Pres. Obama to Parents, Teacher and Students: Get on the bus or move out the way

[erodriguez]

Race To the Top and the Blueprint for Education just will not work.

The core agenda is based on Bloomberg/Klein's Children's first agenda in NYC. Just yesterday it was shown that testing madness, closing down schools, firing teachers and opening charters do not work.

The educational gains that were so touted and are now being used as a national model has been proven false. They were just grade inflation. NY state had progressively lowered the passing grade year after year.

The result? Students had been receiving diplomas without the necessary skills to enter college or the work force. Also, students on the cusp were promoted without the necessary support for improvement.

Now it is known that only 42% of NYC students are proficient in reading. And only 54% are proficient in math.

Non-educators have held the reins on policy decisions for far too long. They choose to assign blame to teachers for their own failings. They choose to ignore the input of teachers, parents and students. As President Obama basically said today in his speech to the National Urban League, "If you are not aboard the bus, move out the way."

It is a shame that President Obama is putting students at risk with these poor educational policies.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. We're not gonna take it . . . . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1_X2MeZ-F8

[erodriguez]

2. The previous scores for NYC

I should have put these in my post.

ELA:

NYC overall 69% to 42% proficiency
NY charters 76% to 43% proficiency

NY state 77% to 53% proficiency


Math:

NYC overall 82% to 54% proficiency
NY charters 89% to 59% proficiency
NY state 86% to 61% proficiency

[Starry Messenger]

3. k & r

Nothing is going to budge in education until poverty and lack of resources is addressed. We all desperately want these kids to succeed. Blowing up our base camp in public education is utterly foolish.

[roguevalley]

9. piss on him. what is it about these idiot presidents that think they

are educational experts.

[erodriguez]

4. Bloomberg refuses to accept responsibility and is backtracking on his own statements

City scrambles to re-calibrate its message to adjusted scores

Talking about the definition of academic proficiency yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg struck a relativist note.

“Everybody can have their definition of what it means,” he said. Later, he added: “The last time I checked, Lady Gaga is doing fine with just a year of college.”

He even asked reporters not to refer to students who score above a Level 3 out of 4 as “proficient.”

The request follows new revelations that the bar for “proficiency” on state tests seems to have dropped over time, so that even though more students statewide were meeting it each year, they were not actually learning more. In response, the state this year took steps to tug standards higher.

Yet even as he called the definition of “proficient” into question, Bloomberg vigorously defended the administration’s tough accountability system, which uses the Level 1 to 4 system to determine which students move on to the next grade and as one piece of schools’ report card grades.

Bloomberg has also used rising numbers of students scoring at Level 3 as a referendum on his education policies, arguing over and over again that because the rates are going up, the policies must work. Just last year, announcing that more students were “meeting or exceeding grade-level math standards,” a reference to more students scoring Level 3 or higher, Bloomberg called the results “proof” of New York City schools’ excellence.

“Our schools have made a remarkable turnaround since 2002,” he said in a press release. “New York City is now proof that you shouldn’t have to choose between living in a big city and sending your children to excellent public schools.”

For years, city officials also rebuffed critics who suggested that rapid gains might not represent increases in student learning. ”I’m sort of speechless,” Bloomberg said in 2008, after GothamSchools editor Elizabeth Green (then a reporter at the New York Sun) asked whether rising graduation rates might reflect inflation. “Is there anything good enough to just write the story?”

Now that state officials have acknowledged that test scores have inflated — and they’ve adjusted them accordingly — the city is scrambling to adjust its message.

More here:
http://gothamschools.org/2010/07/29/city-scrambles-to-re-calibrate-its-message-to-adjusted-scores/#more-43496

[Deep13]

5. Too bad teachers and students are already under the bus. nt

[LWolf]

6. Well said:

"Non-educators have held the reins on policy decisions for far too long. They choose to assign blame to teachers for their own failings. They choose to ignore the input of teachers, parents and students."

[Catshrink]

7. That was a homerun

[erodriguez]

8. Thanks

I put up my whole reaction on incongressional.com

If you read it, please leave a comment.

[Igel]

10. "Get on the bus or move out of the way"?

Ah. At least, "Get run over" or "get thrown under the bus" aren't options.

Could be worse. ;-)