The Offical Website of the PJSTA

Posted on October 16, 2013 by thepjsta

What are Pols Saying About NYSED’s King?

A few state legislators have begun to weigh in on John King’s cowardly acts from last week.

Dear Dr. King,

I was greatly saddened to read about your decision to suspend four planned PTA-sponsored Town Hall Meetings on the Common Core.Common Core and the standardized testing mandates we’ve placed on our schools, teachers and students are among the most significant challenges ever faced by our public education system. They deserve a full airing, and those involved — parents, students and teachers in every part of the state — must have the opportunity to be a part of the process and to have their concerns addressed.One of the recurring complaints on common core and testing is that parents and teachers were not brought in to the planning process. To now refuse to hold future meetings would only reinforce the perception that State Education Department is forcing the curriculum without proper planning and public input.I think the Friday night meeting in Poughkeepsie can be taken as a teachable moment. I am certain that the Town Hall events can be structured in such a way that they provide for a useful give and take, and I strongly urge you to restore these community meetings. Further I am hopeful that you will attend an education forum I am hosting with other State Legislators on October 22, at Kingston High School from 5 pm to 7 pm.Your attendance would help assuage the frustrations, fears and concerns of the parents, teachers and school administrators in my district.Sincerely,

State Senator Jack Martins has a lengthy reply here, and ends with this…

At the moment New York needs a caring pragmatist willing to address real concerns raised by caring parents and educators who see a system being manipulated from above to the detriment of their children. Unfortunately, we have John King. He should immediately reschedule these forums or he should immediately resign.

State Senator Timothy Kennedy urged King to reschedule the meetings.

It should be mentioned that State Assemblyman Steve Englebright initially called for King’s resignation in August. He was ahead of the curve!

The state senators representing Comsewogue have been curiously silent. However, they say a picture speaks a thousand words…

Surprise! NY’s Teacher Evals Don’t Work!

File this under “least surprising news of the year”. A story in The Journal News reports that New York’s teacher evaluation system is pretty much a failure and a waste of millions and millions of dollars.

“Our fears were realized,” said Harrison Superintendent Louis Wool, who was president of the Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendents when the study was started in the spring. “The first round of assessments did not accurately measure the value of teachers whose students are in poverty, in special education or speak limited English. We are concerned that we have spent countless hours and millions and millions of dollars to produce results that are not comparable across the state and do not inform teacher practice or student learning.”

Countless hours and millions of dollars, not to mention the fear and intimidation that has become prevalent in many schools throughout the state as teachers are bullied into teaching explicitly to the state tests.

Bruce Baker, a Rutgers professor and expert on school finance adds…

“For the state to continue to enforce these measures in the face of contradictory evidence is over-the-top ridiculous.”

Ah, but this is New York. Home of corporate reform-loving plutocrats like Merryl Tisch, corrupt politicians like Andrew Cuomo, and their lackey John King. They’re not going to let things as inconsequential as evidence, wasted time, or wasted tax payer dollars stand in the way of corporate reforms. The show must go on!

King, responding to NYSUT’s call for a three-year moratorium on using high stakes testing to evaluate teachers, called the request a distraction and added, “We all agreed to the evaluation system: the governor, the Legislature, NYSUT and the state Education Department. We committed to the evaluation system knowing that we were going to implement the evaluation system alongside a change in the standards through the work on the Common Core.”

Which brings us to another question. Why is NYSUT, the AFT, and the UFT calling for a three-year moratorium? A garbage evaluation system today will still be garbage in three years. Junk science is junk science. What really should have happened is that they never should have agreed to an evaluation system that evaluates teachers based on standardized test scores.

But alas, they did and we are stuck with a system that a study now proves does not work.

Ianuzzi, Mulgrew, and Cuomo sing the praises of their evaluation system.

It’s Wednesday, Don’t Forget to Wear Red for Public Ed!

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Posted on October 15, 2013 by thepjsta

Firing John King isn’t Enough

When Cuomo/Tisch water boy John King is fired they’ll just look for a new lackey to do their dirty work.

By now it is clear that John King will likely be fired as the New York State Education Department Commissioner. Let’s recap why…

King was speaking last Thursday at what was to be the first of several PTA Town Hall meetings intended to act as a Q & A on the Common Core State Standards. The meetings were supposed to be an hour of King presenting and an hour of questions from the audience.
King spoke for over an hour and a half. When parents started to ask questions and and express anger during the remaining time, King spoke down to them and continuously told them that they needed to be quiet and listen to him. That made them angrier.
On Friday King cancelled the remaining PTA Town Hall meetings scheduled for the rest of the state.
King released a statement in which he referred to parents and educators as “special interests.”

In the interim nobody has come to King’s defense. Not his friend Andrew Cuomo. Not his good pal Merryl Tisch. Not his first day of school friend John Flanagan. Not surprisingly they have been in hiding since King went off the deep end.

While King’s friends have been off cowering in remote corners of the state, educators and parents have become further incensed. First at being so arrogantly dismissed by King and then by being labeled “special interests” by the guy who bows down to the all mighty Pearson. Their outrage is beginning to reach a fevered pitch and cannot go unanswered for much longer.

By this time it is almost certain that King will get the ax. Deservedly so. He has almost zero experience as an educator and is clearly in over his head. The powers that be, namely Cuomo and Tisch, will see to it that King is made an example of. But that won’t be enough because the real problem here isn’t John King. John King is merely a lackey. He is the water boy for the big players in the education deform movement. He exists simply to do the dirty work of Cuomo and Tisch. If he is fired he will simply be replaced with another reformy type.

