Issues around the Common Core Standards are generating a
great deal of attention. Here in
Rochester there have recently been three large forums where people could ask
and/or comment on the issues with our local members of the Board of Regents,
with the Commissioner of Education, and with members of the Assembly
Minority. For the latter group I
submitted written testimony which I am posting here as well.
Testimony to
the New York State Assembly
Memorial Art
Gallery
Rochester, NY
November 20,
2013
Respectfully
submitted by Jody Siegle, Executive Director
Monroe County
School Boards Association
You
are here to gather information and opinions about the Common Core standards,
which make up one of the anchors of the Regents Reform Agenda.
One
problem too often overlooked and sometimes even denied is the impact of
poverty. Poverty is not an excuse but it
is a fact and a factor in the lives of over 50% of the children in New York’s
schools. The effect of poverty is not
the same for every child but data makes it clear that there is a causal
relationship between poverty and poor student performance.
I
have attached MCSBA’s recently approved position paper to this testimony. The paper calls out the state’s responsibilities
for the wellbeing of students and families.
While the schools do not shirk from their responsibility for educating
the state’s children, their work is complicated when children do not arrive at
school ready to learn. This can mean
kindergarteners who lack language and were deprived of critical early stimulation
for brain development or it may mean students who cannot concentrate because
they are hungry, depressed, or frightened because of the uncertainty in their
lives outside of school. Schools have
their role helping children but so does the state. All the agencies that support children and
families are under the direct responsibility of the governor, and those same agencies
have seen major cuts in their budgets in recent years.
I
believe, and our membership believes, that there won’t be any substantial
progress on increasing student performance and the graduation rate in high need
communities unless we address the impact of poverty on the lives of
students. The best standards in the
world will not overcome the effect on a child of hunger or fear. I urge you to read our position paper and keep
it in mind as you consider making changes to solve the problems around the implementation
of the Common Core standards.
# # # #
Here is the above mentioned MCSBA position paper. It can also be downloaded at
DEMOCRACY AND PUBLIC EDUCATION IN NYS
In response to Governor
Cuomo’s statements about underperforming schools, the MCSBA membership submits
the following:
• No
government leader can freely criticize school performance as if it is someone
else’s problem – Each
agency of government has a role in the overall welfare of our communities and
as a society we ALL have a collective interest in the success of every
student as a learner and a productive citizen.
•Children
are shaped by their lives outside of school – Children
spend less than 15% of their time in school. The environmental factors that
influence children outside of school cannot be ignored. These can include
families in crisis, violent neighborhoods, lead poisoning, food insecurity,
drugs and other substance abuse. Chronic absenteeism and poor school
performance can be linked to each of these factors.
•The
high correlation between poor school performance, poverty and family stress is
well documented – The dropout rate for low-income high
school students (the lower 20% of family incomes, which represents an annual
income of $21,000 or less) is twice as high as the dropout rate for
middle-income students and four times higher than for high income students. The City of
Rochester has the sad distinction of having one of the highest child poverty
rates in the nation.
•The Governor has direct
responsibility for the wellbeing of New York’s children– Although the Board of Regents, which is appointed by the
Legislature, oversees public education, ALL other agencies concerned with
children fall under the leadership of the Governor. Some of these agencies
include:
- Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS)
- Office of Persons with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD)
- Department of Health (DOH)
- Office of Mental Health (OMH)
- Department of Correction
- State University of New York
These
agencies have been decimated by cuts and closures and by regionalizing offices.
The trickle down effect of this has greatly diminished the ability of our local
communities to provide critical supports to children and their families.
•Boards
of Education members are elected local officials who are directly accountable
to their constituents for the public schools in their communities – The academic performance of children
who live in poverty does not invalidate the right of citizens to elect their
own representatives. The Governor’s proposal to remove locally elected
boards violates the foundation of our democratic principles.
•Although the Governor continually
criticizes the high cost of public education in NYS, he has largely ignored
education leaders’ pleas for mandate relief – Education leaders have provided
evidence and testimony on what reliefs schools need to be more cost effective.
This has fallen on deaf ears. In fact, the current education reform that was
legislated after his promise for mandate relief has been extraordinarily costly
to implement and has created many new mandates.
If the
state is serious about improving student results, it must acknowledge and then
act on its moral and constitutional obligations to help its neediest citizens
arrive at school ready to learn.
______________________________________________________________________
MONROE COUNTY SCHOOL BOARDS ASSOCIATION
220 Idlewood Road, Rochester, New York 14618- 585-328-1972- www.mcsba.org
Approved, October, 2013
Supporting Data
Research
repeatedly proves that environmental factors influence child development,
including the ability to learn. Research also identifies successful programs that can
mitigate the negative effects of poverty, and which could be brought to scale
to help needy children.*
This is a state issue
because New York communities like Rochester and Buffalo have some of the
highest poverty rates in the nation.
Poverty’s
impact varies across a continuum of needs so there are no one-size-fits-all
solutions. In 2013 a
family of four qualified for Reduced Price Lunch with an income of $43,567
while a child whose family lived on a single minimum wage salary would only
have a family income of $15,080. A child living in the latter situation would
need to cope with challenges and deprivations significantly different from a
child living in the former situation.
The
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has committed to advocating for addressing
the health effects of poverty because: “…Poverty can inhibit children’s ability to learn and
contribute to social, emotional, and behavioral problems. Poverty is a
contributing factor to toxic stress, which has been shown to disrupt the
developing brain of infants and children and influence behavioral, educational,
economic and health outcomes for years.”
The AAP goals include:
- Expanding access to affordable health care services.
- Expanding access to basic needs such as food, housing and transportation.
- Promoting positive early brain and child development and school readiness and success.
- Supporting parents.
Governor Cuomo’s own New NYS Education Reform Commission
Report, “Putting Students First Action Plan,” recognizes this relationship:
“Research shows that a child’s most formative years are
during early childhood, at the very beginning stages of their formal education,
and even prior. The education and guidance children receive during these years
have a profound effect on their academic success at every subsequent stage.
Unpreparedness in kindergarten permeates through the education pipeline, as
these students are often the same ones who cannot read or do math at grade
level, who drop out of high school, or who need remediation in college, if they
even pursue a college degree.”
The report’s recommendations
included:
- Increase access to early educational opportunities by providing high quality full day pre-kindergarten for students in highest needs school districts.
- Restructure schools by integrating social, health and other services through community schools to improve student performance.
Only when
our elected leaders begin to confront the facts around poverty and legislate
meaningful support for child development will we truly be able to break the
terrible cycle of poverty and school failure. Left unaddressed, poverty not only
diminishes the potential of the children but also results in huge future losses
to our economy.
*For information on successful
programs that can help mitigate the impact of poverty check out The Children’s
Agenda at http://www.thechildrensagenda.org/ourwork.php and/or How Children
Succeed by Paul Tough
