The Offical Website of the PJSTA

Peter Kohler of Cablevision has called out the Board of Regents and the state legislature for their bungled implementation of the Common Core.  Thanks to Maurizio Milana who caught this on News12 and passed along the link.  Below is the transcript of the editorial.  Click here if you’d like to watch the video.

The state’s Common Core rollout has been compared to building an airplane and flying it at the same time.

Long Island Regent Roger Tilles termed it worse than the “Obamacare” rollout. Now Tilles will join a Regents task force charged with finding out why things went so wrong. He’s a good choice.

Tilles has been a persistent but often lonely voice speaking out about the inept implementation of rigorous Common Core standards that he vigorously supports. He has condemned all the excessive testing, especially testing English language learners and those with learning disabilities at an inappropriate grade level.

He was alone in condemning the rush to implement a deeply flawed teacher evaluation system.

All of this was done to gain federal Race to the Top funds. But most turned a deaf ear to Tilles’ warnings, especially Chancellor Merryl Tisch and Education Commissioner John King. They finally got more than an earful from parents and educators at forums across the state, including some contentious sessions on Long Island.

While it’s good that Tisch established this task force, it’s also time to take a fresh look at how the Regents themselves performed. Why did they fail to provide oversight over state education officials responsible for this train wreck?

Perhaps reforms need to start with the Board of Regents. Maybe it’s time to consider electing the Regents, as Rockville Centre Principal Carol Burris recently recommended in Newsday.

With the notable exception of Tilles, experience suggests that the Regents–all appointed by state legislators–are out of step. They should be made accountable to the people.

In his State of the State address this week, King Andy Cuomo proposed that New York should develop a merit pay system that would allow the state’s “highly effective” teachers to earn bonuses of “up to $20,000”.  He didn’t specify where the money would come from, nor did he mention that merit pay has been tried many places across the country over the last century and has always failed to have any impact on student learning.  But why should King Andy worry about pesky things like research and facts when deciding what to force onto the peasants of his kingdom?  You can be sure by “highly effective” he means teachers who score the best on the infamously flawed, junk science APPR that he helped force into place.  Also note that “up to $20,000” can be as little as $1.00.  Something tells me that this isn’t the sort of deal that would be good for the large numbers of great educators across our state.

One teacher has already started this petition, asking legislators to reject Cuomo’s proposal.  Head on over and sign it.  Thanks to Rob Pearl for the link.

Diane Ravitch wrote today about teachers in Massachusetts who rejected merit pay that they were being given from the Gates Foundation.