Happy Days for Opponents of Ed Deform: John King Replaces Arne Duncan

Call the King appointment "Building the national opt-out movement one education secretary at a time."

While some of our troops in the battle against ed deform, particularly those in NY State where King served as state ed commissioner, have been tearing a their hair and rending their clothing at Duncan's replacement - ACTING, I offer cheers for the man who had such an impact in fostering NY State in having the largest opt out movement in the entire nation with 20% opting out (Let's pray for a doubling - or more - this year.)

Some people say we must put up a battle to stop King from being appointed permanently - which will never happen anyway because Obama does not want to see King in front of a Republican committee that will tear him to shreds on common core. King can slog through the next 15 months in the acting role. I say, "celebrate."

King was an executive at Uncommon Schools, which, as Michael Fiorillo points out, "is among the most revanchist of boot camp, behavior modification, student-shaming charter schools."

Someone should ask Hillary if she supports King's appointment and let the merriment begin. Ask Bernie too. Maybe Trump also.

And since King was replaced by Elia can we long forward to Elia replacing King if he crashes and burns?

Here is the NYS Allies for Public Education www.nysape.org

statement.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 2, 2015

More information contact:

Lisa Rudley (917) 414-9190; nys.allies@gmail.com

NYS Allies for Public Education www.nysape.org

US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Steps Down - New Yorkers Declare John King No Better

The announcement of John King to replace Arne Duncan as US Education Secretary is bad news for the nation, according to NYS Allies for Public Education, a coalition of more than 50 parent and educator groups throughout the state. 

“Throughout his term in New York, John King was notorious for his complete disconnect from parents, teachers, and school officials. His blatant disregard for concerned parents and educators fueled opt outs to historic numbers. Our only hope is that this bizarre move by the White House will have the same effect across the country, spreading the Opt Out movement to every corner of the nation,” said Jeanette Deutermann, Long Island public school parent and founder of Long Island Opt Out. 

“Former NYS Commissioner of Education John King helped create an educational disaster for New York and our children are still feeling the devastating effects,” said Eric Mihelbergel, Erie County public school parent and co-founder of NYSAPE.

“John King was relentless in pushing the inappropriate Common Core standards, flawed curriculum, defective exams, and an invalid teacher evaluation system on our schools, all of which caused more than 200,000 parents to opt out of the state exams last spring,” said Lisa Rudley, Westchester County public school parent.

“King was a catastrophe as New York’s Education Commissioner.  Throughout his administration, his policies were on a constant collision course with parents, teachers and good sense,” said Bianca Tanis, Ulster County public school parent and teacher.

Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, and co-chair of the Parent Coalition to Protect Student Privacy explained, “John King stubbornly refused to listen to concerns of parents, Superintendents, and legislators on the need to protect student privacy, and under his leadership, New York was the only state in the country in which it took an act of the Legislature to compel the state to pull out of inBloom.”

Marla Kilfoyle, a teacher and public school parent on Long Island, pointed out: “King left in disgrace in December 2014, with no political capital remaining and few supporters left.   A year before the state's teachers voted ‘no confidence’ in him and called for his removal by the Board of Regents.”

“The fact that Obama would choose to double-down on the test-driven agenda that King espoused, when polls show voters rejecting these policies in increasing numbers, indicates just how unwilling this administration has been to acknowledge the depth of  parents' opposition to Common Core and high-stakes testing,” said Nancy Cauthen, NYC parent from Change the Stakes.

Jessica McNair, Oneida County public school parent and educator concluded, “This new distressing development makes it even more important that NCLB must be revamped as soon as possible by Congress to take power out of the hands of the Department of Education.  Otherwise, John King will continue to wreak damage on our public school children and their schools.”

 

Change the Stakes: New York City Public School Parents Deserve to be Heard by Education Commissioner John King

NYC’s one million public school students account for a third of the state’s total public school enrollment. Yet not a single forum will be held in New York City.  Change the Stakes calls on state legislators who represent NYC students, their parents and their teachers to demand that the Board of Regents schedule a public forum in each of the five boroughs. .... CTS

Another shot at King from our great parent activists at CTS:

Unacceptable!  Commissioner King opting out of any NYC forums; Our Parents Deserve to be Heard http://wp.me/p1Tx83-vG

STATEMENT: NYC Parents Deserve to be Heard

October 22, 2013 · by Grassroots Education Movement · Bookmark the permalink. ·

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                           Contact: changethestakes@gmail.com

New York City Public School Parents Deserve to be Heard by Education Commissioner John King

New York City – It is unacceptable that State Education Commissioner John B. King, Jr. and the State Board of Regents are planning to hold a series of 12 forums across the state to meet with parents and educators to discuss the Common Core Standards and other education reforms, yet not a single forum will be held in New York City. NYC’s one million public school students account for a third of the state’s total public school enrollment. Change the Stakes calls on state legislators who represent NYC students, their parents and their teachers to demand that the Board of Regents schedule a public forum in each of the five boroughs. These forums must offer meaningful public discussion in which education officials acknowledge and respond to questions and concerns rather than dismissing them or explaining them away.

