This is a revised and shorter format of the letter to Senator Flanagan
The Truth about NYS Public Schools
The Truth about NYS Public Schools
Is
it a concern to you, that Gov. Cuomo has received thousands of tweets and
postcards inviting him to visit public schools and he has yet to accept a
single one?
Is
it a concern to you that students, including elementary school students, have
broken down and cried while taking these inappropriate state exams?
Is
it a concern to you, that the exams give schools a number (a skewed curved
score) and provide the schools with limited information regarding student’s
strengths and weaknesses?
Is
it a concern to you, that the NYS standards have been changed four times in 15 years, providing NO
consistency in education?
Is
it a concern to you that students no longer have to pass classes to move ahead,
prior to HS?
Is
it a concern to you, that the new Common Core assessments have been criticized
as being “flawed” and “developmentally inappropriate?
Is
it a concern to you, that 60,000 parents “Opted-Out” their children from taking
these exams last year, and this year, that number will drastically increase?
Is
it a concern to you, that teachers are seeing less enthusiastic learners and
more confused, disinterested and frustrated students?
Is
it a concern to you, that local districts have lost their autonomy and are
being micromanaged by NYS?
Is
it a concern to you that young people are starting to see teaching as a career
where they have to justify their existence and are turning away from
the profession?
Is
it a concern to you, that while all this is taking place, districts are owed
money and there are billions of dollars in surplus?
Is
it a concern to you that that the Gov. Cuomo refuses to give schools state aid
if they do not accept his polices? Is this not extortion?
Is
it a concern to you that with all these questions, it looks like students are
being used as pawns to go after teachers?
Is
it a concern to you, that there might be some type of conspiracy going on here?
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 has 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 needed 30 points on Part I to pass. There are 30
questions and each question is worth 2 points. They only need to get half
of the questions right on Part I to pass and 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. Accepting
a 34% on a test, as having learned content in an area and granting a diploma
based on this, is unacceptable!
Please refer to the conversion
chart for the 2014 June Algebra Regents, I pasted the link from the NYS website
below.
Also take notice to 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 the 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
new standards. What a waste of money!
4) Little to no retention (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 students in the
class who have passed three years of math and are ready to continue? And
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 students, clearly experiences show that unearned promotion holds
everyone back. It also sends a message to all children that if they don’t
learn the material, they will be moved along anyway, until 9th grade
when they 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 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 (English Language Arts) 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 was 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
option should be available to them. This option would allow them to be in
a class that spends more time on the material because the topics are not
covered 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 students 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 deserve to
be given a fair test? I don’t know what is worse, the students that end
up in this situation or the message 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 assignments
based on their assessments. 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 debated 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 and speak
appropriately for school, just like they would be expected to dress and speak
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 educational success, strong ethics and
good study habits.
Now that the problems faced by public schools, have been
identified. We can begin to talk
about how to fix the problem.
Important aspects of learning
that need to be brought back to our public schools
1) Teach the basics in elementary
school but teach it thoroughly. Align the right
programs to the right type of child.
Kids deserve to be kids and they deserve to feel successful. 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 number. 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.
2) Provide 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 then lose
their motivation and desire to learn. We need to offer programs that meet
student’s individual 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!
3) 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 programs work best for the individual child and have all these programs
available in our public schools.
4) 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.
Now it
is time for the public to speak up! Call Gov. Cuomo, your
Senator and Assemblymen. Start asking questions about the above and demand
appropriate answers.
·
To find your Senator go to, http://www.nysenate.gov/ and put your address
in the top left side of the homepage.
·
To find your Assemblyman go to, http://assembly.state.ny.us/ and
click on “search by address” on the top right side of the homepage.
Also
sign the below petitions:
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/nys-fails-public-education - NYS
Fails Public Education
https://mac.nysut.org/signpetition/widget/issue/257 - NY
Public Schools are not for sale
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/give-new-york-state-parents -
Right for parents to Opt-Out their children
http://roundtheinkwell.com/2012/12/29/petition-to-the-nys-board-of-regents-against-high-stakes-testing/ - Say
No to high stake tests
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stop-common-core-in-new-york-state -
Stop Common Core in NYS
Help show that democracy still works!
Thank you in advance for your support,
Tara Ann Carro-Scherer
Tara, your a true advocate for education. Love you
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