Thank you, Parents!

The school year is wrapping up, and without exception, it has been the most difficult one of my career.

It was not difficult in the sense of not knowing what to do, how to manage the students, or any of the other requisite skills that teaching as a career requires. Rather, it was difficult in the emotional and psychological sense.

For several years now, we as public educators have been under fire. Movies such as Waiting for Superman have deliberately skewed public perception of our schools: their successes, their failures, and most of all, their students and staff.

Through conversations with fellow educators, I know that I am not alone in having felt at times over the past several years demoralized, unappreciated, and overlooked. Through conversations with my students, I am certain that they too have come to feel the pressure of seemingly endless standardized testing; SGOs (Student Growth Objectives) which are purportedly designed to assess the quality of the teacher, but only wind up adding yet another test to the students' schedules; and of myriad other educational initiatives, most of which are not borne out even in the slightest by educational research.

And then the parents heard us.

The parents heard the cries of their children, and the cries of their children's teachers. They have risen up as a mighty force, conquering and vanquishing foes whose fortunes and favors extend far and wide. They have risen up with a primal cry in refute, refusing to allow their children to be treated like so many guinea pigs in the experimental laboratory of contemporary education.

And I thank you for it.

You, parents, have heartened me, and brought me a greater sense of peace and hope. Together, I hope that we can defend the educations of our children, mine included.The stakes are too great for us to do anything else. As I care for my children- in my heart, soul, and self- I am sure that this is how you care for yours.

Together, we CAN and WILL overcome the virulent forces amassed against us. We have already garnered several victories, the last of course being the removal of Cami Anderson from Newark. True, her replacement is no angel. However, the point is made. They can (and will) write whatever they want in education deform-friendly periodicals, but in my eyes, she is gone because of the incredible and intense pressure that students, parents, educators, and community members placed on our lawmakers.

Hooray for us!

And so, allow us to continue to fight the good fight. To be sure, this will be a long, protracted conflict. There is too much money at stake for it to be otherwise. However, we have something on our side that they can never match: our love for and fierce defense of our children. As we care for them, so may we fight together to secure schools which are fit for their upbringing and growth.

Beware the Next Generation

Sometimes it stinks to be right.

Last week, Governor Christie shook things up by insinuating that he would be pulling NJ out of Common Core (CC). Today, John Mooney reported on Commissioner Hespe's apparent moderation of those provocative comments by suggesting that the process of re-evaluating CC would be a "highly deliberative" process, and that the end product may not be terribly different from what is already in place (http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/15/06/03/hespe-justifies-review-of-common-core-suggests-changes-may-not-be-drastic/).

Even worse, Hespe took the opportunity to set the next stage in the course towards nationalization of all standards, and the elimination of local control from that equation. As I'm sure my readers already know, Common Core standards only address language arts and mathematics, which has left the question of standardization across all other subjects open for speculation. Apparently, the time has come to eliminate those questions from the minds of America's parents and their children.

Enter the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

As a teacher, for better or worse I am often exposed to many of the educational reforms impacting our classrooms before they show up on the news, as they are implemented and promoted through professional educational networks before splashing across the front pages of newspapers nationwide. I would like to warn my readers of a new potential threat: the Next Generation Science Standards.

First of all, let's confront the absolute misnaming of these standards. The word "State" is deliberately inserted into the title, but to imply that the states independently generated these standards is disingenuous. Here is a little information on NGSS, from their own website:

"In a process managed by Achieve, states led the development of K-12 science standards that are rich in content and practice and arranged in a coherent manner across disciplines and grades to provide all students an internationally-benchmarked science education." (http://www.nextgenscience.org/development-overview)

So, states led the development of the standards, but the whole process was managed by some group known as Achieve.

Why do I feel like I've heard that name before??? Oh yeah:

As I explained in my last entry, Achieve is a non-profit funded by the Gates Foundation "to support comprehensive benchmarking and review of academic standards and assessments between states" (http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/1999/10/OPP369).

And here they go, yet again...

So, readers, be wary of anything with the title "Next Generation" attached to it- other than Star Trek episodes, that is. This is very likely the same bilk as Common Core being repackaged and resold to address subjects other than language arts and math.