Governor Cuomo's Steath Charter Cap Expansion

 
Governor Andrew Cuomo has buried in his proposed budget an expansion of the charter cap in New York City. This shows that the Governor is still beholden to the Chharter industry and their education reform supporters despite his claims that he supports public education in the State..

Buried in budget documents released late Tuesday was a proposal to make room for more charter schools in New York City. In 2015, the state set a limit on how many charter schools could open in New York City in the years ahead: 50. Authorizers hit that cap last year. But the total number of charters available has actually been slightly higher, since a 2017 deal allowed authorizers to reissue 22 charters originally issued to charter schools that closed before July 2015.

This week, Cuomo proposed expanding that number, offering a new pathway to open charters as state lawmakers show no signs of wanting to increase the charter cap. His plan would allow authorizers to re-issue as many abandoned or leftover charters as they have available, though it wasn’t immediately clear how many that amounted to.  Is it 10, 25, 50?

In addition, the Governor's budget once again short-changes the schools by only increasing funding less than what the State Board of of Regents proposed.  His proposed spending increase is less than half of what the state’s education policymakers and advocacy groups have called for. It also fell $175 million short of the year-over-year increase the governor suggested last year. 

Chalkbeat has an article about the Governor's proposed budget Here.

Mayor De Blasio And Chancellor Carranza's Student Discipline Policy Is A Disaster

One of the worst policies of the Bill de Blasio administration is his student discipline policy.  Principals are no longer are allowed to suspend violent and misbehaving students without approval by Tweed and since the Mayor and Chancellor frowns on suspensions, far too many students are sent back to class to continue the reign of terror,  Instead the violent or misbehaving student is required to attend the useless restorative justice session which they find as a joke.

To hide the unsafe climate at schools, the Mayor and Chancellor have made it clear that school administrators are not to report incidents and to quietly handle it at the school.  The result is that fewer incidents are reported and the Mayor and Chancellor can claim that the schools are safer.  Of course, if you ask students and teachers you would hear a different story. They would tell you that there is widespread bullying and intimidation as well as threats to students and staff.

The latest incident that school administrators tried to cover up was a middle school girl fight in the cafeteria at MS 158 in Bayside Queens.  The school administration never reported the fight and it was only after a parent of the girl who was beaten up and reported the attack to the police who then arrested the other girl, did the school administration report the incident.  You can see the fight Here.  In another incident, last year,at the same school a girl was sexually harassed numerous times and groped by a boy who exposed himself to her and the school administration did not take any action.  The boy decided he could sexually harass the girl whenever he wanted and finally the girl told her parents who called the police and he boy was arrested.  The school also failed to suspend a male student who sexually molested another male student.

At the District 26 meeting, a teacher cited the new discipline code for lowering morale and leaving teachers unable “to effectively manage classrooms,” adding that staff are “no longer respected and supported.”  Even the head of the usually dead-quiet principals’ union, Mark Cannizzaro, recently sounded the alarm, writing Carranza: “In many schools, misconduct is on the rise, leading some students to believe there are little or no consequences for disruptive, openly defiant and even violent behavior.” Principals and staff feel “unsupported” by system higher-ups, he complained.

Chancellor Carranza went to the District 26 Town Hall at MS 74 and when parents confronted him about the lax student discipline policy he refused to respond and quickly left the meeting without addressing the parent concerns.  The Chancellor's cowardly action shows that it may be time to find a new Chancellor who puts school safety first.  Read the New York Post opinion article on the Chancellor's cowardly action at the MS 74 Town Hall.

NYC Graduation Rate Continues To Show A Racial Gap

The New York City high school graduation rate inched up to 77.3% and of course Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Richard Carranza hailed it.  However, they were silent on the racial achievement gap.  Black (74%) and Hispanic (72%) were lower than Whites (85%) while Asians(88%) had a 3% higher graduation rate than Whites.

Of all kids who began their freshman year in 2015, 88.2 percent of Asian students were handed a diploma last year, followed by whites at 85 percent, blacks at 73.7 percent, and Hispanics at 72 percent, according to the figures.  More discouraging was the graduation rate for Special Education students and English Language Learners who only had a graduation rate of 52.5% and 40.9% respectively.

