BTF, parents picket Regent’s home in protest over state standards, tests
Bennett is focus of protest over state standards, tests
By Denise
Jewell Gee |
News Staff Reporter | @DeniseJewellGee | Google+ , Mary
Pasciak |
News Education Reporter | @MaryPasciak | Google+ December 9, 2013
Link for video of protest: http://bcove.me/2y9zapsa
About
two dozen teachers and parents marched outside the Town of Tonawanda
home of Regent Robert M. Bennett on Monday to show their displeasure
with the way the state has implemented new learning standards and
tests designed to measure them.
The
Buffalo Teachers Federation protest lasted only 35 minutes, but the
teachers hoped to send a strong message by choosing to picket on the
sidewalk outside the home of a state education official.
“What
I want is for Mr. Bennett, and all of the Board of Regents, to be
aware that teachers and parents alike are not happy with the
implementation, are not happy with the amount of testing,” said
Joanie Cavanaugh, a teacher at Hutchinson-Central Technical High
School who was among the protesters.
The
residential location was an unusual one during a national “Day of
Action” that featured rallies and news conferences organized by
teachers unions, educators and community groups across the state. The
events also included a panel discussion on education in West Seneca.
The BTF picketing of Bennett’s house appeared to be the only event
in the state that was staged at the home of a public official.
“This
is not just about teacher evaluations. This is about what we’re
doing to our kids,” BTF President Phil Rumore said, pointing to the
Common Core standards being pushed by State Education Commissioner
John B. King Jr. “The Regents are the ones who have allowed
Commissioner King to take these steps that are detrimental to our
students.”
Bennett,
who has represented Western New York on the state’s Board of
Regents since 1995 and is now chancellor emeritus, said he was
disturbed by the tactic of picketing his home.
“It’s
disappointing, to say the least,” Bennett said before the protest.
“A phone call would have sufficed. If Phil wanted to talk to me or
yell at me, he could have just picked up the phone.”
Bennett
was not at the house during the protest. The pickets walked quietly
on the sidewalk, carrying signs that read, “Our students are not a
test score.” They ended the event by chanting, “Hey, hey, ho, ho,
Emeritus Bennett has got to go.”
Seven
years ago, the BTF joined other unions in the city in picketing the
homes of members of Buffalo’s state-appointed financial control
board. But Monday’s protest was the first time in Rumore’s more
than 30 years as BTF president that the union picketed the home of an
education official.
New
York State United Teachers is calling for increased funding for
public schools, a de-emphasis of standardized testing and a
three-year moratorium on high-stakes consequences tied to those
tests.
Gov.
Andrew M. Cuomo last year tied school districts’ increases in state
aid to their implementation of teacher evaluations, with 20 percent
of teacher ratings based on student performance on state tests.
Districts had the option of using state tests, locally developed or
selected tests, or methods other than tests to measure teacher
effectiveness for another 20 percent of each teacher’s rating.
NYSUT
spokesman Carl Korn said he was not aware of the BTF’s plans to
picket Bennett’s house.
The
Buffalo District Parent Coordinating Council said while it shares the
BTF’s concerns with how Common Core standards have been implemented
and “excessive use of assessments,” it does not support
protesting outside “anyone’s private residence.”
“For
the sake of our children,” a statement from the group read, “it
is imperative that we work TOGETHER to get this right!
Educators
in West Seneca took a different approach to mark the day. Panelists
in an education forum in the West Seneca Central School District
touched on a wide range of issues – including high-stakes testing
and the creation of a new statewide system for student information
that uses a nonprofit education group, inBloom, to process and store
data.
“The
point was to make it clear that those who have expressed their
opposition to high-stakes testing and to inBloom do not represent a
vocal minority,” said West Seneca Superintendent Mark J. Crawford.
“There are lots of people who are concerned, and the concern, I
think, is increasing throughout the state.”
New
York is one of 45 states to adopt Common Core, which establishes
learning standards that are intended to better prepare students for
college and the workforce. The pace at which New York State has
implemented Common Core has been widely criticized by parents and
teachers.
New
York, along with Kentucky, was the first state to implement tests
aligned with Common Core. Last year, students in third through eighth
grades took state tests based on the Common Core. This year, high
school tests will start to be aligned with the Common Core.
Many
teachers and local school officials across the state have complained
that the state did not provide schools with adequate support to
implement the upgraded instructional standards.
Crawford
said speakers at the West Seneca event did not oppose the Common Core
standards but raised concerns about the way they have been
implemented.
“There
are a lot of things that myself and others feel are useful and
desirable in the Common Core,” Crawford said. “The problem has
been that it was not completely developed, and it wasn’t given to
teachers completely, and then our students are tested on material
they haven’t had.”
The
West Seneca event was not planned in connection with the BTF protest.
While
Rumore complained that schools are “testing our kids to death,”
Bennett said the amount of state-required testing has remained
relatively constant for many years.
“The
fact is, the state tests have not increased at all in 10 years,”
Bennett said.
“That’s
a mischaracterization,” Rumore said. “The state has made it a
requirement for teacher evaluations that students be tested. I know
it’s a local option, but they’re the ones that have been pushing
this testing from the beginning.”
Rumore
said his greater concern, more than the amount of testing, is what he
referred to as the “premature implementation of Common Core.”
Bennett
said the Common Core is designed to make students competitive. The
state establishes learning standards; each district decides what
curriculum to use.
“The
Common Core are learning standards and not a curriculum,” Bennett
said. “They were developed in 2008 and 2009 by a national council.
They’re not new.”
Related story, Buffalo News, December 12, 2013:
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