By Sheila Resseger in Rhode Island’s Future
This spring Governor Raimondo held meetings with various
stakeholder groups to find out what characteristics they would want in an
education commissioner. According to the Providence Journal article of July 7, “Common themes emerged, with each group calling for a leader who listens and is collaborative, thoughtful, and student-centered.”
In my view, the choice of Ken Wagner, currently senior deputy
commissioner for education policy in New York state, does not meet these
criteria.
According to the information that the Governor’s office put out
about him, Dr. Wagner “led the development of EngageNY, a free curriculum
aligned with new [Common Core] learning standards.”
The rest of the story is
that EngageNY has become an expensive fiasco in NY State. The NY State
Education Department had originally contracted with three groups to create
scripted module lessons for schools across New York at a cost of $12.9 million
dollars of Race to the Top money.
As educators began using the modules they
found numerous errors, gaps, editing mistakes, and other problems. Is this the
work of a thoughtful leader?
Dr. Wagner believes in the value of high stakes testing, and considers the Opt Out movement to be misguided. The failure rate across NY State on their Pearson developed Common Core Tests continues to be about 70%, with much higher failure rates for students with disabilities and English Language Learners.
Since these tests were not independently validated, and many
authorities who examined the practice tests and released items believe the
questions to be developmentally inappropriate and unnecessarily confusing, how
can a “failing” label be trusted? How concerned was he about the well-being of
the students who were labeled failures?
New York state is one of the major areas of the country to see
significant opposition to Common Core-related testing. Several hundred thousand
students were opted out of the testing in April.
Did Ken Wagner listen
thoughtfully to the articulate and passionate parents in NY state who
determined that these tests were not in their children’s best interest?
Apparently not, since Wagner told New York Magazine, “we really believe that
these tests are not only important but irreplaceable.” (By the way, NY state
recently jettisoned Pearson for a different test developer.)
Of significance to parents concerned about the privacy of their
children’s personally identifiable information, is the fact that Wagner was a
stalwart defender of NYSED’s connection with inBloom, despite tremendous
backlash from parents.
inBloom was a company created and funded by the Gates and Carnegie Foundations with $100 million, and was designed to collect confidential, potentially personally identifiable student and teacher data from school districts and states throughout the country.
There was the real risk that even de-identified student data could be re-identified when shared with software companies and other for-profit vendors, a practice allowed by a weakened federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
inBloom was a company created and funded by the Gates and Carnegie Foundations with $100 million, and was designed to collect confidential, potentially personally identifiable student and teacher data from school districts and states throughout the country.
There was the real risk that even de-identified student data could be re-identified when shared with software companies and other for-profit vendors, a practice allowed by a weakened federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
After much turmoil and several legislative hearings, the state
legislature decided it had no option but to make inBloom illegal in order to stop it. Is this the
way to collaborate with those who hold a deeply held and reasonable position
different from your own?
Governor Raimondo’s introduction of Ken Wagner to RI stated that
“Education is a ladder to the middle class, and investing in education will
grow our economy because businesses want to locate near a pipeline of
well-educated, well-trained workers.”
Presumably Ken Wagner agrees. Is this
really what RI parents and communities want from their public education
system—workforce development? What about education for self-empowerment and for
participation in a diverse and vibrant society?
I am distressed but not surprised at the governor’s choice. It
is impossible not to consider potential influence from her husband Andy Moffit,
who has worked in education reform for the global consulting firm McKinsey and
Company.
He also collaborated with Sir Michael Barber (formerly at McKinsey,
now at Pearson) in the writing of Deliverology 101.
This is troubling in that
this book is a manual for consultants and managers to perpetrate a testing,
data, and accountability mind-set, which is adopted from a soulless
economics/finance/micro-managing paradigm misapplied to the most human of
tasks–nurturing the next generation of self-actualized members of our society.
The ultimate result, whether intentional or not, is the dismantling of public
education as we know it and delivering it up to privateers.
Rhode Islanders need to do some serious homework and then
express displeasure with this choice for commissioner and what it will
inevitably mean for Rhode Island public school students, teachers, families,
and communities.
Sheila Resseger is a
retired teacher, RI School for the Deaf