The following interview was granted to me by an attendee at Monday night’s meeting. This is how one mom, Beth Ryder of Conklin, NY, saw the meeting, the actions of the attendees and the responses from the panel members.
1. What was the overall feeling at the meeting? (anger, frustration, etc)
The overall feeling was anger. The majority of the people seemed to be teachers…and they were ON FIRE. They brought signs and held them up throughout the majority of the forum.
2. Did you get a chance to ask your question or use your two minutes?
I did get a chance to speak for my 2 minutes. I actually went over…(my friend) said it was closer to 3 min.
3. What was the commissioner’s response to your statements?
The coomissioner didn’t have any response to my comments directly. Speakers went in groups of 15, then the commissioner addressed those concerns for 10 min in between each group. He didn’t have time to address each speaker’s comments directly, he just touched on the huge important points.
4. What was the overall response from the panel or commissioner to others?
The commissioner and Jim Tallon from the Board of Regents were very open and seemed eager to address the issues and help people to understand better. Regent Chancellor Merryl Tish had a sour look on her face and refused to speak. The only time she spoke was to grab the microphone during the commissioner’s speech and interrupt to yell at people for being rude.
5. Did the atmosphere change as the meeting progressed?
The atmosphere did not change as the forum progressed. It remained stable…with a constant air of frustration and mistrust in whatever the panel members had to say.
6. Did people leave with the answers they wanted?
Most people DID NOT leave with answers to their questions. Many asked very direct questions and wanted answers, such as one from a Mom, “I would like to know what will happen if I choose to opt my kids out of the state testing?” This wa never directly answered. Another Dad had a series of about 6 very direct questions…none were answered.
7. How did the meeting end? Did it end on a high note or were people more confused/frustrated than when they walked in?
The meeting ended very rudely, in my opinion. People stood up, started to put on coats and scarves and talked loudly, all during the commissioner’s last words. He may have been attempting to answer some of the questions asked, but rude people wouldn’t allow that and they wanted to send a very strong message of “WE DON’T CARE WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY” The commissioner reacted to the rudeness by saying “well, I guess we’re done”
There were protesters yelling and holding up signs in the back of the room. A Binghamton teacher yelled at the commissioner while he speaking and called him a bold faced liar as he walked up the aisle and left…
The teachers were very angry and the parents were sad and frustrated at the amount of homework coming home, the decreased family time and inability to help kids with homework at home
Thank you Beth for your assessment of the meeting. It seems to me that parents and teachers are letting their anger out while the commissioner is skirting the issue. While other states are bowing to their voters and moving away from the Common Core, our state legislature is holding strong while failing miserably to appease their voters. It’s no wonder some people are calling for Dr. King to leave his position.
One more point I forgot to mention; The panel kept blaming the local districts for the decision to test. All the SLOs and assessments that are constantly being given to the kids are NOT state mandated. This is our local district deciding to administer these tests.