Saturday, January 4, 2014

What If Progressives Sit Out the Common Core Protests at NYC's Rockefeller Center Monday, 1/6?

There is a statewide Common Core protest against New York Governor and his Common Core policy, at Rockefeller Center, it is at WNBC-TV, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Monday, January 6, 2014, 4 to 6 pm.
See the press release with media protest centers, by city, at the end of this blog.

Do we shy away from big box developer protests because there might be some wealthy NIMBYs in the crowd?
In the 1960s would we avoid participating in civil rights legislation advocacy because Republicans were often more reliable than Democrats (who were laden with the reactionary segregationist southern Dixiecrats) because Republicans represented big business?

We should participate in the protests because this is the opportunity to present, to the public and to the media, the progressive perspective on the Common Core States Standards.

If progressive education unionists and other education progressives do not speak, the public will not hear the progressive points:

Common Core represents the neoliberal corporatization of curriculum and high-stakes testing, as few other issues do; even CCSS architect David Coleman has cited the tests as inseparable from Common Core
Common Core's fundamental education crisis premise offers us the opportunity to raise the undiscussed very real issue of poverty that greatly determines educational outcomes --see here, here or chapter 10 of Diane Ravitch's instant classic, Reign of Error
Common Core represents the further disrespecting and deskilling of the education profession; see this latest beaut of pre-packaged scripted lessons
Common Core represents the displacement of funds for school staff and legitimate resources --creating great strains on district budgets-- by unneeded coaches and curricular guides for a hyped curriculum
Common Core deadens student interest and engagement; the developmentally inappropriate standards are already building a generation of students demoralized and demoralized from school; see here and these videos by a teacher union local president charging that the Core is child abuse and by this Long Island therapist and this PhD. child psychologist attesting to the deleterious execution of the Common Core
Common Core's chief New York State mouthpiece, John King, has no understanding for parents' concerns with the Common Core as evident in his recent letter resolutely standing by the Common Core, this much is even conceded to by the New York State United Teachers' spokesperson
Common Core does not have the support of rank and file teachers; it only has the support of Weingarten, Mulgrew who only think a bigger and better curriculum will resolve the problems of the Common Core.

And we reached this place undemocratically, as the Gates Foundation paid for this, and engineered the CCSS creation with unprecedented evasion of the democratic-republican process. Bill Gates' manipulation of the media and the government reflect the process described in the above cartoon. But what if the left refuses to defend democracy and education? How will the public hear our critique?

What if we never make these points, some people amenable to the last point might stray to the right instead of the left, because the left never spoke to their concerns of the corporate highjacking of democracy? Not everyone arrives, easily swingable to the left; they have to be drawn there.

So, in the face of all the protest, why are John King and Board of Regents Chancellor obstinate on the Common Core? Could they be on the take? Plenty of the shills, liberal or conservative, are on the take from the Gates Foundation, as Mercedes Schneider has documented, here on education organizations and unions, here on lobby organizations, here on school districts, here on universities and here on a range of foundations. So, should we not protest Monday? Our silence Monday might suggest acquiescence to Gov. Cuomo, Comm. King and Chanc. Tisch.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Re: Governor Cuomo Common Core Media Rally

Date: Monday January 6th, 2014
Time: 4:00PM - 6:00 PM
Location: Statewide locations (listed below)

Contact: Deborah Lang 631-331-8546 or Sara Wottowa at No Common Sense Education: www.nocommonsenseeducation.com

Details attached:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dh5UUcnMMIFNO77kWcfKpflgkPuWOdHUH4__vgK3bFc/edit

AT VARIOUS LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT NEW YORK STATE - MONDAY JANUARY 6, 2014: Now that the holidays are behind us and our legislators are planning to return to Albany for the 2014 session next week, we’ve noticed media coverage of Common Core has quieted down significantly. Our mission is to ensure this quiet time is not misinterpreted as complacency.

Governor Cuomo is scheduled to deliver his State of the State Address on January 8th. We need to apply statewide pressure on him to specifically address the failures of education reform in New York. Doing so would get this issue front and center in the media again.