Without John King we will still have the Common Core. Without John King we will still have the same high stakes testing. Without John King we still have Race to the Top, a junk science APPR, and a crippling tax cap. Without John King we are left with the same industry of trash that we have now… minus John King.

Cuomo and Tisch are the big guns. They are the ones setting the agenda. Cuomo taking money from hedge fund managers as he seeks presidential glory in 2016. Tisch as she seeks to further line the pockets of her fellow plutocrats.

So by all means, call for the firing of John King. Contact all of your elected officials about it. Scream and yell. Get mad. His behavior was an outrage and he deserves to be fired. But don’t stop there. Because that should just be the tip of the iceberg. 2014 is an election year. For Cuomo, for Flanagan, for Ken Lavalle, another enemy of public ed, and for the entire state legislator. If you really want to enact change, begin by voting them all out. A King firing is a victory, but a minor one at that. It is an action that should serve only to embolden teachers and parents. A sign that it’s time to ratchet up the heat on the ones pulling the strings.

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Posted on October 15, 2013 by thepjsta

The PJSTA Calls for the Resignation of John King

As a Member of the New York State Allies for Public Education The Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association Calls for the Resignation of NYS Commissioner of Education John King

Billed as an opportunity to “gather information, ask questions and share concerns with NYS Commissioner of Education John King”, the NYS PTA sponsored Town Hall Meeting on the Common Core and privacy issues was anything but. After speaking uninterrupted for 1 hour and 40 minutes, Commissioner King allowed parents 20 minutes to speak. During this time, parents expressed concerns and attempted to share stories regarding the impact that the CC has already had on their children. Commissioner King repeatedly interrupted parents and refused to answer parent questions or address their concerns. Commissioner King subsequently cancelled all future scheduled town hall meetings, called concerned parents “special interests groups” and stated that the forum was “co-opted by special interests whose stated goal is to ‘dominate’ the questions and manipulate the forum,” King went on to state that “Essentially, dialogue has been denied.”

When a public official such as Commissioner King refuses to participate in the democratic process and refuses to hear the concerns of parents while simultaneously carrying out educational policies that affect thousands of children, he is no longer fit to carry out the duties of the NYS Commissioner of Education. Commissioner King, we would argue that it is because of you that “dialogue has been denied.”

According to award-winning Principal Carol Burris of South Side High School in New York, last week’s Town Hall meeting in Poughkeepsie, NY highlighted the fact that “The New York State Education Department has lost its moral authority.” Burris states. “One might imagine that if John King had first been a principal of a New York City public school, or the superintendent of a district, he would have become skilled in dealing with emotional and boisterous groups… Leaders must listen deeply, learn and respond. They must be willing to consider alternative courses, and even in loud crowds, hear truth.”

Anthony Cody, nationally recognized educator, public speaker and writer for Education Week says, “Speaking truth to power, as these parents did, is an intoxicating thing. It delivers to both speaker and witnesses a shiver, an awakening to the fact that we do not need to suffer in silence, or allow our children to suffer without objection. Those in power may cancel future hearings, but these parents’ voices are ringing out, like a bell that cannot be un-rung.”

We would say to Commissioner King that in this age of apathy, you should be proud to represent a state where parents have taken the time to inform themselves about the current education reforms and have taken the time from their busy schedules to engage with public officials such as yourself. Aren’t these parents the kind of critically thinking, involved citizens that our public schools hope to create? We would argue that a competent leader does not run away from concerned parents, or call them a “special interest group.” Commissioner King, you are a disgrace to the field of education. It is not surprising that in NYS, your lack of teaching experience would not allow you to be granted tenure in a public school.

The NYS Commissioner of Education sends his own children to a private school, a school that is not legally bound to carry out the same testing and data sharing mandates that he is subjecting thousands of public school children to. He has stated, “I believe that every parent should have the right to choose the school that is right for their child.” Commissioner King subjects public school students to harmful practices while maintaining that parents do not have the right to refuse these mandates. This certainly does not afford all parents “the right to choose the school that is right for their child.” Commissioner King is guilty of promoting inequitable education policies that essentially create a different set of educational opportunities and experiences available to those with the means to afford private school and those who attend public school. This is an attack on the freedoms and rights that are afforded to every American citizen and on public education itself.

The Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association calls for the immediate resignation of Commissioner of Education John King as he is unfit to carry out the duties of his position competently and he is no longer able to conduct himself in a manner that is consistent with the principles and ideals of the American democracy. The PJSTA urges parents, educators and concerned citizens to:

Spend 10 minutes adding these emails and phone numbers to your contacts. Call, email, and fax Governor Cuomo daily. CC all emails to Senator John Flanagan, Speaker of the House Sheldon Silver, Senator Dean Skelos, Assemblywoman Nolan, and Senator Jeffrey Klein along with the entire Board of Regents. Call your local Regent and let them know that:

New Yorkers deserve a COMPETENT leader who listens to and engages his or her constituents
New Yorkers deserve a COMPETENT leader who can handle the concerns and dissenting opinions of educated and involved New York parents.
John King has let abusive testing and data sharing practices dominate the implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards
John King runs away from the public.
John King calls concerned parents “special interest groups.”
John King is not competent to be the NYS Commissioner of Education