Update 4/16/15: I called Senator Flanagan's office last week and I was informed that he read my letter but they are very busy. Since I wrote the letter, I found out that StudentsFirst, which advocates for charter schools, is his top contributor. Knowing this, it is clear he has his own agenda. I do not expect to hear from him, but if I do I will gladly post the response.
Dear
Senator Flanagan,
I
am a parent and an educator, who has been teaching for 15 years at a
multicultural school district on Long Island.
I have two Masters Degrees, one in Special Education and the other in
Administration. I am very passionate
about my job and I am a very strong student advocate.
My
initial goal in e-mailing you is to address some concerns I had after listening
to The Capital Pressroom with Susan Arbetter on 3/2/15, posted on your
website. I understand that this e-mail
is lengthy but I encourage you to read it thoroughly. I honestly believe that it is hard to
understand a profession that is not your own focus. Therefore, this e-mail is intended to help
create some much needed insight into the public educational system. I hope that with this knowledge, you will be
able to focus on the real issues at hand.
I feel as if I can no longer just stand by and keep what I know to
myself. The public deserves to know the truth. I have to admit that writing this e-mail has
been a cathartic experience for me. I feel
like the floodgates have been opened but I also recognize that this is only the
beginning.
In
The Capital Pressroom interview earlier this month, I agree with your statement
that the focus needs to be on students and student outcomes. My concern is your assertion that one of the
main goals should be determining, “how we get the best teacher in front of the
classroom.”
That
said; let me ask you, who would be the
best teacher in front of the classroom?
Would
the best teacher be the one who is really good for the auditory learner, the
visual learner, the multisensory learner, the child with attention issues, the
child who is unorganized, the child whose second language is English, the child
who has a borderline IQ, or the child who has a learning disability? Even with this partial list, you can see that
there are many different factors contributing to the learning process of each
child who will sit in a public classroom.
Therefore, you cannot create a formula to identify the “best teacher”. The reason for this is because each teacher
has a unique personality and teaching style, while each student has their own
distinctive personalities, learning modalities and intellectual ability. This diversity is one of the ingredients
which make my teaching experience so wonderful.
There
will be many teachers with whom the student will come into contact throughout
the course of his/her public education, most of whom will be competent and
caring. I also believe that most of the
teachers are interested in their student’s welfare and success. Encountering one or two less capable teachers
will not predetermine a student’s failure in life. We can all remember those couple of teachers
who did not meet our expectations, yet those are not the ones who ultimately shape
us. Of course teachers need to be
evaluated and those found inadequate will need to make improvements. However, the APPR is so seriously flawed
that, in my opinion, it is a waste of money, effort, and time, which we cannot
afford.
I
was rated, “highly qualified” according to the APPR’s guidelines last year, but
this rating is not as professionally inspirational as are the numerous cards,
graduation pictures, and e-mails I regularly receive from my former
students.
I
am including a random sampling:
“Ms.
Carro, Thank you for giving me the wings to fly, with them I will soar through
the world.
Love, Kim”
“Ms.
Carro, Without you I wouldn’t be where I am today. Thank you, Laura”
“Thanks
for a great year of success, maybe it is harder for you than me to see how much
I learned. Love, Malcolm”
“Thanks
for everything and for not giving up on me and believing in me. Love, Flor”
Notice,
the phrase “best teacher” is not included, confirming that I don’t think it exists. Although I have many more warm and grateful
notes, I am not so unaware to think that all of my students have been as
enthusiastic, despite my sincerest efforts.
There will always be those students whom I cannot reach. Generally this is due to poor attendance or
lack of support from home. Knowing this,
I have tried talking to them, calling home, scheduling meeting, buying school
supplies, and requesting evaluations.
All students are worth my effort, not matter where their path will
lead.
Regarding
the teacher evaluations, the approved APPR guidelines have been set so low,
according to Governor Cuomo, that many ineffective teachers are deemed effective. Since these guidelines did not accomplish his
goal of weeding out ineffective teachers, he is now proposing spending even
more precious money and time on an outside panel to evaluate each teacher’s
performance. Who could possibly
determine the value of a teacher based on observing one day out of 180+ days of
a teacher’s schedule? Who could assess
his governing based on one day of observation?
Further,
Governor Cuomo now wants 50% of teacher evaluations to be based on student test
scores. Being a resource room teacher, I
don’t teach a content based course. I
reinforce the content of the curriculum, while trying to build students skills,
but I don’t teach a specific course. All
of my teaching is with children with disabilities, having little to do with
state exam courses, yet 50% of my evaluation will be based upon the state exam
scores. Does this sound like an accurate
weeding out process to you?