Starting on Thursday, January 2, we begin the New York New Year Blitz on Governor Cuomo and the Legislature. We will call, fax, email, Tweet, and snail-mail Governor Cuomo and ask him why he has turned a deaf ear on our voices, why he refuses to acknowledge the failure of Common Core in New York State, and why he has not spoken one word about education reform in response to our testimonies and appearances at NYSED’s and Senator Flanagan’s hearings around the state. We will do the same to our legislators (Assembly and Senate) and remind them that we are still here, we are still not happy, and that they work for us! They need to ignore Senator Flanagan’s proposed legislation and do something that throws Common Core out of New York.

Public protests and picketing at local/regional television news stations across the state would put us front and center with a unified message to the Governor that this issue isn’t dead, and that Senator Flanagan’s report of his statewide hearings was an abysmal misrepresentation of the shortcomings, experiences, and objections presented by parents, educators, administrators, and early childhood development experts. On Monday January 6th beginning at 4 p.m. outside each TV news station listed below, we will make our voices heard. We will call on the media to get our message out. We will bring signs, placards, and bullhorns. We will apply as much pressure and generate as much noise as humanly possible. We will post this activity to every social media outlet and make it go viral. After the Governor’s Address on the 8th, we will get on the phones, we will get on our computers and we will flood every New York State Senator’s office (both locally and in Albany) with the message to get this fixed and not stop until it is. We will keep the heat turned up high until someone steps forward with a REAL common-sense solution to this mess. It is only the majority of people statewide that will show Senator Flanagan how wrong he has been about the Common Core and his interpretation of the message we have been sending.

Governor Cuomo’s Contact Info
Governor Andrew Cuomo
Office of the Governor
NY State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224
Phone: 518-474-8390
Fax: 518-474-1513
Email: Gov.Cuomo@chamber.state.ny.us
http://www.governor.ny.gov/
www.facebook.com/GovernorAndrewCuomo
www.twitter.com/NYGovCuomo @NYGovCuomo Use #StopCommonCore and #fixNYschools
NY State Senate: http://www.nysenate.gov/
NY State Assembly: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/

TV Station Rally Locations for January 6th:

Albany
WTEN (ABC Network)
341 Northern Blvd
Albany, New York 12204
518-433-4286

Binghamton
WIVT-TV (ABC Network)
203 Ingraham Hill Road
Binghamton, NY 13903
607-771-3434

Bronx & Brooklyn
News 12 Bronx/Brooklyn
930 Soundview Ave
Bronx, NY 10473
Phone:(718) 328-7504

Buffalo
WGRZ (NBC Network)
259 Delaware Avenue
Buffalo,NY 14202
716-849-2222

Elmira
WETN-TV (NBC Network)
101 East Water Street
Elmira,NY 14901
607-733-5518

Long Island (Nassau & Suffolk Counties)
News 12 Long Island
1 Media Crossways
Woodbury, NY 11797
516-393-1200
E-mail: LIDesk@News12.com

Lower Hudson Valley
(Rockland & Orange Counties)
News 12 Lower Hudson Valley
235 West Nyack Road
West Nyack , NY 10994
Phone: 845-624-8780
Fax: 845-735-1601
E-mail: news12hv@news12.com

Manhattan
WNBC-TV
30 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA
NEW YORK,NY 10112
212-664-4444

Plattsburgh
WPTZ (NBC Network)
5 Television Drive
Plattsburgh, NY 12901
518-561-5555

Rochester
WHEC-TV 10 (NBC Network)
191 East Avenue
Rochester,NY 14604
585-546-5670

Syracuse
WSYR-TV (ABC Network)
5904 Bridge Street
East Syracuse,NY 13057
315-446-9999

Utica
WKTV (NBC Network)
5936 Smith Hill Rd
Utica,NY 13502
315-733-3477

Watertown
WWTI-TV (ABC Network)
1222 Arsenal Street
Watertown,NY 13601
315-785-8850

Westchester
News 12 Westchester
6 Executive Plaza
Yonkers, NY 10701
(914)378-4800

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NYC Education Activism Calendar

Get involved with the fight to defend public education!

Oppose & resist Cuomo, DeBlasio, DeVos, Farina!

