My inBloom presentation at last night's Hudson Valley Community College Common Core forum

credit:  Meredith Gavin via Twitter

Last night, there was a terrific forum on privacy and the Common Core at Hudson Valley Community. It was a pleasure and a privilege for me to be able to have time to brief legislators and those in the audience on what I have learned about inBloom over the last year, and to answer their questions.  

The forum was hosted by Assemblymember Steve McLaughlin, and  the panel also included Assemblymembers Al Graf, Jim Tedesco, Pete Lopez, Ed Ra and Patricia Fahey; the event was also moderated by principal Tim Farley. The powerpoint I delivered is below; below that is a YouTube video of the entire event.

InBloom Presentation-12 18 13-Hudson Valley Community College

On theYouTube video below, the forum starts at 11 minutes in.  My presentation starts at 22:50 minutes in, and I answer questions from legislators and the audience until 1 hour and 15 minutes in.

At about 1 hr 44 min, Dr. Sandra Stotsky speaks about the Common Core through Skype.  Dr. Stotsky is the designer of the highly esteemed Massachusetts standards in English Language Arts; and was a member of the expert panel that reviewed the Common Core standards.  She refused to sign onto them because of their poor quality. During the forum, she calls for civil disobedience for opting out of Common Core exams and field tests next spring, and asks the elected officials to pass legislation allowing parents to opt out.

At 1 hr: 55 min. Meredith Gavin, a parent of a a high-functioning autistic child, talks about how inappropriate and damaging the Common Core and its exams are for special education students.  Unfortunately, a subsequent speaker, Paul Snyder, repeats a common myth that the Common Core was developed by left-wing radicals -- though this is completely untrue.

One of the best testimonies is from Katie Zahedi, a principal for 12 years, at 2 hr:30 min in, who explains many of the flaws with the policies of the State Education Department, including how the privately funded Regents Fellows are "running the show" even though many of them have never been educators.