Post by Chris_Wendt on Feb 7, 2014 21:45:42 GMT -5
In a strident move of raw intimidation, the political leadership of both houses of the NY State Legislature is threatening to oust the four members of the Board of Regents who need to be re-elected this year, unless changes are made to the Common Core. In a related and parallel move, key legislators have promised to change the Common Core, if the Regents won't do it. This is fairly serious posturing by the political leadership of our state. I want to be careful, here, not to come off as an advocate of this kind of naked political power play, especially as it concerns education. One of the strongest and best features of New York government is that education is run the Regents, and NOT by politicians. Unfortunately, that separation may be going by the boards over this Common Core rift, and I am definitely NOT in favor of such changes or plays.
However, this was both predictable and predicted (by me) and is a direct result of the Regents Chancellor and the Commissioner of Education turning loose crappy Common Core Assessments two years ahead of schedule, and then glibly pointing to the (also predictable and predicted--by them) crappy test results all across the State last year as what they considered as being a necessary part of transitioning to the Common Core Curriculum. What Chris Wendt predicted was that parents and educators, and their Legislators, especially Senate Education Committee Chair John Flanagan would not simply accept the high failure rates resulting from last years state assessments. Several of the school districts in Flanagan's Senate District had the worst failure rates in ELA and Math Assessments in the entire state.
Read the article in Newsday (link).
Hold on to your seats...here we go!
Regards,
Chris Wendt
However, this was both predictable and predicted (by me) and is a direct result of the Regents Chancellor and the Commissioner of Education turning loose crappy Common Core Assessments two years ahead of schedule, and then glibly pointing to the (also predictable and predicted--by them) crappy test results all across the State last year as what they considered as being a necessary part of transitioning to the Common Core Curriculum. What Chris Wendt predicted was that parents and educators, and their Legislators, especially Senate Education Committee Chair John Flanagan would not simply accept the high failure rates resulting from last years state assessments. Several of the school districts in Flanagan's Senate District had the worst failure rates in ELA and Math Assessments in the entire state.
Read the article in Newsday (link).
Hold on to your seats...here we go!
Regards,
Chris Wendt