While City Hall and the Department of Education cast these annual hikes as evidence of skillful stewardship, continually shifting standards and graduation requirements give critics pause.   Moreover, students have been given new routes to graduation in recent years. Changes include the option of taking assessments in languages other than English and swapping out a required social studies exam for a test in another subject, including art and math.  Finally the State made it easier to appeal low Regents grades.

 Statewide, while the State achieved an 83.4% graduation rate,  only 12% of black students and 17% of Hispanic students earned advanced designation, compared with more than 47% of white students.  I suspect that these numbers are lower for New York City.. Charter schools in the State only had a 80.8% graduation rate,which is  2.6% less than traditional public schools in the State.

Chancellor Carranza has vowed to have a graduation rate of 84% by 2025 which will only increase the already abundant academic fraud.in New York City high schools.

Will Eliminaing The Gifted and Talented Programs Cause Middle Class Flight?

Chancellor Richard Carranza's goal of integrating the New York City Public Schools has run into fierce resistance from middle class parents, especially Asian parents.  Except for a couple of District middle schools, the Chancellor has been unable to convince parents to agree to his proposals.

One exception is a Brooklyn elementary school. PS 9 which will eliminate their "Gifted and Talented" program to help foster a truly integrated classroom.  While the school's goal is a worthy cause, the reality is that it will ultimately fail as middle class families will send their children to schools that have a "Gifted and Talented" program or move to another school district.  The question is will the elimination of the "Gifted and Talented" program lead to middle class flight?  I believe it will if the school really goes through wit their ill-conceived program of integrating the classroom.

The bottom line is the school may win the battle but lose the war on integration.

Charter Schools Lose Again On Teacher Certification

The New York State Appellate Division, Third Department upheld  a lower court ruling that the SUNY alternate teacher certification scheme for charter schools was not allowed under State education law.  The Appellate Court unanimously rejected SUNY's argument that they had the authority to have an alternative teacher certification for charter schools.

It's no secret that charter schools are having trouble in recruiting and retaining certified teachers and by State law are only allowed to have no more than 15% uncertified teachers on their staff.  My guess is if the State scrutinize the charter schools they would find that most violate that limitation.  Take Eva Moskowitz's Success Academy High School in Manhattan that saw an astonishing 70% teacher turnover in one year.

  I know of a Science teacher that was unfairly terminated by the DOE but every year charter schools compete with each other to hire the teacher since most of them lack a certified Science teacher.  The Science teacher tells me that every charter school she teaches in, the next year most  teachers are either not invited back due to money, incompetent administration, lack of certification, or because many teachers quit during or after the school year.

The State and local teacher unions as well as the NAACP, the Board of Regents, and The NYSED oppose the alternate teacher certification scheme and the unions called the SUNY teacher certification scheme as "Fake certification".  The alternate certification scheme only consists of 160 hours of classroom instruction and 40 hours of practice teaching and allows the charter school to self-certify to get around the 15% uncertified teacher limitation.

Will SUNY appeal to the NYS Court of Appeals?  Probably since they are supported by deep pockets charter school supporters but with a unanimous decision at the Appellate Court, it does not look promising for the charter schools.

Rating The Democratic Candidates Based On Their Education Policy

This post is to grade the Democratic Presidential candidates based on their education policies. Obviously,  Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, and Cory Booker get a  failing grade for their support of charter schools and their cozy relationship with education reform organizations..

Bernie Sanders:

Bernie is pro public education and wants to increase teacher pay and wants to fully fund our traditional public schools while putting a freeze on new charter schools.  Moreover, he wants existing charter schools to be held accountable as traditional public schools are.  Finally, he also wants the charter schools to have the same studnt demographics and percentage of high needs students as the neighborhood schools.

GRADE A

Elizabeth Warren:

Ms. Warren has similar education policies as Bernie Sanders, except she is somewhat vague about how she would implement her education policy which gives her wiggle room if she becomes President which is somewhat concerning.

