Voice of Revolution

Albany Demonstration

Stop Funding War and Fund Education

Protesters will be gathering in Albany November 20 to demand Full Funding for Education Now! Many youth will be demonstrating, with 50 youth from Buffalo expected to participate. Two buses from Buffalo have been organized by the Alliance for Quality Education (AQE). Workshops on community organizing and fighting for education funding will also take place in Albany, as part of AQE’s Education Action Summit.

Buffalo Forum salutes all the youth taking their stand for their right to education and all those demonstrating and participating in the organizing work. We join in demanding Full Funding for Education Now! And when governments at all levels proclaim budget cuts are necessary because there is “no money,” we say, Stop Funding War and Fund Education! Trillions of public dollars have gone to the war machine, engaging youth in unjust wars and the slaughter of youth of other lands. At the same time, there have been massive cuts to education, as youth in Buffalo have experienced. Education is a Right that government is duty-bound to meet. Demonstrators are holding those in Albany to account to do their duty!

While libraries are not staffed and many programs are being reduced or eliminated, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) is imposing the Common Core program. This program, with its testing and teacher evaluation regime, is being fully funded, by the state and federal governments. The Core is serving to further narrow the curriculum and undermine the overall quality of education. It is machinery designed to both humiliate youth and condition them to submit to a program that is harmful. It is well-known that it causes greater harm to students living in poverty, which many in Buffalo are.

Public schools were already in need of renewal and change in order to meet the needs of the youth for education that serves their interests. The Common Core serves to directly block such renewal. It serves to remove any role for students, teachers and parents in deciding the content and direction of education. Instead private interests, far removed from the schools, are using the Core to both grab public dollars and block the public, especially the youth, from having a role. Schools are to be factories, producing the “product” of students trained and “ready” to do as they are told and perform whatever jobs are made available. And for those who are branded as “not ready” there are the prisons.

Public education is a vital social issue. The public schools belong to the public and should be governed by them. Education needs to serve the youth and their fight for a bright future. It needs to educate them to engage in solving the many social problems society faces. Youth are not products and schools are not factories! Education is a right and a necessity for society to advance. Given the wrecking now being done by those in power, using the Common Core as a main tool, it is clear that they must be removed. They must be deprived of their power to trample on the right to education. This includes organizing by students, teachers and parents together to refuse the tests and stop the Common Core. It includes opposing war funding and standing up to say Not One Youth for Imperialist War! And it means organizing together to be decision makers, on the content and character of our public schools. Engage in discussion on the curriculum, classes and work we want and need. And for any who doubt youth can play their role as decision makers, we say Whose Schools? Our Schools! Who Decides? We Decide!

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Education Funding Below 2008 Levels

New York State (NYS), which provides about 80 percent of Buffalo’s funding for education, has refused to increase funding to the level required. Rather than provide the necessary conditions for teachers to teach — which are the conditions for students to learn — Buffalo has seen teachers, aides, librarians, social workers and nurses laid off. Statewide 35,000 teachers and staff have lost their jobs and programs for art, music, dance and sports have been reduced or eliminated. While Education Commissioner King repeatedly talks about having students “college ready,” advanced placement and honors courses are cut. But funding for yet more testing is available. The Common Core program being imposed is further narrowing the curriculum and causing harm.

The NYS constitution requires the government to provide public education, which the courts have defined as “a sound and basic” education. As a result of a lawsuit demanding more funding for schools, NYS was mandated to provide an additional $5.5 billion statewide over four years (2007-2011). It did not. Only $2.2 billion was given to schools in 2007-2008. In 2010-11 the state cut $2.7 billion in school funding. While 2013-14 saw some funding restored, at least $1 billion is needed just to reach 2008 levels, which were themselves insufficient.

At the same time, the war machine continues to grab trillions in public dollars. Since 2001, just the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — not including all the drone warfare, aggression, spying, torture, Guantánamo concentration camp and more — have eaten $1.5 trillion and counting. The Pentagon this year is likely to again get a budget of $600 billion. For New York, $137 billion has gone to the two wars since 2001 — that is more than $1 million an hour. For Buffalo alone $548 million in public dollars have been handed over to the war machine.

