Race to the Top Reforms Will Change the Scarsdale Education

This letter was sent to Scarsdale10583 for publication by the leadership of the Scarsdale PT Council: Parent-teacher Council – the umbrella organization for all seven Scarsdale school PTAs – just delivered a message on the absence of state-level accountability to public school stakeholders for the high costs, negative educational consequences and even the credibility of the State's current unproven education reform agenda to State Education Commissioner John King. The message, along with documented examples, was also sent to the Board of Regents, Governor Cuomo, and State lawmakers, and urged that the State's current approach be replaced with one based on evidence-based education policy, including multiple measures of school success, shared accountability and restored local control. Click here to read the full message on the PT Council website.

Scarsdale PT Council leadership and committee chairs were among over 700 area public school stakeholders present at the Commissioner's October 28th "listening tour" stop in Port Chester to deliver the message in person and to hear firsthand as over 70 speakers -- including area parents, school board members, teachers and administrators -- gave resoundingly negative feedback on the State's approach to education reform.

Complaints consistently targeted:
(1) the State's over-reliance on high-stakes standardized testing and reductive measures of school success;
(2) the rushed and chaotic roll-out of the new and untested K-12 Common Core Standards;
(3) costly, burdensome and unreliable teacher evaluations tied to student test scores;
(4) centralized storing and sharing with private vendors of sensitive student data without parental opt out or consent.

That the State's reforms are hurting students was an oft-repeated theme throughout the three-hour forum. Area teachers told how difficult it was to provide differentiated instruction to diverse learners with "one size fits all" Common Core Standards or to even fathom the State's new Math and English Language Arts curriculum "modules," which they called confusing and classroom irrelevant. Teachers and parents alike, along with one 10-year old, reported diminished student engagement and dulled passion for learning. Meanwhile, educators from the area's lower income districts already devastated by budget cuts and years of inadequate State funding revealed their added price of compliance with the State's costly mandates -- still larger class sizes and even deeper program cuts.

The specific effect of State reform mandates on Scarsdale education is the topic of the PT Council's Tuesday, November 19th 7:30 pm speaker series event at the Scarsdale Middle School: "Is New York's Race to the Top Dragging Scarsdale Down?" The PT Council presentation will be followed by a panel discussion with Scarsdale Superintendent Michael McGill, Scarsdale Middle School Principal Michael McDermott, Scarsdale Teacher Association President and Greenacres Music teacher Trudy Moses, and Scarsdale Assemblywoman Amy Paulin and is open to all members of the Scarsdale community.

Pam Rubin, President, Scarsdale Parent-Teacher Council
Nan Berke & Mary Beth Evans, Co-chairs, Legislative Committee