Why is John King the NY Commissioner of Education?

Despite the very touching story NYSED Commissioner tells about his life, John King was a boy from Brooklyn born of great privilege. He attended New York City schools and went on to attend a $48,000 a year high school, where he rebelled against the strict curfews and cut class. He was expelled as a junior. He resented adult authority and claimed, “felt like adults had let me down in my life.” He was going to get his revenge.

John B. King, Jr.  went on to become the founder of Roxbury Prep in Massachusetts. According to the Roxbury Report Card, the school is still listed as not meeting gap narrowing goals (receives a 2 in a 1-5 scale).  It currently performs at 57%  compared with similar schools.  Roxbury has a 94% attendance rate along with an astounding 59% suspension rate.

At 36, he became one of the youngest leaders in education.  Since then, has been charged with the abysmal implementation of the Common Core and has done very little to fix it. He keeps his own children clear of his mismanagement as they attend a Montessori school that does not teach the Common Core.

John King is the Commissioner of Education in NY, but for how long???

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(Photo by Jennifer Scott)

 

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Bad Days Mean You’re Human

I have had hundreds of bad days at work as a teacher. Some happened inside my classroom. There was the day my lesson for Les Miserables was cut short by a fire alarm pulled by a student. There was the day less than 50% of the students submitted their research papers. There was the day the Internet was down on the day of my observation and my lesson relied on the students accessing their work from their webpages. What I learned from those days was how to adapt to things outside of my control, change my approach to research paper writing, and always have a plan B when lessons rely on technology. Some of my bad days happened outside of my classroom. There were the days when my colleagues were excessed. There were the days when I had to argue with my principals. There were the days when my district’s test scores were published in the “hometown” newspaper. Those days have taught me to never lose focus on compassion, patience, and dedication regardless of outside pressures. But my worst days are the ones that have taught me the most. There was the day I learned my student committed suicide. There was the day I found out that my sleepy student was abandoned by his parents and was sleeping on the couch of a destitute family that had taken him in. There was the day the student I home taught passed at the age of 17 after battling cancer for five years. There was the day an angry student stood with a four inch knife surrounded by kids from a rival gang. There was the day a student told me something about her home that no child should ever experience. These days taught me why it is that I teach and it has absolutely nothing to do with numbers and everything to do with humanity. After 18 years in the classroom, I still have bad days. Bad days remind me to appreciate the good days. The bad days remind me that the most important part of my job is the emotional investment that I make with all of my students. The day I stop having bad days, I should remove myself from the classroom and take the green laces out of my shoes.

Put our focus on educating children- not constantly testing them.

Today, my laces and I ran up a mountain. I didn’t race- I went at my own pace and stopped when I had to. I think we all need to apply the same strategy to the next school year.

Teachers need to dismiss the notion that these tests count. Resist the urge to order those terrible Coach books, sing ridiculous test prep songs or put pressure on kids. Test prep is not a standard!
Parents need to let go of that perfect score. These tests are designed so that 60-70% of your kids will fail. Absolutely nothing will be done to influence instruction based off of these scores.

All others need to understand that this broken system is costing an estimated 20-50 billion dollars per year. These costs will rise considerably as the test moves online.

Please join Lace to the Top so we can put our focus on educating children- not constantly testing them.

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On students, teachers, parents, and admins: green shoelaces