaluation system click here.
Just a reminder that every PJSTA member should be writing their letters to Senator John Flanagan. To recap, Flanagan, whose top campaign contributor last year was Michelle Rhee‘s Students Last First with a contribution of $10,300, is the head of the New York State Senate’s Education Committee. He is holding hearings around the state to inform his committee about how the education “reforms” are working. You know, the ones based on junk science? The ones that are leading Governor Cuomo to put schools on death row? Those “reforms”. The hearings are by “invite only”. Guess who isn’t invited? That’s right, real teachers. However, we can submit written testimony. Any written testimony must become part of the permanent record and all members of the committee will receive copies of it. Therefore we can make our voices heard in that manner. It is important that we all participate in this action and encourage our friends to do the same. To download a form letter for submission visit Students, Not Scores! After you finish your letter please give it to a building rep.
Finally, at a recent Rhee town hall event a student had this to say…
One year ago yesterday the Chicago Teachers Union went on strike over many of the same issues that teachers across the United States are facing.
Here is CTU President Karen Lewis talking about why they fought…
A few good reads from around the web…
School Finance 101’s Bruce Baker with “On Death Penalties for Schools and Misplaced Outrage”
Ravitch discusses “Why Hedge Fund Managers are So Interested in School Reform”
Kris Nielsen reviews Davis Guggenheim’s TEACH, that aired Friday evening at 6:00 pm on CBS (My apologies… Sue Niver gave me the heads up on it but I didn’t have a chance to link to it before it was shown!). Nielsen says it delivered the “same tired infomercial”
EduShyster discusses how Chicago is planning to continue closing more public schools and then significantly expanding their number of charter schools. Then they will staff those charter schools with temp workers Teach for America “teachers”. The Badass Teachers Association’s Mark Naisson calls it an “a declaration of war on teachers, students, and hard pressed neighborhoods, and a throwback to the ugly years before the Great Depression when union busting was the American Way.”
A few links for your reading pleasure before classes start on Monday morning…
The best article I have read all week (and why you should be following what’s happening in Philly).
Cuomo wants to double down on failing schools and take dramatic action. (We know what that means).
Ravitch with Why Hedge Fund Managers Are So Interested in School Reform… she touches on the public school hating Democrats for Education Reform and Barack Obama
A group of activists wants the CTU’s Karen Lewis to run for mayor against the public school hating Rahm Emanuel in 2015.
AQE’s response to Cuomo’s “death penalty” comment.
WaPo’s Valerie Strauss with Seven Facts You Should Know About the Common Core.
A brand new site to help follow the war on public ed: Public School Shakedown
In case you want to share it with friends or other teachers who had to sit through analyzing test results today, here is Dr. Rella’s Opening Day Presentation in all it’s glory…
Via our friends from the MORE Caucus of the UFT…
Our friends at NYSAPE are running a “Send the Scores Back!” campaign. If you are a parent of a child who took the state tests this should be of interest to you.
New York State believes in REAL students, not FAKE test scores. This year’s test scores are invalid and provide NO useful information about student learning. Parents across New York State will come together to mail these BOGUS test scores back to Commissioner King on Saturday, September 28th, 2013.
These test scores are invalid because….
1.Flawed test construction:
-Tests were too long; even high achieving students did not finish
-Vague questions and reading passages full of commercial logos and distracting product placements
-Passages from test maker Pearson’s text books used, thus giving some students an advantage
2.Formula used to determine “cut scores” is flawed and not supported by scientific research: (“cut scores” are the cut-off scores for determining proficiency)
-Cut scores for the assessments were not developed until AFTER the tests were administered and scored. THIS SUGGESTS THAT THE DATA IS HIGHLY VULNERABLE TO MANIPULATION.
-NYSED identified the top 8-20th % scores on the NAEP, SAT and PSAT and used these scores to work backwards and determine the scores a child must receive on state assessments in grades 3-8 to eventually meet these benchmarks. In other words, in order to be proficient on a NYS test, ALL students must achieve scores comparable to the top 8-20% of students in the country. This is too high and sets children up for failure.
-Research that shows that high scores on these tests are not effective indicators of performance in college. High school grades are in fact a better indicator of college performance.
-Tests like the NAEP and the SAT are not curriculum measures and therefore, are not appropriate for determining cut scores on the NYS ELA and Math tests.
3.No oversight or transparency in scoring or test construction:
-The tests were not and will not be made available in their entirety for public inspection, and were destroyed after being scored and sent back to the state.
-Teachers involved in scoring the tests and those hired to make recommendations to the Commissioner of Education regarding the formulation of cut scores were made to sign non-disclosure agreements.
4.Not designed to improve student learning
-Due to test secrecy and the fact that scores are received after the school year has ended, there is no opportunity for teachers to review the tests and provide students with extra support in areas of weakness.
5.Test scores vary too much to be considered valid:
-Over the past seven years, proficiency scores on the NY math and ELA have been characterized more than once by fluctuations of almost 30 points. When scores vary this widely, the reliability of the data is questionable.
Be sure to “Like” NYSAPE on facebook and share the news of this campaign with your friends.
Yesterday Governor Cuomo shared how he believed that “failing schools” (failing based on his rigged tests) should receive the death penalty.
Today NYSUT President Dick Ianuzzi responded with this tweet…
Sad Cuomo uses “death penalty” when speaking about schools. Especially insensitive on Labor Day weekend and as school year starts Shameful.
— Richard Iannuzzi (@RichardIannuzzi) August 31, 2013
But perhaps the best response of all came, not surprisingly, from Reality-Based Educator on the Perdido Street School Blog. Please read the entire post. It’s worth it. But the highlight is right here…
But Cuomo has ratcheted up the level of animosity and hostility here by using such inflammatory language.
It is high time we return the favor.
If Governor Cuomo thinks it is time some schools be given the “death penalty” for struggles that are often beyond their means to fix, then it is time for teachers of all political ideologies to get together and help pull the plug on the 2014 Cuomo re-election plan and the Cuomo 2016 presidential plan.
Andrew Cuomo is a thug and a bully and a crook, that we’ve known for a while.
Now, after the “death penalty for schools” statement, he is also a war criminal against public schools.
It is time to put an end to his Reign of Terror.
The Official Website of the PJSTA 