From my blog on Wordpress:  Mr. Pollak's Blog: Reminders of why I became a teacher over twenty years ago

The tagline for my blog is my guiding principle as I share my thoughts with you.  I am trying to focus my words on why I wanted to teach so many years ago.  My commitment to the readers of this blog was to keep my message positive, upbeat, and insightful.  I will try to make it so by the end of this post, but I must comment on my disturbing experience yesterday at Ward Melville High School in the Three Village School District.

On November 12th, Senator John Flanagan held a forum at WMHS with NY Commissioner of Education, Dr. John King and the Chancellor of the NYS Board of Regents, Merryl Tisch.  The format allowed three people from each school district in Senator Flanagan’s district to speak for two minutes each.  I live in the Three Village SD, so I was proud that we were hosting such an important event.  I was doubly excited because the WM Jazz Band played for the half hour prior to the event, and my son is the drummer.  They were amazing as they entertained the crowd.  The evening got off to a great start.  The forum was then beautifully moderated by the Ward Melville Student Council as students introduced each speaker.

After introductions, each speaker stood up one at a time to share experiences, offer suggestions, and make emotional pleas.  One after the other, teachers, administrators, parents, and school board members spoke directly to Dr. King, Dr. Tisch, and Senator Flanagan.  Though there were some differing opinions about the actual Common Core Standards, there was an overwhelming consensus regarding the negative impact of the implementation of the standards, the assessments, and teacher/principal evaluations.

Those who spoke against the standards themselves spoke of how they are preventing our attention to individual needs of students, or of their developmental inappropriateness.  On paper, I would agree with this; however, for those reading my blog, I have written about how we are working to teach these standards in a manner that does not sacrifice these ideals.  Our success is based on a slow and steady implementation with professional development opportunities for teachers.  Our radar is up on kids who may be feeling the detrimental effects we hear of in other districts.  For the most part, our students are not only happy; they are highly engaged in their learning.  As always, we do our best to communicate with parents, so if children are feeling overwhelmed we can address it in a manner that best meets a child’s needs.  All of this supports a responsible approach to implementation that begins with the district leadership, for which I am grateful.  As a principal, I have been protected by my central office administration and board of education to make decisions that are aligned to the CCSS, but to make decisions that are first and foremost, in the best interest of children.  I am grateful for this.

That being said, it is not without struggle.  We are making mistakes, we are working harder than ever before, and we are finding the job more stressful than what we have experienced.  It is my job as principal to do my best to create a culture where these mistakes become learning opportunities, the hard work is affirmed, and stress is at a healthy level.  This is what is good for all of us, but most importantly, it is what is right for kids.

Most of the anger and outrage at the forum was focused on an assessment and evaluation system that is hindering the instructional focuses the CCSS.  The focus on assessments and their tie into teacher/principal evaluations has not allowed the careful implementation of the CCSS statewide.  There were excellent points provided by my educational colleagues and fellow parents.  These included too much time preparing children for assessments, teacher and administrator angst driving decisions due to high-stakes testing, the unreliability of the APPR, the conflict between the financial constraints caused by the property tax-cap and the need for CCSS implementation to be funded, the concern of confidentiality of student data, the devaluation of children to numbers, and worst of all, parents sharing stories of their children declaring how much they hate school.  However, what enraged the audience throughout the night was the continued non-response of Dr. King.

I do not like many of the decisions of NYSED, but I have yet to hear his thoughts that were not a sound bite or a YouTube video.  I went into the forum giving Dr. King the benefit of the doubt.  I was so disappointed.  His disconnect was disturbing.  One speaker after another read statements, and did so with passion.  Dr. King responded with talking points that did not address the concerns of the people.  His statements weren’t very different than what you would see on an engageny.org video.  I don’t think it would be fair to expect that he would change his whole agenda, but there was no feeling, no care, no passion on his part.  He didn’t even mention how great the Ward Melville Jazz Band sounded, but I’ll try not to make this personal.  What was far worse was his non-reaction to the many parents who stated how their children hated going to school.  I cannot understand how the Commissioner of Education doesn’t get a pit in his stomach when he hears that.  It boggles my mind that he wouldn’t offer a sincere encouraging word indicating how awful it is that children dread school.

There is much more I could say; however, I would like to uphold my promise to keep this blog positive.  I did learn a few things last night.  Of course, we are all so important to all of our kids, but I learned that we are in a whole new way.  We must now be extra vigilant when protecting their love of learning despite the challenges handed down by the NYSED.  I also learned that we parents, teachers, administrators, and boards of education can stand strongly and loudly in the best interest of children.  We must continue to move forward and let our voice be heard.  The momentum is building, and it is up to us to keep it going.  I am optimistic that at some point, someone will listen.

Addendum:

Below is my letter to Dr. King.  It was given to him prior to the forum at Ward Melville High School.  I will let you know if he responds:

Dear Dr. King,

I thank you for coming to Ward Melville High School.  I look forward to attending the forum; however, I do not believe I will have an opportunity to speak.  I hope you read this letter in its entirety.

