In 2010, the State of MA adopted the Common Core when it was
promised a part of $250million in Federal Race to the Top money. Well this
money is all gone and we the City if New Bedford are stuck paying for the bill
to follow this Common Core curriculum. It was not just the money that the State
of MA signed onto but also the Common Core standards.
These standards
are not sufficient to bring our students to the top but is set up to bring ALL
students to a level playing field. This is not something where we push ALL of
our students to go above and beyond. The best analogy to this is that the
slowest person will not catch up to the fastest person but the fastest person
can slow down and allow the slower person to catch up. We cannot mandate achievement,
as education is not a one size fits all approach.
PARCC advocates
argue, which I have heard from this administration, these tests would better
prepare students for college and careers. But Common Core ends with Algebra II
which is insufficient for students aiming for STEM (science, technology,
engineering, or math) majors.
Did anyone on this
committee speak with several of our higher education schools and ask if these
“New Standards” would benefit our children? They are going into college
unprepared. Algebra 1 is the key to advanced math study and recommends that
students study it in 8th grade which is/was the case under MA
standards. Common Core would delay ALGEBRA 1 until early in 10th
grade, which in turn prevents our students from reaching high levels of math in
High School.
One area that
upsets me about this is that the education of our children is under local
control and that municipalities DO NOT have to adopt the PARCC test. It was
stated back in early 2014 that it would be a good idea to administer this test
because the state had adopted this test to be effective in 2015/2016. That is
NOT the case and the general public needs not know this.
Parents needed to
know, and be informed by this committee, that they could opt out of this test.
There was never a clear answer to this question when some parents inquired
about it. Some were told that they had to take the exam, some told that they,
the parent, could not opt out of the exam for their child and that it was the
child that needed to refuse to take the test. How many of our children would
defy a teacher placing an exam in front of them and say “I’m not taking this!”
More parents need
to find out what is happening to our education system state wide and know their
rights as well.
I found that it is
this elected committee who has the statutory authority to enacted punishments
for the refusal unless State Law supersedes it. Are there any? Another
interesting area is that Superintendants must follow what is set by School
Committee and not the other way around.
Here are some reasons that I take issue with the MCAS vs.
PARCC standards:
1) MCAS has a proven record and PARCC has no demonstrable
track record.
2) MCAS was developed by MA educators and PARCC was
developed outside of MA
3) MCAS was vetted through the public process with
transparency in every step; PARCC was developed behind closed doors,
copyrighted by a private entity and reviewed by a validation committee whose
members were required to sign a non-disclosure agreement as part of the review.
4) Well recognized experts with teaching experience were
part of the assessment development for MCAS; the teaching expertise of writers
for the multi-state consortium PARCC assessments is not a matter of public
record.
5) MCAS secures control of curriculum with the local school
districts; PARCC forces the adoption of a national curriculum in order to pass
the assessment.
Our U.S. Bill of
Rights, under the 9th and 10th amendments, state that education
jurisdiction falls within each state and not the federal government. The Race
to the Top was the Federal government dangling the carrot in front of states to
sign on to a National curriculum. But as stated, that money is gone and the
states are being left high and dry. When our prior governor, and Head of the
DOE, signed on for this, did either of them do a cost projection analysis? This
is in part WHAT WE ARE SEEING NOW and why the NBPS is looking for such a high
increase in the budget for the past two years. Due to the lack of foresight on
all those involved, state government, State DOE, City of NB School Committee,
it is the City of New Bedford taxpayer who is being stuck with the bill. The
approx. cost projection is costing an approx. 16 BILLION to align schools with
texts and teachers for this common core curriculum. Those in charge may not
have done the projection but Pearson Publishing did.
So I want the
citizens of NB to understand that the PARCC exam is a test where there are no
assessments in place. The drivers of this program have no experience and are
individuals hired by the foundation that has pushed their way into enacting
education on a federal level.
As was stated by
Tom Birmingham, of The Patriot Ledger, “Let’s work on building MCAS and not
replace it with National standards and testing that show little promise of
replicating its success”.
We need to push
back against the DOE and let them know that you, our Elected officials, are
going to challenge these Mandated state standards of PARCC that are being
forced on our children. The MCAS are a school performance evaluation and not
connected to the teacher evaluations. With PARCC it is based on a teacher
evaluation and this is one reason I see the big push. We are pushing are
veteran teachers out and replacing them with the less experienced teachers. We,
YOU, need to stand behind our teachers and provide them the necessary tools to
teach our children and not threaten them with a PARCC evaluation system.
Look at the exit
of several teachers, principals, administrators, and staff support, and ask
yourselves, WHY ARE THEY ALL LEAVING? The truth being told to me by several is
that they cannot work under a threatening environment. This also goes for the
non-extensions of principal contracts. We are losing too many veteran educators
in this system instead of retaining them.
As was listed on the PARCC exams this year, this was titled
as a “2015 Field Test Exam”. Basically this exam was an experiment with our
children as the test subjects. The issue I have with this is that Pearson, a
British owned Company, is making money off the use of our children for this
exam. In test experiments, test subjects get paid for their participation and
proctors get paid for monitoring. So both our students and teachers should have
been compensated “Outside of their normal pay” for proctoring these exams.
Instead they were all “Forced” to take the exam and our teachers were “Mandated
volunteers” as proctors. Pearson has brought and paid for all the rights to
this exam and subject materials.
As far as who is grading these exams, they have advertised
both on Craig’s list and through the Kelly Services Temporary Work agency for
graders with no education experience at all. I could go on but my time is too
short.
5 comments:
V O T E for C O T T E R
(if you still live in this city)
nice job office Cotter, we need you on the school committee
PARCC is not the reason educators are leaving their positions. Take a couple guesses why!
The MCAS vs PARCC discussion is moot to the overall education of our city's children. Money is going to be spent regardless of public opinion. The superintendent determines need, convinces the SC and the mayor, and off we go. Taxpayers pay the bill. Where the superintendent is getting the input for the budget is anyone's guess. She did not come to me, a veteran teacher with decades of experience. Did she go to all the newbies in administration, or the principals who are supposedly leaving? It would be an interesting question to get the answer, that is find the real impetus for the budget. Other than overhead costs, the input should come from the teachers, the people in the classroom day in and day out. Learning is quite different today than it was years ago. Students do not study, have no books to take home, and even if they did, the materials would be either destroyed or lost. The desire to want to learn, with vision of leading to a well-paying job or career readiness is not realized by most students. This cultivation of self-awareness and maturation of student efficacy is deprived to students because this type of content is not discussed at length at home. Until this dynamic is reversed, meaning the parent takes the lead in the conversation, and the educator reinforces it, the question of MCAS or PARCC, well I'm sorry to say, will not result in anything that is different to what is trending today. New Bedford will be at the bottom of the state's non-performers.
Until we can get a police chief as scary as Pia this city will be taken over by car burning idiots.
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