- The MORE caucus UFT's important upcoming events:
  
  Friday 1/5/18 4:30-6:30pm
  City As School
  16 Clarkson St
  Manhattan
  We will strategize about resisting DeBlasio's plans to close or merge 14 Renewal Schools.
- Map: https://www.google.com/maps/place/16+Clarkson+St,+New+York,+NY+10014/@40.7291091,-74.0082884,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c25992ac002507:0x68aa91fb40bff351!8m2!3d40.7291091!4d-74.0060997

Sign the Petition: Terminate Comm. John King's Employment

New York State Board of Regents: Terminate the Employment of State Education Commissioner, John King

2. Petition by
  Coalition for Justice in Education

PETITION TO TERMINATE THE EMPLOYMENT OF NYS EDUCATION COMMISSIONER, JOHN KING
(references substantiating each charge available at www.coalitionforjusticeineducation.com)

John King has served as New York State Commissioner of Education since 2011. During his tenure, the quality of education in NY has continued to decline; particularly in poor and rural districts.

1 The Commissioner’s solutions rely upon blindly accepting NCLB, RTTT and Common Core policies and implementing more high-stakes, standardized testing for evaluation of students and teachers,

2 implementation of an untested national curriculum,

3 undemocratic corporate management strategies for operating schools,

4 more privatization of schools

5 and insistence that poverty-related conditions are not an excuse for low student achievement.

6 Furthermore, Commissioner King: · Refuses to lend credibility to staff and community-voiced concerns that much of Common Core curriculum and testing is developmentally inappropriate for students, and that NYS teachers received no significant training for the implementation of Common Core,

7 Refuses to allow meaningful dialogue about Common Core tests by imposing a “gag order” on teachers and administrators, preventing them from discussing test questions among themselves or with students,

8 Supports policy to allow private corporate vendors to have access to personal student data, without parental consent, for the purpose of marketing educational services,

9 and ·Remains silent on the stress-related suffering by many students taking recent Common Core tests,

10 Promotes the reduction of the reading of fiction in favor of an increase in informational texts (50% informational texts in elementary school, and 70% for 12th grade readings by 2014)

11 with the generally predicted impact of a further reduction in the joy of reading and learning for all students especially those with learning challenges,

12 Continues to advocate more high-stakes, standardized testing, despite research concluding that it is ineffective for motivating students and increasing their learning,

13· Continues to ignore positive research results for the use of performance-based assessment, such as portfolios, performances, presentations and exhibitions, by more NYS schools,

14· Advocates for more closings and privatization of low-performing schools,

15 despite research indicating that charter schools are generally less effective than public schools,

16 and promote more racial and class-based segregation,

17 and create negative impact on community morale, motivation and development,

18· Advocates the use of poorly designed, ineffective corporate strategies, such as APPR, which de-professionalize teaching,

19 We, the undersigned, strongly believe that New York State’s education reform agenda is fundamentally flawed and must be re-directed in a humanistic, research-based manner; directly counter to the direction Commissioner King has taken. New York State children, parents and teachers need an education commissioner who passionately supports and actively works for:
· De-concentrating the impact of poverty in classrooms and schools,
· Institutionalizing performance-based assessments,
· Ending the obsessive use of high-stakes, standardized testing,
· Developing creative, alternative curriculum, assessments and schools,
· Assisting poverty-stricken, low-performing schools through collaboration with teachers, parents community members and students, rather than through closures and privatization,
· Ending corporate reform,
· Using school practitioners and constructivist-oriented consultants for developing and implementing curriculum & assessments,
· Implementing a moratorium on the Common Core Curriculum,
· Transforming the NYSED to serve as helpful consultants to schools and school districts, rather than enforcers of top-down policies that are disrespectful to teachers and harmful to students.

Therefore, we, the undersigned respectfully urge the NYS Board of Regents to terminate the employment of John King as NYS Education Commissioner, and immediately search for, and hire a candidate who strongly reflects the characteristics described above.

Cent. NY English Teacher's Lament: 'I am a teacher, and I am tired'

By Savanna Kucerak, English teacher, Homer C.S.D., as published by NYSUT:

"I am a teacher, and I am tired"

Tired of coming home every night angry, abused, and insulted.