The Regents scheduled the forums, along with four additional events to be broadcast on public television, after Commissioner King abruptly cancelled four  state-sponsored PTA town hall meetings after parents responded angrily at being given little time to speak at an event in Poughkeepsie. King later alleged that the meeting was “co-opted by special interests whose stated goal is to ‘dominate’ the questions and manipulate the forum.” The newly scheduled forums will undoubtedly be much more tightly controlled than the original large, town hall meetings.

King’s outrageous statement about “special interests” and the shutting down of public debate are indicative of a much larger problem: New York State education officials, from the governor on down, have completely disregarded the genuine, sincere and deeply-felt concerns of parents about what is in the best interests of our children. It is demeaning, demoralizing and downright undemocratic to attempt to silence parents, teachers, principals and others who, day in and day out, witness the harmful effects on children of poorly formulated and rashly implemented state education policies.

Commissioner King: The public school parents and educators of NYC deserve to be heard.

According to an October 18th press release from the State Education Department:

The first forum will be held in the Albany City School District on October 24. Other locations for the forums are Rochester, Westchester, Suffolk County (2), Nassau County (2), Schroon Lake, Binghamton, Amherst, Syracuse, and Jamestown. 

 The four PBS televised forums will be in Syracuse -WCNY (November 7), Plattsburgh-WCFE (November 20), Binghamton- WSKG (date tba) and Rochester- WXXI (December 3). King said more PBS forums will be scheduled.

 ###

 Change the Stakes (changethestakes.org) is a group of parents and educators working to reduce the harm caused by high stakes-testing, which we believe must be replaced by valid forms of student, teacher, and school assessment.

NY State Ed Comm John King Enters Witness Protection Program

DUCK, INCOMING:

Commissioner John King faced a tough crowd while meeting with parents last night. (GS in Brief)

Reformy NY Education Commish gets taken to the woodshed by parents. .. The Chalkface

King has "suspended" the four remaining forums on Common Core after last night's town hall in Poughkeepsie (including Oct. 15 in Garden City).

Commissioner King Gets Spanked.
King gets the Cathy Black treatment.
Unbelievable that King spent an hour and 40 minutes talking about our children but didn't want his children mentioned for one minute. So what if they do Common Core--they don't get tested and their teachers don't get fired!
King loves to speak in front of friendly groups like E4E. Not this time.

It is interesting (unfortunate) that the NYS PTA is backing the commissioner, not the parents!  Just like the UFT!!  Certainly the people at the meeting are on our side.
I love the title of Chris Cerrone's blog post, "Reformy NY Education Commish gets taken to the woodshed by parents."
We need to do everything we can to fan the flames.

The word late last night via Facebook is that the remaining four NYS PTA town halls were "suspended"--presumably because of the Oct. 10 meeting! I know Long Island was ready to go with signs in hand and a strategy to get people signed up to speak and make the most of the allotted time. 

The video needs to go viral so that it will get NYC media attention; I was telling the LI parents there should be a press release about the fact that the Oct. 15 event was suspended and should link to the video.

Perdido St. School blog uses Danielson to meadure King 's rigor and excellence.
http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2013/10/in-which-i-use-danielson-rubric-to.html?m=1

http://criticalclassrooms.wordpress.com/2013/10/12/nysed-commissioner-john-king-runs-away-lessons-from-the-trenches/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=P_Eiz406VAs#t=160

Naison Calls for John King's Removal

We've had 3 DUD NYSTATE Ed Comms in a row since 1995. Time to move on.

Dear Speaker Silver and Assembly Member Nolan

    It is time to remove John King  Education Commissioner of the State of New York. Commissioner King purposely decided to score state tests in such a way as to insure that the majority of the students in the state failed. The result was collective humiliation- of ELL students, of special needs students, of students living in poverty- and intimidation of the state's teachers, who future careers will be determined by these scores. The test results were a conscious, malicious "set up"-- and a power grab- by the Commissioner to close more schools, remove more school boards, and put more power in the hands of the state government at the expense of local school districts.

    This is an abuse of power by an unelected public official.  All throughout the state, teachers, parents, students and concerned citizens are rising up to say that excessive testing is squeezing the heart out of public education in our state, driving out the best teachers and principals, and destroying the confidence and morale of our most vulnerable students.  It is time elected officials heard their voices. It is time those who serve the public say no to policies that when all is said and done, amount to collective child abuse.

  I understand that some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the state support Commissioner King's policies. However, I urge you to hear the voices of all those quietly suffering because, through no fault of their own, they, their children and the students they teach, have been labeled "failures."

  Please work for Commissioner King's removal and put in his place someone who actually listens to the voices of teachers, principals, parents and students.

Sincerely

Mark D Naison

Professor of African American Studies and History

Fordham University

Michael Winerip Lays Waste to NY State Ed Department Testing Program

The headline in today's eagerly awaited Michael Winerip column in the NY Times – 10 Years of Assessing Students With Scientific Exactitude – probably tops all that went before in terms of how far Winerip's tongue is planted in his cheek in the use of the words "scientific exactitude" in describing a decade of NY State Ed Department testing.