GRADE B

Peter Buttigieg

Mr. Buttigieg's education policy is influenced by his husband who is a middle school teacher in a private school and wants to raise teacher pay and ban for profit charter schools.  Unlike Sanders and Warren he is silent on publicly funded charter schools and as Mayor he supported some state voucher programs but claims he is against vouchers now.

GRADE C

Amy Klobuchar

Amy Klobuchar's education policy wants to increase teacher pay but supports charter schools as long as they don't steal funding from traditional public schools.  She voted against a federal voucher system as a Senator.

GRADE  C-

Andrew Yang:

Andrew Yang's education policy is ill-defined but because of his autistic son, he is sensitive to Special Education and wants public schools to be fully funded.  He supports charter schools but has not spelled out his complete education policy.

GRADE D

Joe Biden:

Joe Biden has a long track record on education and as Obama's Vice President he supported the Obama administration on attacking teachers and supporting charter schools.  He also supported the teacher evaluation system that unfairly blamed teachers for student academic growth.that resulted in many teachers getting terminated nationwide. He gets support from education reform organizations. He is trying to distance himself from Obama on education but who can trust him?

GRADE F:

Cory Booker:

Cory Booker's education policy is ome of the worst as he is a strong charter school supporter and many of his donations comes from hedge funds and Wall Street.  He is the favorite of education reformers.  He would get my lowest grade with the exception of Michael Bloomberg.

GRADE F

Michael Bloomberg:

Michael Bloomberg's education policy resulted in over 150 schools to close in New York City,giving money to charter schools while under funding traditional public schools and despised the teacher union.  He once suggested at MIT that he supports doubling class size and reduce the teaching staff by half.  He was the darling of the education reform organizations.  Finally, he ignored parents and community leaders when it came to education issues.  See my posts Here.


GRADE F

Tom Steyer:

Tom Steyer's education policy is unknown, except he wants to give every student an equity opportunity but doesn't explain the specifics so he gets no grade.

Representative IIhan Omar Voted Anti-Semite Of The Year

I'm an independent voter and usually vote Democratic but there are some Democrats I will not vote for.  They are the "squad".  The squad consists of four house representatives that are considered far left progressives and out of touch with mainstream society.  This post focuses on only one of these far left progressives, IIlan Omar.

In a poll by a Jewish NGO  representative IIhan Omar beat out the perennial winner Louis Farrakhan and Richard Spenser who were in the top three.  What has IIhan Omar done to get the anti-semitism of the year award for 2019?

1. Accusing American Jewry of possessing dual loyalty.

2. Alleging that Jews buy their influence with money, infamously stating “It’s all about the Benjamins.”

3. Accusing Israel of having hypnotized the world.

4. Supporting the anti-semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.

5. Submitting a resolution in the House of Representatives comparing boycotting Israel to boycotting the Nazis.

6. Having her anti-semitic statements endorsed by infamous neo-Nazi David Duke.

The organization also mentioned her refusal to take back or regret many of her anti-semitic comments, as well as the backing she receives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which is connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.  She also wants to sanction Democratic Israel and wants to eliminate sanctions on the dictatorship in Iran.

The NGO has a video of the anti-semitic tropes Here.

Note:  The NYC schools will be developing a school curriculum  to combat antisemitism Here.

Chancellor Carranza Keeps Selecting Perverts In His Inner Circle

Chancellor Richard Carranza selected as his Deputy Chief of staff David Hay, despite the DOE not fully vetting him.  It turns out that David Hay was arrested in Wisconsin for arraigning for a sexual tryst with a 14 year old boy.  Read the New York Post article Here.

This follows the abrupt resignation of Richard Carranza's protege, Abram Jimenez, tapped as  “senior executive director for continuous school improvement”. only two weeks into the school year.  Mr Jimenez was also not fully vetted by the DOE despite his high level position.  He was found to have alleged financial mismanagement and was forced to quit as an Assistant Principal.  Moreover, as a teacher he accepted a three year probation for inappropriate comments to students, including sexual innuendoes and threatening behavior.

