Opt-Out in NY: Now a Civic Duty not just a Parental Right #edreform

I used to believe opt-out was a parental right. I now see it as a civic responsibility in New York.

What is underway is a direct attack on public education under the guise of raising standards.

I have no real problem with the CCSS, especially when states like NY addressed many of the short comings, through customization. It is the destructive effects of accountability reform that parents and teachers must resist.

What Cuomo is doing by using artificially constructed cut scores “aligned” to college readiness is creating a standard that is impossible to reach using math that every single educational research organization has come out as saying leads to error. This is creating the narrative that scores are low becuase schools are bad. Schools are bad because teachers suck. Therefore lets close down public education and privatize schools.

Teachers need to be evaluated. I would expect nothing less in any job. It is more critical, in fields such as education, when you get job protection under union contract. It cost districts hundereds fo thousands of dollars to hire and retain teachers. You want to ensure your community investment,

What Cuomo did to teacher evaluation, however, is criminal. Basic evaluations on 50% of growth on test is the first problem. As stated these methods are scientifically unsound. Since you cannot get anything but an ineffective if the  students  do not show “growth” the test scores count for a 100% and not the already too high 50%.

Then when he makes it impossible for teachers to present other evidence to establish their effectiveness the governor compounds the problem. Look at the list of evidence not allowed in teacher evaluations: lesson plans, goals, student surveys, etc. These are tools other plans use to balance the shoddy science of growth measures.

Then you get to the outside evaluators (disclosure: I work with districts in teacher evaluation and serve as an outside evaluator). Outside evaluators do score with higher reliability but the cost in Cuomo’s plan will cripple small districts. I also would never use a single point observation. A better role for third party is to serve as a quality check on principals and evaluatore. If a small sample of teachers is selected across the scale, rather than every teacher cost can be held in check and teachers get protected from the inherent bias in administrator evaluations.

Then you get to the fact that this edreform was baked into a “budget” deal. Cowardice representatives felt compelled to vote because schools would have been decimated without the funds.

Is it time for the fight to end? No. This is just the beginning. We need to fight the war on common sense. We need to fight the war Albany has declared on public education.

From Lady Liberty to the Lakes rRgions we must shout battle cries of, “Opt-Out.” We need these tests to fail if we want public education to succeed.