The wealth produced by working people in New York is more than enough to fund education at the levels required — but youth and working people do not decide the budget. In fighting now for funding, this issue of Who Decides is key.

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New York Parents Force K-2 School to Cancel Standardized Test

Parents at Castle Bridge elementary school in New York City recently organized to block testing of their kindergarten-second grade (K-2) children. New York City, like Buffalo and others districts across the state, are imposing new testing requirements on students. While the majority of testing is currently geared toward 3-8 graders, efforts are now underway to also force K-2 children to take tests. The effort is widely opposed by teachers and the many professionals involved in early childhood development and education. Castle Bridge provides an example for all parents to organize together and refuse the tests. Efforts are underway in the Buffalo area to similarly mobilize parents to refuse the tests. All interested are encouraged to contact Chris Cerrone at New York Stop Testing (www.nystoptesting.com) or Buffalo Forum (716-602-8077, buffaloforumi@usmlo.org).

Castle Bridge parents organized as a group, with the large majority — representing 88 out of 97 students — joining to refuse the test. They informed the principal that their children would not take the test. Given the scope of resistance, the principal then canceled the testing. While the New York Department of Education (NYSED) has informed administrators that all students must take the tests, parents are rejecting this dictate and standing up for their children's education. The test results for these young children, like that for 3-8, are being used to evaluate students, teachers and principals.

PTA co-chairwoman at Castle Bridge Dao Tran, mother of first-grader Quyen Lamphere, expressed the stand of most when she said, "My feeling about testing kids as young as 4 is it's inhumane." She added, “I think it's developmentally not even just unhelpful but actually destructive.” Parents also spoke to the racism of the state, saying the tests are only given in English even though they are a bi-lingual school (English and Spanish) and have children speaking other languages.

Parents also rejected the use of the tests for assessing their children. As Tran said, “We observe our children in the classroom on a daily basis, and we know and trust that the teachers have the best assessment of them. They actually write these narratives about our kids at report card time. So they don't get checkboxes. They don't get grades. We get a story of what they know and where they are at developmentally, which is much more rich and clear than any test could ever be.”

Another parent, Tran's PTA co-chair Elexis Pujolos, mother of kindergartner Daeja, 4, and first-grader AJ, 6 brought out that the tests are also not a valid means to assess the principal. "Our principal does a good job," she said. "A test could not possibly measure what she is able to." The school's principal, Julie Zuckerman, like many across the state (see letter below) also expressed her opposition to the tests, saying teachers should not be judged on the basis of a test. "It can't be used as an evaluation tool of teachers even if it were a valid test — which it's not," she said.

Parents brought out that Castle Bridge uses educational methods that are more project-based, with more creative forms of learning that develop thinking skills better than the required tests. They expressed their outrage over testing such young children, with one parent emphasizing, "This school teaches to the child not to the test.”

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Common Core Regime is Child Abuse
Teachers Urging Parents to Refuse the Test

Teachers, principals and parents across the state have continued to oppose the Common Core and its testing and teacher evaluation regime. New York State Education (NYSED) Commissioner King, after first canceling public meetings in the face of stern opposition from parents and teachers in Poughkeepsie, has now re-scheduled what he calls "Community Meetings." There will not be one in Buffalo however, with the closest one being in Jamestown, December 4, with time and place still to be announced.

At two recent community meetings on Long Island, one meeting required tickets to get in, blocking many from attending. Speakers at both were also limited. Even so, about 1,000 attended one and 800 packed the second meeting, while another 200 demonstrated outside. Inside and out, it was clear that people are stepping up their organized resistance to the Common Core. As Carol Burris, principal at South Side High School in Long Island said, "Despite the efforts to limit the speakers and limit the crowds, I think they are learning that we come here with one voice."

