UNITY CAUCUS/UFT IS BASICALLY ALL THAT STANDS IN THE WAY OF AN ALL OUT PARENT-TEACHER ASSAULT ON COMMON CORE TESTING

The defenders of the "testocracy" within the UFT-NYSUT-AFT went the amendment route to get their way at the NYSUT Representative Assembly this weekend. As the Facebook post below from Marla Kilfoyle shows, it looks like it was the Unity people who amended an anti-testing resolution to render it lame, just as they do in NYC at UFT Delegate Assemblies.

Those 750 Unity-UFT Delegates up at the NYSUT RA all have taken loyalty oaths to do as they are told. It seems they still control NYSUT. Their free trip to the next convention and/union jobs depend on them saying yes to anything UFT President Michael Mulgrew tells them to do.

From Marla;

My special order of business at NYSUT RA was amended with what I feel was an "unfriendly" amendment. This Special Order of Business was inspired by NYSAPE and sought to demand that NY Commissioner Elia immediately end the "untimed" testing agenda that she established. This "untimed"testing agenda, as seen in the ELA exams had our most vulnerable children testing for 5+ hours. (One special education student tested for 12 hours!!). The Special Order of Business also sought to invalidate the 3-8 ELA exams due to errors in the student directions and a lack of a planning page for children to plan out their essays (many principals received word this page was missing in a 9:09-9:12 email sent out the morning of the test). Many principals either did not see the email or saw it one hour into the test. The Special Order of Busniness was amended to read that "be it resolved that NYSUT will research "untimed"testing, allow the Governors CC Task Force (akaFarce) to implement its work..." and would just admit errors on the test but not do anything to stop them being used against children or teachers. Color me a tad pissed off!

Unity will do anything to water down or kill anything that doesn't keep the basics of test and punish education intact. Unity is the status quo in education.

Some of the comments to Marla's post are very encouraging and should be read by all who oppose Unity and are hoping for a real teacher union in the future.

Kristen Konrad Mendoza It pissed me off too. I was so proud of you, Marla. I knew I made the right choice to join ST and saw first hand the involvement of the UFT and the Unity Caucus in the sham that is the task force. The involvement of our NYSUT leaders as well was made quite clear. We will keep questioning and working on behalf of our students and schools.

2 · 2 hrs

John Mannion Keep fighting Marla Kilfoyle! Unfortunately we just endorsed APPR with the other amended resolution and that is very disappointing.

2 · 2 hrs

Kevin Glynn You are a hero. As a dad and teacher- thank you! The buffoons running the UFT should understand that we work inside of these things called classrooms. We are tasked with educating the people in these classrooms known as students. The leadership has made a decision to play no role in the problem and in doing so have become part of the problem.

4 · 1 hr · Edited

Cheryl Smith Absurd to recommend to sham task force. Writer of insulting anti opt out Newsday Op Ed is task force member! ST caucus stands for education & educators and is growing. This is the last year unity will be modifying these important resolutions. Snowball is building!!

Some more comments:

Brian O'Sullivan Mulgrew trusts junk science more than principals to properly evaluate teachers, and somehow sees Cuomo's latest law as an improvement.

4 · 3 hrs

CB Sullivan Brian Gavin

3 hrs

Debbie Cottrell Dermady No one ever admits the wrongdoing. Just like now w the standards review committee, watch how many get nominated to review that are against COMMON CORE. None of us. I wanted to say it all was garbage and you were right when they called it to order.

1 · 2 hrs

Christine DiBartolo Pellegrino Who stands against resolutions like this???? Do they see with their eyes a student who sits ALL DAY for 3 days straight? Do they see the defeat in them when they have to write something they aren't confident in - finally - with 10 minutes left in their day - who know they must come back to the horror again and again? Do they see those children cry? Shake? Rock in their chairs and talk out loud to themselves? Lose 3 WHOLE DAYS of instructional time - time with their teacher, time with their friends in class and at PLAY TIME, Fun activity time, learning something that really matters time? WHO ARE THE PEOPLE WHO WON'T STAND UP FOR KIDS?

In NYC, we can help build that snowball that Cheryl Smith wrote about by voting for MORE-NEW ACTION in the upcoming UFT election.