More on the uncharacteristically friendly audience faced by Commissioner King in Brooklyn

credit Steven Mazie

The Brooklyn stop on Commissioner King's "listening tour", as described here,  featured one of the few friendly audiences he has faced, overwhelming supportive of the state's agenda of Common Core and high-stakes testing.  Many parents were brought in early by StudentsFirstNY, given a special room inside Medgar Evers College and allowed to sign up for 44 of 45 speaking slots by 5:30 PM, even though NYSED had said the doors would not be open till 6 PM.

The attendees praised the state’s policies and the Common Core in similar terms, while apparently referring to a printed sheet of instructions, according to this Epoch Times article, and held up nearly identical signs.  The article also reveals that many of the teachers at the Brooklyn event were from the Uncommon chain of charters, which King himself used to run. Coincidence?

While King had accused critical audiences he faced elsewhere as having been manipulated by “special interests”, he said he saw no special interests at work in Brooklyn.  

I wonder if the Uncommon teachers happened to mention that their schools, as well as Success charter chain, run by Eva Moskowitz, whose top aide Jenny Sedlis, now runs StudentsFirst NY,  turned down the unreliable APPR teacher evaluation system based heavily on test scores that King has foisted on all public schools throughout the state. 

This system has been a subject of much criticism by parents and educators, including by more than one third of all the principals in the state. Liz Phillips, principal at PS 321, specifically criticized the APPR system at the Manhattan forum as being deeply flawed, hugely unfair and leading to much damage at her school and others throughout the city.