Then there is Carranza appointed Bronx Executive Superintendent, Meisha Porter, who organized and raised funds from subordinates for a lavish party celebrating her birthday and August 2018 promotion by Carranza, which apparently violated the Chancellor's conflict of interest rules. It appears SCI, while notified of the lavish party, chose not to investigate.  You can read the entire story Here.  Did the Chancellor take appropriate action and fire her?  Of course not.

Finally, there is the deep seated academic fraud that exists in the DOE that the Chancellor refuses to address and even protects the perpetrators Here.

My Predictions For 2020

The education issues for 2020 are many and some of them are complicated.  Here is my best guess.

School Integration:
Chancellor Carranza would like to integrate the public schools and despite some limited success in certain school districts like District 15 in Brooklyn  and District 3 in Manhattan.  Most of the Districts are either highly segregated or resistant like District 28 in Queens.  I expect little progress in integrating the NYC shools without causing large scale middle class flight and expensive busing to implement the Chancellor's wishful policy.

Class Size:
Mayor Bill de Blasio will probably not support lower class sizes unless the State fully funds the schoolz but with the State expecting a major budget shortfall of 6.1 billion dollars, the Mayor will shortchange the schools by only funding them at 90%.  The result is that class sizes will continue to be the largest in New York State.

Fair Student Funding:
I don't expect the DOE to eliminate school based fair student funding since many of the Bloomberg holdovers remain in policy making positions, despite some small changes by Chancellor Carranza..

ATR Pool:
Look for the ATR pool to continue at current levels as a result of the fair student funding and hiring practices that discriminate against veteran teachers.  I also do not expect an ATR buyout this year.  The DOE pilot program that allows the worst schools to hire an ATR without being charged might be expanded to other terrible schools that no self respecting ATR would accept.

The Open Market Transfer Syste:
I believe that the Open Market Transfer System will remain unchanged and only non tenured teachers will be offered positions as principals will not hire veteran teachers due to their salary.

I hope I'm wrong but I doubt it.:

Principal Henry Shandel Of Marie Curie Middle School In Queens Proposes A Questionable Grading Policy

Principal Henry Shandel of Marie Curie middle school in Bayside Queens has sent teachers a proposed grading policy that allows students who fail to complete assignments to make up the work or get an alienate assignments up to the grading deadline.  According to the Daily News article here is what the Principal wrote to the teachers about his proposed grading policy.

: “For late/missing work due to student failure to complete an assignment on time, students must also be given multiple opportunities to make up or turn in work regardless of due date and without academic penalty, up until the end of the current marking period."

To me Principal Shandel's letter to the teachers is just another example of academic fraud to jack up the passing and graduation rate of the school and push undeserving students into the next grade or high school without the academic tools to legitimately advance in grade. 

Teachers were understandably upset since they knew that the Principal was not interested in giving students a quality education but simply wanted to pass as many students as possible. According to the article  The Principal's grading policy removes student accountability and weakens teacher control of student grades.  Not surprisingly, the DOE supports the Principal and their public relation mouthpiece hypocritically said the following according to the Daily News article.

“We are laser-focused on students mastering academic content and the draft policy as written is academically sound and was distributed to teachers to solicit their feedback," Education Department spokeswoman Danielle Filson said Thursday.

This is just another example of academic fraud proposed by a Principal that weakens teacher control and reduces student accountability,and supported by the DOE that hurts student academic achievement to make them look good statistically,  plain and simple.

Santa Claus And The ATR

Santa Claus is known to bring presents to deserving girls and boys.  However, when it comes to ATRs, Santa Claus is unhappy since he did not deliver the ATRs the present they most wanted: A permanent position in a good school.  He tried but since the DOE is in charge, the results were disappointing.

An ATR sent Santa Claus a letter asking him to place her in a vacancy in a good school, with available parking but Santa Claus had arraigned that the ATR will be placed in a vacancy in one of the worst schools in the Borough with little parking availability.   It seemed that Santa Claus had contacted the DOE who was happy to supply him with a list of terrible schools who cannot recruit or retain teachers and supplied Santa Claus with the list of schools that nobody wants to teach in.

