Comments on: Underneath the shouting, a hum about curriculum standards

By: Liza Campbell

Liza Campbell — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 03:49:00 +0000

When the action was first planned this was called a “Special PEP meeting” that was a conversation with the chancellor about common core and did not mention parents specifically. They changed their definition of the meeting after the action was planned.

By: Liza

Liza — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 03:45:00 +0000

Disqus isn’t letting me log in right now but this is Liza again. To their credit, I was just going to sleep last night and only saw this top article by Gotham which is why I was so upset at the coverage. I didn’t see the two additional pieces below that included other coverage and focused a bit more on the concerns of those who came out for the occupy action… something that would make sense considering there was over ten times as much turn out for the action than for the DOE’s “conversation.” The truth is that people responded to a call to action by community groups and OWS to shut
this meeting down because the DOE has been shutting the community’s voice out of
decisions for so long. We knew the only way our concerns would be heard
is if we used creative action and the people’s mic to make that happen. Such a call brought out hundreds more people than the
DOE’s “conversation” because they aren’t talking about the
real issues facing our schools, and because they aren’t interested in
real dialogue. Real dialogue would mean truly hearing and responding to
the concerns that are commonplace in schools across the city that they
are doing nothing to address.

By: Norm

Norm — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:36:00 +0000

I received this email:

a
parent came late and got shepherded up to the relocated meeting
upstairs on the 3rd Fl. Good thing, too, cause she’s a parent and a
fierce critic of high stakes testing and everything the “core curriculm”
is trying to do. It sounds like there were a
total of about 20 people at this relocated meeting, most of whom were
suits and including David Coleman himself. She thought
there were only about 5 real people there, but she and at least one
other parent there was able to give them a little hell. They weren’t
even safe up on the 3rd Fl!!!!”

By: Norm

Norm — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:56:00 +0000

Don’t you love these “conversations” Tweed has with people? Sort of like FDR’s fireside chats. I’d like to get the numbers straight. Exactly how many people went upstairs to have a one-way conversation? Was it 20 or 30? While 200 did not go upstairs? I wonder it Coleman told them that the ultimate goal of Common Core is that if it’s Tuesday at 10:15 AM every single teacher in America will be teaching the same lesson and for the same amount of time. Maybe we should install a national gong to indicate “time to go on to the next lesson” for 4 million teachers.

By: Michael M. (parent still)

Michael M. (parent still) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:21:00 +0000

Still waiting for a “conversation” about annual budget cuts in the face of rising enrollment, increasing school overcrowding, intolerable and illegal class sizes, “demand-based capital plans” that somehow result in 20% CUTS to at least one overcrowded borough, etc., etc. …

By: Norm

Norm — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 04:40:00 +0000

Was this a fair and balanced “discussion” on common core standards? Were parents given the opportunity to hear the other side from the likes of Leonie and people like Susan Ohanian who has been exposing the sham of the common core for a long time? Were parents even given the right to ask a question other than on an index card?

This meeting was designed so someone like Leonie could not bring up the issues to Coleman”s face as to the distortions in his presentation.

So how do we label this: ”
Underneath the shouting, a hum about curriculum standards”

All I can say is hmmmmmmmm.

By: Nyhistoryteacher

Nyhistoryteacher — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 03:59:00 +0000

At what point was this meeting designated “the common core discussion” and not a PEP meeting. Were all the members of the PEP there tonight? It seems like the PEP meeting is the place to protest, not at a parent outreach event.

Protesters are largely defined in the media by the place they protest. Protesting at the parent outreach event doesn’t focus the attention on the PEP. Few news stories will even explain the flawed process of the PEP because of this venue. Protesting at the PEP meeting forces journalists to expose the fraud that is the PEP.

By: Nyhistoryteacher

Nyhistoryteacher — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 03:59:00 +0000

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 02:59:00 +0000

Coleman’s claims that the ” development of the standards…was a vast process where
thousands of teachers and parents were involved” is not true. I don’t know a single parent who was involved & there is lots of opposition about the way these standards were adopted w/ little public process, through the putsh of Gates money and Race to the Top. Check out the comments of Sandra Stotsky, who helped develop the Massachusetts standards, about how the Common Core was developed by a
taskforce, the majority of whose members work for testing companies, and
how their associated exams are being crafted “behind closed doors.”

By: Liza Campbell

Liza Campbell — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 02:52:00 +0000

Wow! There were HUNDREDS of protesters at an INCREDIBLE action tonight but gotham chooses to title their piece and open by focusing on the 20 folks the DOE got to turn out for their “conversation”… a conversation that is so UNBELIEVABLY meaningless when compared to the issues schools are facing right now. How you could possibly respond to the INCREDIBLE SUCCESS THAT HUNDREDS OF PARENTS AND TEACHERS had tonight by turning this meeting into a true conversation (!!!!) with an article like this one I will never understand.

By: Michael Fiorillo

Michael Fiorillo — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 02:48:00 +0000

The Microsoft-Pearson Standards, often mistakenly called the Common Core Standards, are a mask for the testing they are to be appended to.