Robert Bennett

Current board member Robert Bennett is dropping out of Race

ALBANY – Regional State Board of Regents member Robert Bennett is giving up on his bid for a fifth term in office.

Bennett said he’s learned that Assembly Speaker Carl Heasite has decided to back Bennett’s challenger, Catherine Collins, for the region’s post on the board, so he’s dropping out of the race.

Collins is one of two challengers for the seat. The other is John B. Licata. Both are former Buffalo School Board members.

The seat represents Western New York’s 98 school systems, including those in Chautauqua County. The state legislature is scheduled to vote on the matter this week.

Bennett was in Jamestown in December 2013 along with then-state education commissioner John B. King, Jr., who left that post at the end of 2014 to take as a senior adviser for the U.S. Department of Education. Both Bennett and King were in town in an effort to alleviate concerns over common core. Bennett had aligned himself with Commissioner King and supported the current Common Core model, which has not sat well with the powerful teachers’ unions across the region.

Bennett has served on the Board of Regents for 20 years. His term will end on March 31.

NYSUT regional director Anne Geronimo works with more than 7500 members from throughout Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany Counties. She was a guest Thrusday on WRFA’s Community Matters program and during our interview, she said educators aren’t necessarily opposed to Common Core, but instead are against how it’s been introduced and implemented by state education leaders.

“We support raising standards for kids. We always have supported that and we have many of our members who think the Common Core as they’ve seen it is a great thing and they’re happy to be working with it in their classrooms,” Geronimo explained. “Where we’ve run into problems is the state’s implementation of it in such a way that materials were not provided to teachers in a timely fashion. They were asked to test students on material that they hadn’t even introduced in the classroom yet.”

Geronimo also said that because of the poor implementation, both teachers and students are seeing a negative impact. “Children are having anxiety over this. They’re failing exams that they had never even seeing material for. They’re coming home crying. They’re exhibiting a lot of symptons in the classroom of anxiety. Any teacher is going to be deeply stressed by seeing their students stressed. So the genesis of our resistence to the implementation was the experience we saw our students having with the tests.”

New York State Education Commissioner John King, Jr. speaks with reporters prior to a public forum on public education at Jamestown High School on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013. King has been criticized by NYSUT and others for not being receptive to concerns regarding the implementation of the Common Core.

Geronimo adds that teachers across the state are also against the state’s new evaluation model, which uses the test results from Common Core to help determine a teacher’s overall performance. She said its simply not far to use those results, considering teachers were not made aware of what material would be on the tests – making it difficult if not impossible to prepare students.

In January NYSUT came out with a  vote of no confidence for State Education Commissioner John King, Jr. In addition, it is calling for a moratorium on Common Core so that some of the issues can be addressed. Leaders in the state legislature have also offered their support and Geronimo tells WRFA she’s also seeing local support.

“Joe Giglio, the assemblyman from Cattaraugus and Allegany County did come out against the common core and so far he’s the only legilsator in this region to make a public statement supporting our posiiton,” Geronimo said. “We’ve had very good conversations with [Senator] Cathy Young on that also, so we know that the legislators are hearing from their constituents who are coming from the place that we have to protect our schools and our kids and our communities.”

Geronimo says in the coming  months, NYSUT will be focusing on the school budget votes and elections for various local school boards, encouraring residents to support those candidates who are opposed to the way the state has handled the rollout of Common Core.  She also encourages anyone who wants to be more involed with the issue to contact her office in Jamestown at (716) 664-7425 or to learn more by visiting NYSUT.org.

If you missed the full interview with Geronimo, it will be replayed at noon this Sunday on WRFA and will also be made available at wrfalp.com via podcast early next week.

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo

ALBANY – The recent the controversial surrounding New York’s implementation of the 21^st Century Learning Standards – more commonly known as “Common Core” – has not gone unnoticed by lawmakers in Albany.

After months of criticism from teachers, parents and students across the state, leaders in both the State Assembly and State Senate are calling for a moratorium on the implementation of Common Core. This despite the fact that New York Education Commissioner John King, Jr. has said the standards are still new and will take time to adjust to. He has also said that the state is allowing for the performance evaluations to be slowly phased in over a seven-year period and so educators and parents shouldn’t rush to judgement.

Commissioner King appeared in Jamestown in December to address common core. In January, the largest teachers’ union in the state announced it had ‘no confidence‘ in King as education commissioner.

While it has become clear that many are upset with Common Core, Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he will not call for a moratorium on the education standard. Instead, he’s assembling an independent panel to review common core and assess its effectiveness.

Below is a statement from the governor’s office, released on Tuesday, regarding the common core:

Governor Cuomo believes that the best long term economic development strategy is ensuring New York State has the strongest possible education system. Common Core is an issue about which there has been a lot of dialogue. The Governor believes that we need to set real standards for our students and have a meaningful teacher evaluation system, and continues to support the Common Core agenda.

However, the Governor believes that the way that Common Core has been managed by the Board of Regents is flawed, leading to too much uncertainty, confusion and anxiety among students and their parents. The strength of public education in New York is dependent on a rational system that is well administered.

Two weeks ago, the Governor announced that he will assemble a panel that includes education experts and members of the legislature to identify flaws in Common Core’s rollout and take corrective action by the end of this session. The Governor believes there are two issues – common core and teacher evaluations – and they must be analyzed separately. It would be premature to consider any moratorium before the panel is allowed to do its work.

New York State Education Commissioner John King, Jr. speaks with reporters prior to a public forum on public education at Jamestown High School on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013.

ALBANY – The largest teachers’ union in New York State has publicly come out against the state’s top education commissioner, calling for his removal.

According to the NY Daily News, the board of the New York State United Teachers declared they had “no confidence” in the policies of John King, Jr.