Tired of being treated as a child, as a robot, as a stepping stone for politician$ and publi$hing companie$ to make more money.

Tired of ignorance littering the air: “the Common Core is an exciting time in education!” or “APPR is just showing off the wonderful work you already do!”

Tired of being told to “wait it out,” that the “pendulum will swing the other way eventually” while witnessing the casualties pile up — casualties with names and dreams and futures and the RIGHT to the BEST EDUCATION we can give them.

Tired of being afraid to stand up for what I know is right for our kids and our country because I am afraid of losing my job and being unable to pay my bills.

Tired of my superiors being afraid to stand up for what they know is right for our kids and our country because they, too, are afraid of losing their livelihood.

Tired of wanting to be better, volunteering to do additional work, and watching helplessly as any progress I have made is brushed aside by the newest educational reform acronym.

Tired of being told, “Ohh, sorry, but my hands are tied,” accompanied by a half smile, a shrug of the shoulders.

Tired of spending hours of my life documenting and sorting and filing instead of revising and learning and improving.

Tired of wasting taxpayer money on binders and tabs and computer paper and ink.

Tired of being a taxpayer, watching as my money is spent on binders and tabs and computer paper and ink instead of STUDENTS and STUDENTS and STUDENTS and STUDENTS.

Tired of paying my student loan bills and nostalgically remembering that I chose to be a teacher, that I wanted to teach, blissfully ignorant of what lay ahead.

Tired of my two degrees and experience and individuality being ignored and devalued.

Tired of knowing what’s best for my students, but being told NOT to do it.

Tired of telling the best and brightest young people NOT to be teachers — and meaning it.

Tired of being told that if I love literature, then I’d better choose another profession.

Tired of Googling “what can I do besides teach?” only to close out of the browser every time, knowing there is nothing I’d be better at or love more than what was formerly known as “teaching.”

Tired of living in a country where my dream job no longer exists – where “teacher” is now synonymous with data-collector, test-prepper, script-reader, automaton.

Tired of grappling with the notion that I now have a job instead of a life or even a career.

Tired of disillusionment poisoning even the best of days.

Tired of telling my students that they will be heard if they support their arguments with evidence, yet knowing in my heart that that is a lie.

Tired of worrying about my own future children, who will either be numbers under this developing “educational” system – or dealing with the wreckage of a failed, expensive national tragedy in which all the best teachers have either abandoned this sinking ship or remain on board as empty shells, whispered voices, gasping for air.

I am tired, but I am still here – and there are many of me.

Join us. Say something. Do something.

Our collective future depends on it.”

S.I. parents chafing under the Common Core perversion of curriculum

The Common Core - that's that toxic result of ill-minded state and federal policy plus a tone-deaf collaborationist union leadership.

"My son made a comment to me the other day. He asked, 'Did I become stupid?'" said his father, James Hardison. "We're supposed to be inspiring students, and giving them what they need to be successful. For a 10-year-old child to feel discouraged like this, something is not right." --from SILive.com, 3/28/13, powered by the Staten Island Advance.

Culture of testing takes a toll on Staten Island pupils and their families (photos/video). [Ed.: It's not mere testing, it's testing to support the Common Core, foisted upon America by the unelected, non-educator, David Coleman.]

MORE -Our working conditions are our students' learning conditions

Check Out New Yorker's App on Inequality and the Subway

This cool app at the New Yorker's website, "Inequality and New York's Subway," takes each MTA subway/elevated line and matches stations with U.S. Census-provided household income.

The results are stark. Along the 6 train in the upper half of Manhattan, the results vary from over $150,000 to under $25,000.

New York City has a problem with income inequality. And it’s getting worse—the top of the spectrum is gaining and the bottom is losing. Along individual subway lines, earnings range from poverty to considerable wealth. The interactive infographic here charts these shifts, using data on median household income, from the U.S. Census Bureau, for census tracts with subway stations.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

What If Progressives Sit Out the Common Core Protests at NYC's Rockefeller Center Monday, 1/6?

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