The UFT leadership claimed success as they convinced the DOE to develop the pilot program that would have the DOE pay the school the ATR's full salary to work in these selected terrible schools that Santa Claus was given a list of.   Has it significantly reduced the ATR pool? Only time will tell if it will be successful.

The Podcast School Colors Is An Interesting Listen

School Colors is a podcast that focuses on District 16 schools in Brooklyn and while I don't agree with many of their conclusions, I still believe it is an interesting listen.

The podcast has eight episodes and follows a chronology.   It starts with the Ocean Hill-Brownsville  experiment that resulted in the longest teacher strike in NYC history and ends with the attempted integration of Bedford-Stuyvesant.  The episodes are as follows"

Episode 1:  Old School
Episode 2: Power to the People
Episode 3: Third Strike
Episode 4 Agitate! Educate! Organize!
Episode 5 The Disappearing District
Episode 6 Mo' Charters, Mo' Problems
Episode 7 New Kids on the Block
Episode 8 On the Move
Interview: Night at the Library


I believe that no matter what side you are on the podcast is a must listen.

Required Minimum Distribution Raised To 72 Years Of Age

Congress passed and the President signed the budget to fund the government.  Included in the budget was the Secure Act.  The Secure Act was a bipartisan agreement that changed and enhanced the pension system.  This included allowing annuities to be part of the IRA or 401k plans and no age restrictions on IRAs.  there are many other significant changes and they can be found Here

For teachers who are near or are retired, the most important change is the SECURE Act pushes the age that triggers RMDs from 70½ to 72.  That gives the retiree another year and a half of appreciation before giving the Federal government their Required Minimum Distribution (RMD).. 

Here are my two posts where I discuss the Required Minimum Distribution and the TDA.  Here and Here. ontill TRS and the UFT allow for a ROTH option,when you pay the Federal Government their money upfront, the RMD is the penalty we pay for having a tax deferred TDA.

Some NYC Schools Are Academically Failing

The New York Post had an article with a heading "Over 140 NYC schools had a 90% failure rate on State exams". The article points out the sad state of academics in the largely low income and minority elementary and middle schools in NYC. Moreover, 23 schools reported an entire class that had nobody passing the State exams.  Finally, the DOE actually reported that the 142 school failure rate as an academic improvement since the previous year 193 schools reported a class with a 90% failure rate.

The New York State tests are given to grades 3 to 8 and are given in March and April for English and Math.  Not surprisingly, the highest failure rate are found in high poverty schools that have high percentages of minority students as well as Special Education, English Language Learners, and homeless students.

Here are some of the worst schools based on the State exams.

• At PS/MS 46 Arthur Tappan in ­Harlem, 57 eighth graders sat for the state math exam last year, ­according to state data, and all failed.  Here is a studdnt's account for one of these classes

• At the Academy of Public Relations middle school in The Bronx, 50 students sat for the same eighth-grade math test, and not one was proficient, the numbers show.

• At PS 306 Ethan Allen in Brooklyn — a participant in City Hall’s defunct Renewal Schools program — 47 fifth graders took their state math exams last year and all failed.

• At PS 224 in Brooklyn, a total of 301 kids in grades 6, 7 and 8 took their state math exams and 288 of them flunked — a bleak pass rate of 4 percent, the figures show.

• A total of 57 third-graders at PS 31 William T. Davis on Staten Island took both state exams. Only three passed English and one passed math.

• At the North Bronx School of Empowerment, 186 seventh graders took the state math test and just eight passed.

Many of the old Renewal Schools are found on the failure list.

The demographic breakdown of the State exams are as follows for NYC students:

 In Math, Asians led the way a 74.4% proficiency rate, followed by Whites at 66.6%, Hispanics at 33.2% and Blacks at 28.2%.

Asian kids also scored highest in English with a 67.9% proficiency rate, followed by Whites at 66.6%, Hispanics at 36.5% and Blacks at 35.0%.

The low test scores are correlated with poverty, family, and community and that's the inconvenient truth.

