Tepid recommendations from the Regents taskforce on the Common Core & Ken Wagner admits little or no change in the offing

Commissioner King and Ken Wagner of NYSED

UPDATE: Even the slight suggestion that teachers might be able to appeal their "ineffective" ratings in their APPR evaluations based upon the flawed roll-out of the Common Core curriculum and modules was too much for the full Regents -- given the Governor's criticism -- so they eliminated that proposal today when the full Board voted.  More on this at the Times Union, and a video of a rather pained-looking Merryl Tisch explaining how these changes show how they really "listened" to parents is below.

The most accurate story about the recommendations of the Regents task force on the Common Core was reported by WNYC/Schoolbook, which called them "tepid" and "tweaks.” 

Nevertheless they enraged Gov. Cuomo who called them “too little too late,” even though his own Commission on the Common Core has not yet met.   

It seems Cuomo objects to the proposal that teachers can bring up their district’s inadequate implementation of the standards if they are threatened with being fired as a result of an “ineffective” rating they may receive from the junk science, value-added teacher evaluation system that he pushed into law. 

Yet these proposals will NOT satisfy the concerns of parents whose children’s education is being wrecked by developmentally inappropriate and rigid standards, overly prescriptive curricula and excessive testing; see the NYSAPE press release  . Neither do they appear to assuage the concerns of teachers; see the NYSUT release here.  Excerpt:

Instead of listening to parents and educators who are grappling with the fallout from the State Education Department's disastrous implementation, the task force dismissed their concerns with a report that, in the end, adds up to a 'we know best' collection of minor adjustments," said NYSUT President Richard C. Iannuzzi, who noted - contrary to a comment by the governor - that the Regents did not pause or delay anything that is not already in law…. On teacher evaluations, what the Regents put on the table - allowing teachers to point out failures in their district's implementation of the Common Core - is nothing new. It is a provision that already exists in state law and which we planned on pursuing with or without 'permission' from the State Education Department," Iannuzzi said.

As further evidence this is what Ken Wagner of NYSED wrote today to his “data” working group:

 From: Ken Wagner <KWAGNER@mail.nysed.gov>
Date: Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 7:43 AM

Yes, as you will see if you read through the Regents materials, the Common Core standards remain in place for both grades 3-8 and high school.

The only things that would change for State assessments based on these proposals is the availability of an assessment overlap in Geometry next year (similar to the ELA and Algebra overlap this year) and the lower cut score (partial proficiency, similar to the existing 65) for graduation purposes prior to the class of 2022.  We are preparing a short field memo to clarify these issues. 

EXCEPT as Carol Burris points out, they had NEVER proposed raising the cut score to graduate above 65.

As further evidence, the most independent and savvy Regents, Kathy Cashin of Brooklyn and Betty Rosa of the Bronx, voted against these proposals, for making insufficient reforms to the current regime.

See below, head Regent honcho Merryl Tisch, trying to explain her way out of the mess they are in, having satisfied neither parents, the unions or the Governor with their proposals.

Sign a petition to Cuomo and the Regents now about teacher evaluation!

In response to Mayor Bloomberg's pressure to eliminate seniority protections for teachers , Gov. Cuomo has introduced legislation to impose a new teacher evaluation system next year.

It is good that he has resisted the mayor's pressure, since study after study shows that teaching experience matters in terms of student outcomes, and installing an alternative system of layoffs based largely on arbitrary ratings would undermine the professionalism of the teaching force and the quality of instruction in NYC schools.

Yet the legislation that the Governor has proposed that would rush into effect a new teacher evaluation system next year would do more harm than good., as many experts, including the National Academy of Sciences and the Economic Policy Institute, have warned of the potentially damaging consequences of implementing test-based teacher evaluation systems.

This danger was also revealed in a recent New York Times column that showed how an excellent NYC teacher is likely to be denied tenure and leave teaching altogether – a major loss to her school and its students – because of the unreliability of the test-based system. Thus, any new teacher evaluation system must encompass multiple sources of evidence, including peer and principal input, parent and student surveys, and alternative assessments that include student work.

Moreover, the Regents Task Force on Teacher and Principal Evaluation is almost exclusively composed of teachers and administrators, and does not appear to have a single public school parent on it. Nor does it include any experts on statistics and testing.

Please sign our letter, co-sponsored by Class Size Matters and Time out From Testing, urging the Gov., the Regents, Commissioner Steiner and the Legislature, with a copy to Michael Mulgrew of the UFT, to delay implementing any new teacher evaluation system until we can be sure that it is thoughtfully devised and carefully piloted, with numerous safeguards to ensure that excellent teachers are not mistakenly denied tenure or other job protections.

We also ask that parents be appointed to the taskforce, along with independent experts on testing and statistics who are not under contract to either SED or DOE.

After signing, please forward to your friends and post to your Facebook page.

thanks!