There
are numerous studies dealing with state scores having no reflection on
teacher’s competence. I am including
some of these studies for your convenience.
Last
year, after my administrator’s observation review, I asked what I could do to
improve in the next year and there were no answers for me. This further substantiates my claim that the
APPR observations are of no benefit.
I
really wish teachers could just get back to teaching. Real teaching, not teaching to a standardized
test. “Test-teaching” inhibits
meaningful projects that foster creative thinking and the creation of students’
work portfolios that show their individual progress.
Before we can
start asking questions about what we need to do, we first need to identify what
when wrong.
New
York State needs to stop micromanaging school districts by creating flawed
policies and forcing districts to abide by them.
The record needs
to be set straight. Parents, students and the public need to know
the truth! The truth will help light the
way towards real, much needed and meaningful improvements in public education.
We need
transparency in all aspects of education, including all the changes that have
been made and who made them! People need to
start taking responsibility for their mistakes and owning up to it. Teachers are being used as scapegoats, yet
teachers are not part of any of the below!
1)
The Lowering of Standards: This
was done, believe it or not, to try to make everyone college bound. What a mistake! The regent’s diploma that I have and that
most parents have is NOT the same regent’s diploma the students are getting
today, or within the past 13 years.
It has been watered down. The
advanced regent today, is much closer to the regent’s diploma I received, over
20 years ago. Why is this? Someone decided to MAKE everyone work towards
a Regents diploma. They did this in the
name of “Raising the Standards!” In
reality, they lowered the standards. The
goal was to try to get everyone to be college ready. Does everyone need to be college ready? No, and by doing this they eliminated choices
for students. I have students that don’t
particularly like school. However, they
are bright kids and would do well in the right program. Not a college bound program. There is nothing wrong with this. However,
NYS have taken these choices away from students and forced everyone into a
watered down regents track.
Differences
in the Regents Diploma:
·
Regents
diploma requirements today and within the last 13 years:
5 regents’ exams: one math, one science, Global, US History and
English
·
Regents
diploma requirements 13+ years ago:
8-9 regents’ exams must be passed: two math, two science, one additional regents
in either a math or science, Global, US History, English and a Language.
For more information on Diploma
Requirements, the NYS General Education and Diploma Requirement Chart is
available at the below NYS website.
2)
Curving Exams: State exams are heavily curved. So what may look like a difficult exam may not
be as hard to pass as one would think.
For the Algebra regents, the students only need 30 points on Part I to
pass. There are 30 questions and they
are worth 2 points each. They only need
to get half of the questions right on Part I to pass and then they don’t even need
to score any points on the part II, III or IV.
Without the curve the equivalent of a 65% is a 34%. Shocking, isn’t it? No wonder colleges are complaining. Please refer to the conversion chart for the
2014 June Algebra Regents, I pasted the link from the NYS website below.
Also take notice how the curve is skewed.
The more points a student gets past a 65, then the score starts to go up at a
slower pace, until the curve no longer exists.
So to be clear here, a score of a 65% is really a 34% with a curve but a
100% is a true 100%.
·
Again,
lowering the standards and expectations for students.
3)
No consistency in
the NYS Standards: The
standards have changed 4 times in the past 15 years. Let’s remember that a student goes through the
public school system from K-12th grade, making a total of 13 years
in public school. Now let’s remember
that the standards have been changed four times in 15 years. So no student in the past 15 years has had
the same set of standards from K-12th grade. Now I ask you, what set of criteria are they
using to measure teachers? There has been NO consistency for the last
15 years! This is a major
problem. Any educator, psychologist, or
parent for that matter, will tell you the importance of consistency. The
State has the audacity to judge teachers, when all teachers have been doing is
following the States inconsistent standards.
·
The worse part of
this is that the students are the ones that suffer. It is confusing for the students when
curriculum gets changed multiple times throughout their education. An example being the way they turned the math
curriculum upside down 3x and they are still doing this with Common Core. When I first started teaching, students took
Sequential Math, a year each for Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry. Then someone decided to combine the topics, a
little of everything. So Math A became 1
½ years with combined topics and Math B became another 1 ½ years with combined
topics. Within a few years they decided to
adopt another program called Integrated Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry,
three separate years for each topic. Now
we have Common Core Math Topics, which is a monster in and of itself. Although there are some aspects of the Common
Core standards that I like, the implementation
is ALL wrong. Wrong for public schools,
wrong for teachers, but most importantly wrong for our children! Again
and again the students suffer.
