As expected, New York standardized test scores drop

[hrmjustin]

AP KAREN MATTHEWS

NEW YORK -- New York education officials warned early on not to expect great results on the first English and math tests given statewide to elementary students under tougher new learning standards - and they're right.

The state Education Department on Thursday says test results show that 31 percent of students in grades 3 through 8 scored proficient in English, with the same percentage meeting or exceeding the standard in math. That compares to last year's results of 55 percent in English and about two out of every three students meeting or exceeding the math standard.

Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and Education Commissioner John King will discuss the scores on a late-morning conference call. Already they're saying that they should be seen as a new baseline, rather than a decrease in student performance.

The tests were the first to be aligned with the more rigorous Common Core learning standards that have been adopted by most states. Most everyone expects the scores will be much lower than in previous years.

Read more at http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/education&id=9197800

[msongs]

1. lower scores justifiy more inroads for profit seeking corporations, whatta shock eh? nt

[hrmjustin]

2. no shock at all.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. What happened to "no excuses"?

Bloomberg and his flunkies have been running the school system autonomously for 12 ( TWELVE) years. Where's the ACCOUNTABILITY?

[Simian20]

4. UFT's Mulgrew lied today to uphold the Common Core amidst the backlash

At last the Common Core State Standards backlash has struck in New York.
And it's not the rightie Tea party nutjobs this time. It's progressive teachers and administrators on blogs and social media.

It was very disturbing to read of the UFT president Micheal Mulgrew is perpetuating the spin that teachers helped write the Common Core standards. In a Daily News op-ed today he said, "While teachers — many of whom helped create the new Common Core — support the new standards . . ."

Problem is, zero teachers were involved at the stage of writing the standards. Only one teacher was involved in the project, at the review or validation stage.
There were five main writers of the English and math standards. Neither of the two main authors of the English standards, David Coleman (widely touted as the architect, and widely known on the blogs for disparaging children's narratives, saying, "“As you grow up in this world you realize people really don't give a sh** about what you feel or what you think" -- If you doubt this, watch

the video of this public speech before NY's State Education Department; he is treasurer of Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst board of directors) and Susan Pimentel (whose professional life has been involved in just assessment) are teachers, let alone educators.

As Anthony Cody pointed out in "The Secret Sixty Prepare to Write Standards for 50 Million," there was no accommodation for public vetting or input from parents, students or teachers. The official announcement was: “The Work Group's deliberations will be confidential throughout the process.” How could this be? These standards would be used by all but four states.

Ah, but this was not legislation. Legislation has transparency in hearings and public debates. This was a Gates Foundation project from the start. The drive for the standards began in earnest in 2007 with millions of dollars from Bill Gates to the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Knowing that national standards could run into trouble in the states' rights states, they were redubbed State Standards in December 2008. You see, the core acts were before Obama set at the Oval Office desk, so don't call them Obamacore. Alas, most of the research on this has mainly been done by Tenth Amendment sources such as this.

So, the notion that teachers and parents had a hand in the writing of the Standards is simply erroneous. Teachers should say to Mulgrew, "not in our name."