Mulgrew's Epiphany - And Hypocrisy

Blatantly self-serving. The UFT's situational approach to issues should be called Firmly Wavering... Fred Smith

The recent push back by the unions - teachers and principals- feels so self serving and risks dividing parents/students from educators further if all the messaging is about the damage to them ( via the evaluations), when the recent graduating class ( and all others after them) has only known the HST regime imposed by Bloomberg over the past 10 years..... Anon Parent

You are so right Fred. They never stood up when kids were punished /damaged by being identified by test scores, when they were denied music and art and foreign language so that they could improve scores. They never stood up when their people got after school jobs working with kids not to improve their education, but their scores in endless hours of boring test prep after school. They never stood up when there were jobs offered to improve scores which we all knew were phony.
....Loretta Prisco

Of course Mulgrew and Randi say they are against testing NOW. I can pull out Ed Notes resos at the Del Ass back in the late 90s that Unity opposed. I won't go into all the gory details of the UFT history re: testing. I think MORE is doing something on that.

The UFT is always trying to send mixed messages so they can say they are on all sides, never leading but following. Here is Fred's full response followed by more of the debate on the Change the Stakes listserve.

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Folks,

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/test-mayoral-candidates-article-1.1444953

Ever notice how crappy testing was acceptable to the UFT when teachers could get bonuses (financial incentives) from DOE for higher test scores (pre-2009). Now, that teachers are being punished--teacher evaluations, effectiveness ratings, tenure decisions, published names--the union leader finally finds the tests offensive?

And I don't recall the union ever urging teachers not to score the tests in days they could grab per session money to apply slippery rubrics to the tests' open-ended questions.

Ever notice how Mulgrew keeps the need for parent involvement in what happens to their kids out of the discussion? Don't want to give a voice, real structure or a chance for unity to emerge from the adults who have the most precious stake in reforming our educational system.

Blatantly self-serving. The UFT's situational approach to issues should be called Firmly Wavering.

My two cents. Happy 5774.
---- Fred Smith

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Agree w/ Fred and Loretta!

The recent push back by the unions - teachers and principals- feels so self serving and risks dividing parents/students from educators further if all the messaging is about the damage to them ( via the evaluations), when the recent graduating class ( and all others after them) has only known the HST regime imposed by Bloomberg over the past 10 years.

Not sure how you "message" that we cared when it affected your kids and the curriculum but we never actively pushed back until it affected our jobs...( especially when we publicly celebrated, cashed in, and gamed the system).

Just like the UFT is embracing the CCS ( while lamenting the lack of curriculum and training) and the whole college and career ready framework so they embraced accountability by test score all these years.

Watch the usual suspect allies- see where they stand on the CCS/college and career readiness (measured by test scores and the reason we need CCS) issue, since they are the same ones that actively undermined parent push back on testing (and local control and parent empowerment) for these many years.

Anon parent