The New York Post Editorial Board is irate at the newly released draft of accountability rules for New York State public schools. Now that the feds have reauthorized No Child Left Behind as the Every Child Succeeds Act (ESSA), states are left to their own devices in creating their own definition of school quality and accountability. New York’s plan,… Read more →
“Our schools have never been about passing standardized tests,” said NY State Regent Judith Johnson this past Thursday, June 2nd at the Scarsdale Public Library. Calling that goal “too narrow,” Johnson asserted, “The goal of schools is to prepare students to be effective citizens and caring adults.” That sort of pablum, preserved in this week’s edition of a Scarsdale local… Read more →
Here’s today’s little opt-out gem in the New York Times. At Public School 321 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, part of District 15, more than a third of the eligible students did not sit for the tests last year, and the principal, Elizabeth Phillips, has in the past been outspoken in opposing them. At a PTA meeting there last week, Ms.… Read more →
New Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa, queen of the opt-out movement in New York State and heroine to teacher union leaders, is reaping widespread criticism for counseling parents to refuse state standardized tests for their children. Even Long Island’s Newsday dings her unprofessional approach towards accountability, noting that Rosa “threw gas on the fire rather than quelling it” when she said that if… Read more →