Racism Has No Place In Our Schools

At high performing Beacon High School in Manhattan, where student acceptance is based upon their middle school academics and is, for the most part, color blind, racism has reared it's ugly head.

A White and Jewish girl privately complained to her guidance counselors about being "wait listed" by her university of choice while lower academically performing minorities were accepted.  She rightly felt that is unfair and discriminatory.  The guidance counselors,were apparently Jewish, sympathized with the student and agreed that the University's selection accounted for affirmative action criteria in selecting their student body and hurt her chances to get in.  It's common knowledge that top universities discriminate against East Asian and Jewish high school students when it comes to admissions and this girl was probably a victim of that discrimination as well as the affirmative action requirements.

Unfortunately, a Black student, who was waiting to meet with his counselor, overheard the confidential conversation and barged into the confidential meeting and berated the girl and her counselors and then reported it to his friends.   The same group that staged a sit in at Beacon High School on the school's selection system that limits the integration process because it does not look at race or practice affirmative action to increase Black and Hispanic students. The result was that the White and Jewish girl was subject to cyber bullying and racist rants at school.

Worse, a Black Science teacher identified as Mr. Green has told the group of students that  they should boycott school today and continue until their complaints are met.  This is unacceptable and the teacher should be disciplined since he is encouraging racism.  Moreover,the teacher is accused of inflaming racial tensions, encouraging kids to be insubordinate and violating DOE attendance and safety regulations.  I suspect that either SCI or OSI will be investigating this teacher and deservingly so.

Susan Edelman of the New York Post wrote an article about the situation and is a must read Here.

In a follow up article by Susan Edelman it appears the school's Principal, Ruth Lacey, actually supported the student boycott that has racial overtones rather than putting a stop to it.  No wonder our schools are having racial divides with principals like her who rather support than confront the racial issues associated with the student boycott.

Middle School Murder Suspects Go To A Poorly Performing School

The alleged murder suspects who mugged and killed 18 year old  Tessa Majors attend a poorly performing middle school.  According to the New York Post article. The school demographics for the latest school year (2018-19 ) is 51% Black, 28% Hispanic, 13% White and 3% Asian.  Academically, only 12% were proficient in Math and 26% were proficient in English.  The City average for the State tests are 46% and 51% respectively.

The middle school the three suspects attend is called PS 180, a K to 8 school, and the students complain about bullying and staff complain about student discipline issues.  The trust factor is below the City average and the majority of teachers are non-tenured   Here is the Inside School's Snapshot of the school's quality report.

District 28 Parents Object To The DOE Integration Plan

At a public meeting the overflowing crowd of District 28 parents vocally objected to the DOE's proposed integration plan.  Not one parent liked the idea of sending their child from their neighborhood school to be bused from one part of the district to a school that requires parents to take mass transit or an expensive taxi to reach for school meetings or pick up a sick child.

While there is an obvious racial and ethnic components in the opposition, the fact is that the Jamaica section of district 28 have low preforming schools and suffer from student discipline issues, while the Forest Hills schools are high performing and have low student discipline problems.  Moreover, the Jamaica section of District 28 are low income and many families live in poverty, while the Forest Hills section of District 28 is upper and middle class and both cultures are alien to each other.  Having the students adjust to a different culture will only add to the issues of trying to integrate the schools.  Finally, many families buy homes in Forest Hills and Kew Gardens because of the schools.  If you bus these students to Jamaica, these families will flee to District 26 or Long Island.

Based on the public hearing and the intractable issues associated with integrating the District 28 schools.  I see only frustration and failure for the DOE's integration plan.  See my previous post Here.

PS 169 Principal EuJin Tang May Have Exposed 2nd Graders To Adult Nudity

Principal EuJin Tang of Brooklyn's PS 169 decided it was a good idea for her students, who are mostly low income,  recent immigrants, to learn to swim.  While that was a good idea, the problem was that the fitness center apparently did not isolate the students from the adult members and according to the New York Post, the 2nd graders were exposed to nude adults changing in the locker room as they waited to change into their swimsuits.