He lays waste to former Commisioner Richard Mills - one of the worst people in the world - by capturing some of his rediculous comments after every single test fisaco.

He gives a little credit to current regent head Merryl Tisch – the 2nd worst person in the world – when he says:

Finally someone — Dr. Tisch, the chancellor of the Board of Regents — has the sense to stand up at a news conference and say that the state test scores are so ridiculously inflated that only a fool would take them seriously, thereby unmasking the mayor, the chancellor and the former state commissioner.

Tisch deminstrates she can count to two

Tisch is anything but a fool - though she may be a crook in the way the wives of billionaires can be - call her a moral crook. (Check her family connections below to the K12 online operation the Times exposed last week WITHOUT MENTIONING THE TISCH CONNECTION plus other exposures we have done over the years.) If she didn't do something she would have had zero credibility and zero reputation so she saved her ass, which has brought her into some mild conflicts with her next door neighbor Michael Bloomberg.

Winerip took a nice shot at Tisch back in August as chronicled in this Ed Notes piece:

Ed Notes Online: Is the Evil Meryl Tisch Even Eviler than Eva?

Aug 16, 2011

Michael Winerip wrote Monday on the evil and the good at State Board of Regents which ostensibly should control the absolutely evil NY State Ed Dept but even eviler (out eviling Eva) Regent boss Meryl Tisch has taken all ...

How well did her choice - David (Give Cathie Black a Waiver) Steiner do before running for the hills after just 2 years? His successor John (I love any charter no matter what) King also comes in for some biting satire in the Winerip piece:

NOVEMBER 2011 New York is one of two states in the nation to post statistically significant declines on the National Assessment tests. John B. King, the education commissioner, says the state is certainly going in the wrong direction, but has a plan to spur students’ achievement. “The new Common Core Learning Standards will help get them there,” he says.
DEC. 19, 2011 Nearly a quarter of the state’s principals — 1,046 — have signed an online letter protesting the plan to evaluate teachers and principals by test scores. Among the reasons cited is New York’s long tradition of creating tests that have little to do with reality.

But my favorite part of the article is this hit at Tweed slug Shael (I can find a way to justify ecery single bad policy decison we make) Polokow-Seransky

Mr. Polakow-Suransky says that even if city test scores were inflated, he is not aware of any credible research calling the city’s 64 percent graduation rate into question.

FEBRUARY 2011 The city’s 64 percent graduation rate is called into question. The state announces a new accountability measure: the percentage of high school seniors graduating who are ready for college or a career. By this standard, the graduation rate for New York City in 2009 was 23 percent.

--------------
I've has the Merryl Tisch "I am not a crook" photo on the sidebar for quite some time. I was going to remove it but thought: It will always come in handy.

From Ed Notes May 4, 2011:

Tisch Family Connections to K12 Board and Charter School

K12’s board is headed by Andrew Tisch, co-chair of Loew’s Corp,  the brother in law of Merryl Tisch, who is in turn, the head of the NYS board of Regents. Meetings of the NY state education department are often held in the Loew’s headquarters, which is run by Merryl’s husband,  James.  http://www.loews.com/loews.nsf/OfficeOfPresident.pdf

The NYS Regents are currently considering eliminating all seat time requirements, and to allow the rapid and essentially unregulated expansion of online learning. In addition, K12 has submitted a charter application to the Regents/NYSED, called “NY Flex charter school” in D2, that has gone through the preliminary approval process by NYSED.  (EDNote: Pedro Noguera who is considered by many to be on the anti-ed deform side chairs the SUNY charter committee. There have been charges he approves every charter request.)

In  an earlier iteration/application, K12 was clearly running the school, now the application has been revised to indicate that the school will “contract” out with K12 for services, including curriculum, assessments, teacher training, and other support and services as requested by the Board and staff of the school.   

This recasting of the application is to avoid legal conflicts w/ the new NY state charter law which bars for-profit companies from operating charter schools. Here is an article about this controversial issue: http://www.citylimits.org/news/articles/4185/pedagogy-and-profits-charter-school-bid-raises-questions

MORE TISCH ON ED NOTES:

Ed Notes Online: Dishonor Among Thieves: Merryl Tisch Wrote ...

May 15, 2011

Ed Notes has learned that the letter Governor Cuomo supposedly wrote to Merryl Tisch and the State Board of Regents calling for a change from weighing teacher evaluations based on state tests from 20 to 40% was in fact ...

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/

Ed Notes Online: Is the Evil Meryl Tisch Even Eviler than Eva?

Aug 16, 2011

Michael Winerip wrote Monday on the evil and the good at State Board of Regents which ostensibly should control the absolutely evil NY State Ed Dept but even eviler (out eviling Eva) Regent boss Meryl Tisch has taken all ...

Ed Notes Online: The Political Underbelly of Ed Deform: Enormous ...

Nov 03, 2011

Now as an opponent of using tests to measure everything I hate to jump on the necks of Merryl Tisch and her neighbor Bloomberg - no, I really don't hate to do it - they lived by the sword and should die by the sword. ..

===============
Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.