·
Does anyone benefits
from all this?
Textbook companies, perhaps even politicians.
This is a multi-billion dollar business and every time they change the
standards, the schools need new material to coincide with the standards. What a waste of money!
4)
Little to no
retentions (being left back) prior to high school:
Apparently students don’t get retained
anymore unless a parent requests it. I
recall having a conversation with an Assistant Principal (AP) and I asked why
students get pushed ahead even when they are failing. She said, “Studies show that retention does
not work.” I responded, “Are there
studies that show that pushing them ahead does work?”
The reality is that a student can fail 6th,
7th and 8th grade math, not have to attend summer school,
be pushed along and end up sitting in a 9th grade math class. Is it fair to judge the 9th grade teacher on
the scores of the student who failed math three years in a row? Is it fair to the other student in the class
who have passed three years of math and are ready to continue? An finally, is it fair to the child himself
who did not pass three years in a row and is still being set up to fail? If studies show that retention does not work
for the student clearly experiences show that unearned promotion holds everyone
back. It also sends a message to all
children that if you don’t learn the material, you will be moved along anyway,
until 9th grade when you will need to earn credits. Unfortunately by that time the damage has
been done and many students drop out.
5)
There is no more
tracking (Level A – Honors, Level B - Regents, Level C – Local):
What does this mean? Unless a student is classified with a
disability and it is agreed upon, at a Committee on Special Education (CSE)
meeting, that the student will be in a smaller class setting, all students are
in the same class. Although a student
may be a slow learner or has a lower IQ, everyone is still together. Therefore, in a classroom of 30 students,
there are some students with over a 110 IQ (above average) and students with
under a 90 (below average) and even under an 80 IQ (borderline). They are all learning the same material at
the same pace. There are no general
education classes that go at a slower pace.
So in these classes, what really happens? Teachers try to differentiate the work but
more often than not, they probably end up teaching to the middle. The higher level students are not challenged
enough and the lower level students are struggling.
·
There
are honor classes for those students that are excelling.
·
They
have implemented additional instructional services (AIS) lab classes, for those
struggling students. These classes meet
every other day, for additional math or ELA instruction. Unfortunately, this is not enough support for
struggling students.
·
I
want to make it clear that I am not a proponent of tracking the way it was done
in the past. The problem is, no one
tried to solve the issues with tracking; instead they eliminated a much needed
general educational program, limiting options for students. One of the main problems with tracking is that
the school made these decisions with little or no parent or student
involvement. This is wrong! All students should be given every opportunity
to be in a regent’s track; however, if they are not being successful and they
express that they have no desire
to attend college, another options should be available to them. This
option would allow them to be in a class that spends more time on the material
because they do not cover the topics as thoroughly. These students would have to pass a different
type of test and they would get a more general diploma. Similar to the RCT and Local Diplomas that
were offered in the past. These students
should also be given the option of attending a BOCES technical education
program, where they could learn a trade
and get a license before graduation. Yes, we still have BOCES but the programs
have been drastically cut.
·
Today
and for the past few years, the Local Diploma is still an option but only for
student in a Special Education program. It
is also only granted as some type of “backup plan”. They first need to fail before this can be an
option for them. Then if they can pass
the regents exam with a 55 or better they can earn a Local Diploma. So now, let’s go back to the June 2014
Algebra Regents. A curved 55% on this
exam is really a 26%. This only goes to
show how State policy has continued to fail struggling students. I ask you this, what do you think these
students feel like when they are taking this test? Don’t they even deserve to be given a fair
test? Accepting a 26% on a test, as
having learned content in an area and granting a diploma based on this, is
unacceptable. I don’t know what is
worse, the students that end up in this situation or the message that this
sends them.
6)
Technology: Another factor that needs to be addressed is
technology. We are so far behind in
technology within the educational realm it is deplorable. I am not just talking about ancient
computers in the classroom but about computer programs. So much time is being spent on attacking
teachers, APPR, Common Core and Testing, that no one is developing needed,
insightful and thorough educational computer programs. What is available is so limited that it
baffles me. A good educational computer
program should assess the students learning modality, assess their knowledge of
a given topic, and individualize an assignment on that child’s instructional
level. It would pull questions from a
large array of sources and provide immediate feedback for the student. Every student should have their own
individual assignment based on their assessment. All student review assignments should be done
in this matter. We have nothing like
this in the entire educational system and this is a huge oversight. This alone
could revolutionize education for our students.