Some of the 2nd graders told their parents and the parents are very upset and rightly so.  The Principal, who was in charge of the outing should have made sure that the students were isolated from the changing adults but apparently didn't do so.  Moreover, many of the students were required to change in front of other students which upset their parents as well.

The Principal, EuJin Tang has been in the news previously when back in 2014 she banned Thanksgiving and Christmas  and celebrations, as well as the national anthem and made national headlines. Then she was known as EuJin Jaela Kim.  At that time she had one of the lowest teacher approval rating in the City at 32%.. While this has improved, the latest approval rating of 60% is still well below the City average of 86%.  She was made Principal of PS 169 in 2014 despite only having three years of school experience, when Chancellor Carmen Farina required all principals to have a minimum of seven years school experience.  As you can imagine, Ms, Tang is a graduate of the infamous Leadership Academy.


Ms. Tang (still known as Ms. Kim) also threw out nearly new desks  as well as other materials that cost $25,000 and replaced them with tables and was criticized by the media for wasting usable furniture when school budgets were tight.. I wrote a post about EuJin Jaela Kim back in 2015 and you can read it Here.  Furthermore, back in 2015 a petition to remove the Principal of a school that has 1,300 students generated 2,783 supporters but was ignored by the DOE.

Common Core Is Rapidly Losing Favor Nationally

Back in 2010, administrators, politicians, and education reform organizations set up a working group to come up with common national education standards that would allow the Federal Deportment of Education to compare one state with another and compete with other countries.  The Obama administration, led by his basketball playing buddy Arnie Duncan convinced the President to support "Common Core" which included testing and linking student scores to teacher evaluations.

To ensure states would comply with the Federal Department of Education's policies, the Obama administration dangled money at the states in the mist of a recession and states that did not link student growth scores to their teachers would not get the money.  The federal government encouraged states to develop "junk Science", like in New York State, that ended up to be thrown out  by a State judge.  Under governmental pressure. the "Common Core" rollout was a disaster as the major education publishers had no materials or books and teachers were not trained to teach it.  Worse, students were forced to adapt to a different Math program that parents did not understand and could not help their child. Moreover, the reading of non-fiction of boring books rather than reading fiction like "1984" was not good as students disliked the books.. Finally, the emphasis on testing has resulted in parents to "opt out" and in New York State 20% opted out with middle class Long Island having a 52% "opt out" rate.

The Common Core saw the Republican Tea Party and the Left wing of the Democratic party both come out against it.  In addition, most teacher unions soon realized that the extra funding the federal government provided never trickled down to the classroom but instead was used to pay high priced consultants , develop tests, and even pay for office furniture!    The Common Core is rapidly losing favor since there is no longer funding attached to it.  With  politicians like President Trump and most of the Democratic Presidential contenders are against the Common Core, the future of the program does not look bright.

The Common Core, combined with the Obama administration's support for charter schools who, for the most part did unrelenting test prep that emphasized English and Math while Social Studies and Science were given  little time since they did not have a Common Core requirement.  Savvy principals in the traditional public schools saw that and many students got a double period of English and Math while Social Studies and Science were taught every other day and even less.  The result was an incomplete education for the students..

The New York Times has an interesting article about Common Core but seems to slant it favorably  for Common Core and did not mention the linkage between student growth and teacher evaluations so read it with a grain of salt and look at my posts about NYS teacher evaluations. 

What Is The College Graduation Rate For NYC Students?

With the high school graduation rate increasing yearly (75.9%) and more students attending college, has the college graduation rate improved?  The answer is a disappointing not really.  Based on the latest 2017 data he college graduation rate for NYC high school graduates is 22% for CUNY and 26% for SUNY.  For two year associates degree from community college the graduation rate is a disappointing 32%.

The reason for the disappointing college graduation rate is that colleges try to maintain high standards and unlike high school, there is no such thing as " credit recovery", scholarship requirements by principals to ensure more students graduate and administrative pressure to pass undeserving students.  Just look at my academic fraud posts.

The bottom line is that less than one out of every four students who enter college will achieve a four year college degree and that is disappointing.