I am a passionate educator of 22 years who is currently serving as the principal of the Sycamore Avenue Elementary School in the Connetquot CSD of Islip.  More importantly, I am the father of three children in grades 11, 6, and 4 in the Three Village School District.  Finally, I sit on the Board of Directors for SAANYS representing Suffolk County.  I write this letter to you with the mindset, philosophy, and passion that have been influenced by each of these roles.  I do not represent SAANYS in this letter.

Some of what I write here will be my personal story with regard to the recent educational reforms in NYS.  Though my story is only one, I believe it is representative of many.  As I reflect on my story, I also believe that it is the opposite of many.  My thoughts of why I believe this to be true will unfold as you read this letter.

Let me start by stating that my staff and I are supporters of the instructional shifts of the Common Core Standards.  We have been exploring them for over three years with positive results.  We have seen students do some of the best work we have ever seen.  At first, we were afraid that these standards would be too difficult to meet, but not only are many of our students meetings these standards, they are enjoying their learning more than ever.  For the students having difficulty meeting the standards, they are still achieving at a higher level than they would have prior to these shifts.  In my school, we believe in the self-fulfilling prophecy that higher expectations could yield better learning for students.  Though we are asking more from our students, we hold onto our obligation for children to love their learning.  The Sycamore students are engaged and happy because we are taking a slow and steady approach to implementing the standards.  The teachers in my school are taking the time to understand the standards, to make sound choices with regard to the modules, and maintain their beliefs about the need to engage learners.

The Common Core Standards are a seismic shift in instruction.  This shift takes time.  As a principal, I pounced on the leadership possibilities of these changes.  I am energized by the excitement of leading a school towards the positive instructional changes ahead.  My mission is to do so responsibly.  The following is what has occurred so far:

1. Time has been made available to teachers to read, discuss, and explore the written standards.
2. A safe environment has been created for teachers to experiment, analyze, assess, and then plan accordingly.  This process is a continuous cycle.
3. Professional development opportunities have been provided to support the notion that these shifts require adult learning.
4. More time was made available to meet in order to share successes and failures.
5. Parents have been brought into the conversation so they understand why their children are experiencing more rigor.  This includes conversations about positive responses to struggle.  Teachers and I have worked very hard to teach parents about the value of struggle and perseverance as learning experiences.  We have been successful with this because we will not sacrifice student engagement, and though we are willing to guide students through their struggle, we make every effort to prevent detrimental frustration.

These steps have resulted in a positive transition to the CCSS in my school; however, when I contrast this experience to what I hear and see in other districts, I conclude that it is the timing of the APPR implementation has hurt Common Core Implementation.

The current state of the APPR process is the root cause of the anger throughout the State.  When people are worried how something beyond their control (i.e. test scores) could affect their evaluation, it fosters mistrust and prevents buy-in.  It also fosters hasty decision making, which is why so many educators are misusing the modules.  There is a perception that, “If we follow the modules, kids will perform better on the test, and our APPR rating will be higher.”  This gets in the way of the thoughtful process teachers must embrace to move instruction forward.  This is why so many incorrectly perceive the modules as inappropriate scripts to follow.

When I think of the money spent to implement the assessments and APPR, I imagine how that could have been spent educating people about the positive instructional shifts.  Perhaps sending people to the various regions of NY talking about pedagogy instead of accountability would have created a greater sense of buy-in.

I know you have taken a tremendous amount of criticism recently.  Some of this criticism is due to misunderstandings, which you address.  Unfortunately, people’s emotionality is getting in the way of listening to you when you talk about how the CCSS are about improving instruction and how the modules and domains on engageny.org are resources to be used thoughtfully; that they are not scripts.  That is why the teachers who do use them thoughtfully, are getting results in the classroom.

What is really unfortunate is that the anger about Common Core is due to people grouping the CCSS with the assessments and APPR implementation.  We need your leadership and that of NYSED to make this distinction and to take charge for addressing this misconception.  If parents truly understood the instructional benefits of the CCSS, the “stop the common core” movement would not be as loud in NY.

The good news is that I believe this can turn around.  Listen to the people doing the work.  Please do not believe that groups such as NYSUT and SAANYS are only looking to protect their members when they present counter arguments to the plan that is in place.  These are groups that want education to work in the best interest of children.  Listen to the parents because they know what they want for their children.  They are the people you serve and the people we serve; they also want the best for their children and, like us, are their strongest advocates.  You need us to make the CCSS make the positive impact that so many educators feel that it could.  Pull back on the assessments and really reflect on its effect on students.  Take the assessment/APPR connection out of the equation.  Let’s make these changes together.

Dr. King, I encourage you to embrace your role as the state’s educational leader and think about what is truly good for students.  Put a moratorium on high-stakes testing and its connection to teacher and principal evaluations so that NY’s educators could properly implement the instructional shifts that are being asked of us.

If you have reached the end of this letter, I thank you for reading it.  I would be happy to continue a dialogue with you if you feel it would be worthwhile.  It would be my honor to be part of a revised process.

Finally, if you would like more insight in how we are embracing the CCSS, please read my blog posts at principalpollak.wordpress.com.

Very truly yours,

Stuart Pollak

Principal, educational advocate, and concerned parent