Dr. Joseph V. Rella the Superintendent of Schools for Comsewogue School District in Port Jefferson Station, NY was appalled by the results of the New York Common Core Assessments. He sent a letter to State Senator Kenneth LaValle (R-Mt. Sinai) expressing his concern. See below.
NY School Superintendent Letter to NY State Senator LaValle on Common Core
He also robo-called families in his school district expressing his views and invited them to a rally which happened last weekend.
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The Independent Sentinel reports that 1600 showed for the rally.
This past Saturday, a rally was held at Comsewogue School District on Long Island and what was not expected to be a big event quickly became one, but you wouldn’t know it or understand what was going on if you read the local rag of a newspaper, Newsday.
Newsday said this: ‘More than 1500 parents, teachers, and students gathered at the Comsewogue High School football field in Port Jefferson Station yesterday to criticize the Common Core standardized tests on which a majority of Long Island students performed poorly.’
They made the issue about people wanting to complain about tests their students couldn’t hack. Newsday continually refers to the standards as tough new standards.’ A more apt description would be ‘irrelevant’ new standards.
Newsday gave a brief rundown of what is going on but certainly didn’t reflect what is really at the heart of the new movement. Newsday then wrote, ‘On the Island, 37.5 percent of students in grades three through eight passed math tests in April compared with 75.4 percent who passed less rigorous tests in 2012…’ They want to further the idea that the kids can’t hack it because these tests are more rigorous. Very thoughtful of them.
Our students largely go on to college or vocational schools and they compete with the best students around the nation for the best colleges. The way it is being portrayed is either because of Newsday’s ignorance or they have some agenda.
There were 2,000 at the rally according to the police department but Newsday said there were over 1,500. They like to round down. They put the article about the rally on one column on page A21. That’s right, most people won’t notice it.
They included video of Superintendent Ralla’s speech at the rally.