In a prepared statement, NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi said, “The commissioner has pursued policies that repeatedly ignore the voices of parents and educators who have identified problems and called on him to move more thoughtfully. Instead of listening to and trusting parents and teachers to know and do what’s right for students, the commissioner has offered meaningless rhetoric and token change.”

Iannuzzi criticized King for not backing a three-year moratorium on high-stakes consequences for standardized testing. The NYSUT board also withdrew its support for the Common Core standards.

In a joint statement, Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and state education commissioner King defended the education policies, saying now is not the time to weaken standards. They also stated that they will make necessary adjustments and modifications to the implementation of the Common Core with the help of the governor’s office and state legislature.

King was in Jamestown in December 2013 to host a forum on the common core and public education in New York State and was meant with criticism from parents, teachers and students. Audio from the forum is available at our Soundcloud Page.

New York State Education Commissioner John King, Jr. speaks with reporters prior to a public forum on public education at Jamestown High School on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013.

(Recorded Dec. 4, 2013 at Jamestown High School, Jamestown NY)

New York Education Commissioner John King, Jr. hosts a public educational forum to discuss the Common Core Learning Standards and the New York State Board of Regents’ reform agenda. The forum took place in the auditorium at Jamestown High School Auditorium with more than 700 people in attendance.

WRFA presents this public forum for its Dec. 5, Dec. 12 and Dec. 19 episodes of Community Matters.

JTA President Christopher Reilly addresses the state education commissioner as the audience listens during the public forum on Wednesday, Dec. 4.

JAMESTOWN – A lot of Western New Yorkers are concerned about the current state of public education in New York.

That was the message last night as hundreds of people filled the Jamestown High School auditorium to meet with New York State Education Commissioner John King Jr. to share their thoughts and asks questions about the controversial 21^st Century Learning Standards – more commonly known as “Common Core.”

More than 30 people had an opportunity to speak directly to the commissioner, including Jamestown Teachers Association President Christopher Reilly. Reilly said the teachers in Jamestown are dedicated to improving student achievement, but the new teaching standards imposed by the state has not made it easy.

Jamestown Teachers Association President Christopher Reilly addresses the State Education Commissioner and other education officials on Wednesday Night.

“The expectations of the common core are often times unclear,” Reilly explained. “The modules designed to assist teachers in implementing the Common Core are laced with errors. Teachers should not have to check ‘Engage New York’ to be alerted to errors found in modules. It’s unsettling when good veteran teachers consistently question the modules and their focus and appropriateness.”

Fredonia Middle School principal Andrew Ludwig also spoke out against the Common Core. He said that he’s not only opposed to it as an educator, but also as a parent.

“I can not possibly share with you all of my concerns in the time I am allotted, but you have heard many of these concerns over and over again in different times and different places,” Ludwig said. “You nod your heads, sometimes you smile, but I’m not sure you’re really listening. Unless major changes are made in the 3 through 8 testing program, I believe that many, many parents across the state will refuse your test.”

A few current students also spoke during the public comment, including one who said that the current education model and testing has created anxiety for him. He said he’s also seen his performance slip since the new standards have been implemented.

“Last year I received a [score of] 4 on the New York State test. This year I received a 3. How do you think that made me feel?” he said, adding, “Because of all the anxiety I’ve experienced, I’ve opted out from testing for this coming year. I know I am smart and I don’t need your tests.”

The vast majority of those who spoke expressed various concerns to the education model, ranging from poorly planned implementation models to over-testing and even corporate interests behind the creation of Common Core. However, there were some in attendance who were school administrators from throughout the region who spoke in favor of the standards.

New York State Education Commissioner John King, Jr. speaks with reporters prior to a public forum on public education at Jamestown High School on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013.

Commissioner King responded to many of the concerns that were brought forward by the parents, students and teachers who spoke, with some of response aimed at refuting the claims made by those who spoke. His overlying message what that the standards are still new and will take time to adjust to. He added that the state is allowing for the performance evaluations to be slowly phased in over a seven-year period.

Prior to the public forum, WRFA specifically asked him about the amount of stress that the new teaching standards and assessments have created for students, parents and teachers. The commissioner’s response was that stress isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“There’s a balance you have to strike. There is some productive stress,” King said. “Most things in life that are worth doing require hard work. They require practice. They require preparation. So I think its important that we not say stress is inherently bad. But of course we worry about students feeling stress about the assessments or the educators feeling stress about the assessments. The assessments have to be treated as moment in time that gives us good information about student progress towards the goal, but not become the curriculum.”

The commissioner will hold one more public forum on the common core – most likely in Buffalo – prior to bringing his findings to the State Education Department and the Board of Regents.

WRFA will also have more from Wednesday Night’s public forum during Community Matters, which airs at 6 p.m. Thursday on WRFA.

New York State Chancellor John King, Jr. (Photo via nydailynews.com)

JAMESTOWN – The top public education administrator of New York State will be making a visit to Jamestown this afternoon.

New York Education Commissioner John King, Jr. will host a public educational forum to discuss the controversial Common Core Learning Standards and the New York State Board of Regents’ reform agenda. The forum will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Jamestown High School Auditorium.

In addition to providing information on Common Core and other education reform, the forum will also provide audience members an opportunity to ask questions. Volunteers will be on hand beforehand, circulating a sign-up sheet for audience members who wish to ask a question. Anyone wishing to pose a direct question to King may want to arrive earlier than the 5 p.m. start time in order to get their name on the sheet.

Along with King, Board of Regents Chancellor Emeritus Robert Bennett will also be in attendance.

The forum being co-hosted by the Jamestown school district and Jamestown Community College and will be moderated by the Chautauqua County League of Women Voters.

Again it begins at 5 p.m. in the Jamestown High School Auditorium and is open to the public.