One woman, who spoke inside, was repeatedly and enthusiastically applauded, as her stand represented those present. She stated she was a teacher and as such she is a mandated reporter of child abuse. And she was here to tell King that she is reporting child abuse. She explained that students are now being diagnosed with "Common Core" syndrome as a result of the very frustrating, unfair, anxiety-filled experience they are having with the testing regime. She brought 50 letters with her and reported sending NYSED 300 more, all calling for King's resignation. More importantly, she said the testing regime had "awoken the mommies." She said King can expect thousands of letters from parents refusing to have their children take the tests. She emphasized. "New York mommies do not abuse their children and they are not going to let bullies abuse them either."

King remained without emotion or response through out. Those in Buffalo will likely remember this “no response" method as that of the Control Board. Those with power allow a public meeting to take place, stare blankly during the meeting and give no response whatever to the demands made. As the teacher in Long Island put it, they are "listening" but not hearing what parents and teachers have to say. And as occurred in Buffalo, those in Long Island took the opportunity to instead speak to the crowd. Despite King’s arrogance, the public, together developing their public outrage and collective stand and justifications for opposing the Common Core, are using the meetings to further advance their fight for improving public education.

This was further evident outside the second meeting, where scores of protesters, standing across the street from the high school, chanted, "Students are more than tests." Parent Jeanette Deutermann, of North Bellmore, spoke from a microphone on the back of a black pickup truck, "We will not stand for it. Our children will not take these tests," she said. Deutermann is among the parents statewide organizing to refuse the test. Hundreds of students on Long Island and in other districts across the state refused the test last year and more are planning to do so this coming April. In the Buffalo area, students and parents in Hamburg, Ken-Ton, West Seneca and Buffalo are among those organizing to refuse the tests. Efforts are going forward to organize collectively, school by school.

New York State Teacher of the Year Does Not Get Highest Rating

In related news, the teacher awarded NYS Teacher of the Year did not receive the highest rating of “highly effective.” Kathleen Ferguson testified November 13 before a state Senate Education Committee that she couldn't get a "highly effective" rating because she teaches second-graders with special needs, and they do not do well on tests. Ferguson, who teaches in the Schenectady district, also said that all the pre-testing that is done in September to set the “baseline” for student improvement — and teacher evaluations — makes it "incredibly difficult to lay a foundation of comfort and joy in school." Her students, seven years old, had tests almost every day to establish the “baseline.” Senators report that they have received more calls and emails from parents and teachers opposing the Common Core than they have about any other issue.

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Disproportionately Harms Students Living in Poverty

Buffalo Teachers Call for Legal Action Challenging Testing Regime

The Buffalo Teachers Federation (BTF) recently passed three motions concerning the New York State Department of Education (NYSED) efforts to impose the Common Core Standards and its testing and teacher evaluation regime. One motion calls on New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), the statewide union BTF is affiliated with, to file a lawsuit against NYSED and New York State (NYS). It brings out that the testing and teacher assessments are invalid measures and that they impose disproportionate hardships on students living in poverty. The motion states that NYSED/NYS are not upholding their constitutional duty to provide all New York students with their right to a “sound and basic” education. It also states that if NYSUT does not take legal action within 60-90, BTF will, perhaps joined by other locals.

The motion reads in part:

“The rationale for said legal action may include but is not limited to the following:

“• Tests imposed upon our students by NYSED are an invalid measure of their academic achievement and of teachers’ performance.

“• Some testing experts indicate that they should not be used to measure teacher performance.

“• The APPR (Annual Professional Performance Review) process and associated required standardized tests impose disproportionate hardships, pressures and expectations on English Language Learners, Students with Disabilities and students being raised in poverty.

“• The hundreds of hours of testing, pre-testing, and associated paperwork is depriving students of their constitutionally required right to a ‘sound basic education.’

“• The millions of dollars wasted on the APPR process that is not reimbursed by NYSED/NYS, is disproportionately impacting poor school districts and preventing students from receiving their New York State constitutional right to a ‘sound basic education.’

“• The premature imposition of the Common Core Standards prior to the development of curricula, materials, professional development, and test validation, etc., amounts to professional malpractice.

“• The Commissioner/NYSED have violated NYSED’s mission 'Our mission is to raise the knowledge, skill, and opportunity for all people in New York. Our vision is to provide leadership for a system that yields the best educated people in the world,’ (emphasis added).