7)
Discipline: There should be a unified discipline policy
that all public schools need to follow. One
that cannot be debatable by students or parents. The consequences need to be outlined in a
table format next to each offense.
Again, this is going back to consistency. If we are consistent with dealing with
inappropriate behavior from day one, then we should not be dealing with these
same behaviors years down the line. There
are so many ridiculous behaviors that are being dealt with on a daily basis by
teachers. It is a distraction and it
gets in the way of students education.
This is what separates private and public schools. Private schools will not tolerate certain behaviors
and many of them require uniforms. We
need to start expecting more from our students, in regard to behavior. Students need to dress appropriately for
school, just like they would be expected to dress appropriately for work. Students need to wear their ID’s, for safety
purposes. These issues need to be expected
of all students, without constant reinforcement. When schools accept inappropriate behavior,
we have failed the students and society.
It
is recognized that parent involvement and poverty are huge factors that affect
student success; however, public schools can’t control this. Perhaps, the State can find ways to give
incentives to parents who foster a home environment that promotes education success,
strong ethics and good study habits.
Now
that the problems that public schools have been facing, have been
identified. It allows us to focus on
some important aspects we need to bring back to our public schools.
1)
Educational
programs that allow choices for students: Students
need to work towards something that is meaningful to them. We lose the students that hate school because
they don’t want to be there. Not because
of the teachers but because they have not found a connection. They are not motivated. We need to offer programs that meet student’s
different needs. I am not talking about
Special Education. I am talking about
program options. Not everyone is college
bound, so let’s stop forcing everyone on this path. Start having students focus on a career path,
either college bound or a technical school/program in middle school. Then by the end of middle school, students
should have to apply to specialty HS programs.
This will get and keep them motivated early on. They will be driven towards something they
want. The career focus in schools has
started, but the availability for students having choices about the type of
educational program that is right for them, is not available!
2)
Elementary School: Teach the basics in elementary school but
teach it thoroughly. Let kids be
kids. Don’t frustrate them in elementary
school; you will end up turning more students off to education. There is nothing wrong with
memorization. We are raising a
generation of students that don’t memorize anything, not even their own phone
numbers. I am not saying that students
should not be encouraged to think critically but I am very concerned about this
approach so early on in a child’s education.
Have we dismissed all the work of some of the greatest psychologists who
state that critical thinking does not happen until adolescent and early
adulthood? Abstract and critical
thinking relies on life experiences and a broad range of knowledge. These are things elementary students don’t have
yet. When my daughter memorized her
first book and read it too me, she was so happy. No, she was not reading but this was part of
her learning process and she was thrilled. Memorization boosts confidence by
helping students feel successful.
Children need this, especially early on in their education.
3)
Teaching: Let the teachers teach! Let teachers be creative! This will bring the joy back into the
classrooms. When teachers start teaching
to a test, the classroom environment totally changes. Provide teachers with the
tools and computer programs to meet student’s individual needs. Don’t demand that they teach in a “specific”
way or give them a scripted program.
This is treating them like robots and making them feel like idiots. For example, how should one teach a child to
read? Should the school embrace a phonics
based program or a whole language type of program? WRONG question! The question should be what is the best
program for the individual child? We
need to start asking the right questions.
Just like there is no “best” teacher there is no “best” educational
program. We need to start focusing on
what program works best for the individual child.
4)
Testing: STOP testing young kids! This is so stressful for them. It makes them feel horrible, especially
students with learning disabilities, ADHD or those students that have test
anxiety. End of the year portfolios
should be done for any child prior to HS.
Portfolios are very time consuming to put together, but so much more
meaningful than a test to show student progress.
I
truly believe if we embrace an educational system that allows more choices for
students, in terms of types of diplomas and career paths, we will see more
student success.
I
hope insight has been gained, about some of the major problems that have been
occurring in public education over the last 15 years. I also believe I have offered some valuable
suggestions on how to begin to repair these damages.
I
have asked you a few questions throughout my e-mail; in addition, I would like
to know if you were aware of the lowering of the standards, the curving of the
exams, the constant changing of the NYS Standards, the little to no retention
occurring in public schools and the removal of tracking, which merges everyone
together in one program?
It
has taken me quite some time to write this letter and I would greatly
appreciate a response.
Respectfully,
Tara
Ann Carro-Scherer
