It Is Time To Pull The “Trigger”

From California to New York parents are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the education of their children. Legislation titled “Parent Trigger” was written to give parents more power to effect change in the system of education.

The reality is, parent power does not need to be legislated but simply acted upon. Parents already have the right and the responsibility to change the system of education for their children.

New York State Education Law: NYSED / P-12 / Part 100 Regulations / 100.11 Participation of parents and teachers in school-based planning and shared decisionmaking, gives parents the right and responsibility to be involved in the decision making process for their child’s school. Unfortunately, most School Based Planning Teams are run by the administrators or teachers with little parent involvement. Decision making isn’t shared and parents are generally out voted though decisions are supposed to be made by consensus.

Parents, these are your children! You don’t have to wait for someone to write your rights into law. You do, however, have to take responsibility. You have to be involved in your child’s education. Make sure your children know and understand the importance of an excellent education. Make sure they do their homework. Make sure they get good grades. Once you have done all of those things, you have to protest, you have to boycott, you have to be committed to fight for your children’s right to be successfully educated.

Parent uprisings are not unusual. In fact they are common. So common that leaders in education have learned that they need only to “wait out the storm” and eventually dissatisfied parents will go away. Today’s Parent Trigger laws are yesterday’s Parent Involvement policies. Both are simply measures to placate and distract parents from recognizing and acting upon their power.

Parents, you are the trigger. Demand what your children deserve, an excellent education. Don’t wait for those that created the problem to solve it. Work with those who are committed to changing the system of education not the business of education. Make sure that when you pull the trigger you are aiming in the right direction.

Join the Movement to Save Our Children!

Rigorous or Rigor Mortis

Rigorous: Extremely thorough, exhaustive, or accurate, very strict.

Rigor mortis (Latin meaning “stiffness of death”) is one of the recognizable signs of death.

The buzz word in education today is rigor. While teacher evaluation is exhaustive and strictly administered, it is not extremely thorough or accurate when determining what students have learned.

Standardized testing is one of the recognizable signs of death in learning. Death in the interest in learning, the excitement of learning, death in the joy of learning. It is also one of the recognizable signs of death in teaching.

“Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, New York State Education Commissioner John King, and New York State United Teachers President Richard C. Iannuzzi today announced a groundbreaking agreement on a new statewide evaluation system that will make New York State a national leader in holding teachers accountable for student achievement.”

- 60 percent of a teacher’s evaluation will be based on rigorous and nationally recognized measures of teacher performance.
- 40 percent of a teacher’s evaluation will be based on student academic achievement, with 20 percent from state testing and 20 percent from a list of three testing options including state tests, third party assessments/tests approved by the SED and locally developed tests that will be subject to SED review and approval.

The Scale:
Ineffective: 0 – 64
Developing: 65 – 74
Effective: 75 – 90
Highly Effective: 91 – 100

What are the “rigorous” measures of teacher performance? Who will develop the local tests? What are the consequences for a teacher receiving an ineffective score? What about the “curve” that can move an ineffective teacher to developing? What are the implications for a seasoned teacher who receives a “developing” score?

The most important question in all of this “rigor” is, “How exactly will any of this help children learn?” There is nothing in this groundbreaking agreement that translates into student achievement. Teacher evaluation is a band-aid on a gaping wound that is causing the educational death of our children.

Our children deserve a better system of education that is flexible enough to meet their individual needs and challenging enough to keep rigor mortis from setting in.

Join the Movement to Save Our Children!