‘Should NYSUT continue to refuse to take state-wide and local action(s) against NYSED/NYS on behalf of its members and ultimately our students, BTF either alone or with other interested locals, will hire outside counsel to pursue said legal action(s). The projected funding and costs of outside counsel will be brought to the Executive Committee and Delegates for approval.”

The BTF Executive Committee and Council of Delegates (representatives from all schools) passed the motion.

In addition to opposing NYSED’s testing regime, BTF is involving teachers in work to develop a “comprehensive study of what Buffalo teachers in the classroom say must be done to improve education of Buffalo students.” BTF, emphasizing that the views of teachers are being ignored by NYSED, is planning to survey teachers, develop focus groups, review previous studies and literature and prepare a report on what is needed. BTF plans to work with the Buffalo School District and Superintendent on these efforts. However, the report is to “be approved by, supported by and be the voices of Buffalo teachers.” A press release announcing the initiative concludes “What we will be saying to NYSED, New York State, U.S. Department of Education, the District and others is: This is what we need for our students to succeed — if you fail to provide these supports, you are then responsible for the lack of student growth.”

BTF also joined thousands of parents and teachers statewide in calling for NYSED Commissioner John King to resign. The resolution spoke to the damage being imposed on students from the testing regime, noting that only New York and Kentucky began implementing the Common Core last year. It also spoke to the disrespect King has shown parents, and the broad dissatisfaction among parents and teachers with King. The press release added, “Our major concern is what Commissioner King’s policies have done to our students’ love of learning, their self-esteem and parents’ and educators’ confidence in the direction of the education of our students.”

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An Open Letter from Principals to Parents of Children Throughout New York State Regarding Grade 3-8 Testing

New York State Principals of New York State’s High Schools, Middle Schools and Elementary Schools, www.newyorkprincipals.org

Dear Parents,

We are the principals of your children’s schools. We serve communities in every corner of New York State — from Niagara County to Clinton, Chautauqua to Suffolk. We come from every size and type of school, with students from every background. We thank you for sharing your children with us and for entrusting us to ensure that they acquire the skills and knowledge they need to achieve their dreams and your hopes for them.

This year, many of your children experienced the first administration of the newly revised New York State Assessments. You may have heard that teachers, administrators, and parents are questioning the validity of these tests. As dedicated administrators, we have carefully observed the testing process and have learned a great deal about these tests and their impact. We care deeply about your children and their learning and want to share with you what we know — and what we do not know — about these new state assessments.

Here is what we know:

1) NYS Testing Has Increased Dramatically: We know that our students are spending more time taking State tests than ever before. Since 2010, the amount of time spent on average taking the 3-8 ELA and Math tests has increased by a whopping 128 percent! The increase has been particularly hard on our younger students, with third graders seeing an increase of 163 percent!

2) The Tests were Too Long: We know that many students were unable to complete the tests in the allotted time. Not only were the tests lengthy and challenging, but embedded field test questions extended the length of the tests and caused mental exhaustion, often before students reached the questions that counted toward their scores. For our Special Education students who receive additional time, these tests have become more a measure of endurance than anything else.

3) Ambiguous Questions Appeared throughout the Exams: We know that many teachers and principals could not agree on the correct answers to ambiguous questions in both ELA and Math. In some schools, identical passages and questions appeared on more than one test and at more than one grade level. One school reported that on one day of the ELA Assessment, the same passage with identical questions was included in the third, fourth AND fifth grade ELA Assessments.

4) Children have Reacted Viscerally to the Tests: We know that many children cried during or after testing, and others vomited or lost control of their bowels or bladders. Others simply gave up. One teacher reported that a student kept banging his head on the desk, and wrote, “This is too hard,” and “I can’t do this,” throughout his test booklet.

5) The Low Passing Rate was Predicted: We know that in his “Implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards” memo of March 2013, Deputy Commissioner Slentz stated that proficiency scores (i.e., passing rate) on the new assessments would range between 30-37% statewide. When scores were released in August 2013, the statewide proficiency rate was announced as 31%.

6) The College Readiness Benchmark is Irresponsibly Inflated: We know that the New York State Education Department used SAT scores of 560 in Reading, 540 in Writing and 530 in mathematics, as the college readiness benchmarks to help set the “passing” cut scores on the 3-8 New York State exams. These NYSED scores, totaling 1630, are far higher than the College Board’s own college readiness benchmark score of 1550. By doing this, NYSED has carelessly inflated the “college readiness” proficiency cut scores for students as young as nine years of age.

7) State Measures are Contradictory: We know that many children are receiving scores that are not commensurate with the abilities they demonstrate on other measures, particularly the New York State Integrated Algebra Regents examination. Across New York, many accelerated eighth-graders scored below proficiency on the eighth grade test only to go on and excel on the Regents examination one month later. One district reports that 58% of the students who scored below proficiency on the NYS Math 8 examination earned a mastery score on the Integrated Algebra Regents.

8) Students Labeled as Failures are Forced Out of Classes: We know that many students who never needed Academic Intervention Services (AIS) in the past, are now receiving mandated AIS as a result of the failing scores. As a result, these students are forced to forgo enrichment classes. For example, in one district, some middle school students had to give up instrumental music, computer or other special classes in order to fit AIS into their schedules.

9) The Achievement Gap is Widening: We know that the tests have caused the achievement gap to widen as the scores of economically disadvantaged students plummeted, and that parents are reporting that low-scoring children feel like failures.

10) The Tests are Putting Financial Strains on Schools: We know that many schools are spending precious dollars on test prep materials, and that instructional time formerly dedicated to field trips, special projects, the arts and enrichment, has been reallocated to test prep, testing, and AIS services.

11) The Tests are Threatening Other State Initiatives: Without a doubt, the emphasis on testing is threatening other important State initiatives, most notably the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Parents who see the impact of the testing on their children are blaming the CCSS, rather than the unwise decision to implement high stakes testing before proper capacity had been developed. As long as these tests remain, it will be nearly impossible to have honest conversations about the impact of the CCSS on our schools.

Here is what we do not know:

1) How these Tests will Help our Students: With the exception of select questions released by the state, we do not have access to the test questions. Without access to the questions, it is nearly impossible to use the tests to help improve student learning.

2) How to Use these Tests to Improve Student Skills or Understanding: Tests should serve as a tool for assessing student skills and understanding. Since we are not informed of the make-up of the tests, we do not know, with any level of specificity, the content or skills for which children require additional support. We do not even know how many points were allotted for each question.

3) The Underlying Cause of Low Test Scores: We do not know if children’s low test scores are actually due to lack of skills in that area or simply a case of not finishing the test — a problem that plagued many students.

4) What to Expect Next Year: We do not know what to expect for next year. Our students are overwhelmed by rapidly changing standards, curriculum and assessments. It is nearly impossible to serve and protect the students in our care when expectations are in constant flux and put in place rapidly in a manner that is not reflective of sound educational practice.

5) How Much this is Costing Already Strained Taxpayers: We do not know how much public money is being paid to vendors and corporations that the NYSED contracts to design assessments, nor do we know if the actual designers are educationally qualified. Please know that we, your school principals, care about your children and will continue to do everything in our power to fill their school days with learning that is creative, engaging, challenging, rewarding and joyous.

We encourage you to dialogue with your child’s teachers so that you have real knowledge of his skills and abilities across all areas. If your child scored poorly on the test, please make sure that he does not internalize feelings of failure. We believe that the failure was not on the part of our children, but rather with the officials of the New York State Education Department. These are the individuals who chose to recklessly implement numerous major initiatives without proper dialogue, public engagement or capacity building. They are the individuals who have failed.

As principals of New York schools, it is always our goal to move forward in a constant state of improvement. Under current conditions, we fear that the hasty implementation of unpiloted assessments will continue to cause more harm than good. Please work with us to preserve a healthy learning environment for our children and to protect all of the unique varieties of intelligence that are not red not reducible to scores on standardized tests. Your child is so much more than a test score, and we know it.

Warmly,

Signed by more than 1,535 New York principals and more than 6,500 teachers, parents, professors, administrators and concerned individuals.

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