VOICES
Challenger Community News • February 10, 2016
What Would Frederick Douglass Do? almost six weeks since I initially wrote SED Commissioner Elia, the Board of Regents, Ifromt’sthebeen Governor and members of the New York Legislature about significant questions arising the Common Core Task Force’s Report and Recommendations. On January 24th I wrote a
second letter, which included the names of 115 supporters requesting that: “the Board of Regents authorize the State Education Department to conduct a detailed, open and transparent review and analysis of the use of the ELA/Math standardized tests results as determinants to assess school qualification for receivership; to invite parent, educator, student and other stakeholder input and feedback in the process; to clarify the recommendations of the Common Core Task Force as they apply to the state assessments and use of assessment data, and to develop future recommendations for appropriate determinants for school receivership.” True to form, as of February 7th, I haven’t heard a single word from any of these educational and political leaders (except for Senator Kennedy). As an individual, who researches and writes about African American history, I do not confine my recognition of the importance of Black Americans’ contributions to American History to one month. But I would admit that the advent of African American History Month 2016 influenced my reflections on Barbara Seals continued lack of respect and simple courtesy inherent in state officials’ Nevergold the ongoing failure to respond to the concerns of nearly 700 education stakeholders. There are many African Americans, men and women, whose lives provide instructive, inspirational and timeless examples for current day activists, but Frederick Douglass quickly came to mind. An ex-slave, freedman, abolitionist, author, journalist, statesman, orator, businessman, etc. Douglass was a towering example of self-advocacy. In a letter written in 1849, he said: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” So what would Frederick Douglass do if he was in our shoes? Continue the struggle! And the demand for answers to the questions we have about the use of standardized tests (high stakes tests) to label our children as failures, defame our teachers; disenfranchise our communities by vesting control in Receivership and ultimately undermine public education. The online petition posted on the January 24th has garnered over 525 signatures and comments. The following are a few of the comments left on that petition. I have omitted the names, but the petition is on-going and I am still encouraging public education advocates to sign this petition and join us. We are not voiceless even though the Commissioner and the Regents have chosen to IGNORE our call for accountability. “Not only is it ridiculous to use these tests - found to be unreliable and unfair to students across the board - as a measure of student or teacher success, to use them to still rank schools to the extent of determining which should be classified receivership schools while admitting it's unhelpful in several other areas is both nonsensical and inappropriate. The issue of how we handle receivership schools in general is already fraught with problems; there is no reason part of determining that classification should include scores from these tests.” “Closing a school doesn't help anyone but those who are looking for excuses to fire people. Schools reflect their communities, so if a school is struggling, so is the community. The state should recognize this relationship and throw every resource it has at uplifting and supporting the families, the infrastructure, and the employees already working in the school and community. That the vast majority of schools in receivership serve low income populations shows that it's not necessarily a problem of bad apples, but of challenges insurmountable with the limited resources those schools have.” “The Common Core Aligned Standardized Tests have been manipulated for political use and do not meet psychometric standards. As an educational psychologist, I urge that they no longer be used to identify receivership schools or for any other high stakes decisions.” “I ask only to point out, that rarely does the public hear of an alternative to the current testing system that we view schools in receivership. How do we go about schools that need to improve for all students? What is the direction to identify fairly the schools that need the most help? If not via test scores and data, then how? Now that the state is final admitting that we have a flawed system of evaluation within the state, where do we move from starting today?” “In the three years that Common Core standards have been around students, teachers, and schools have only gotten worse. The standards and the tests are terrible. My children who used to love learning and school now dread it. They are over tested and stressed out. They are not learning in a way a child learns naturally. I live and teach in a community that is in the lowest poverty range with a large population of refugees and immigrants. They are left behind with these standards. Shame on the politicians, governors, and big businesses that have stripped the education in this country of all that was good. The damage is irreparable. Stop this now! Have a conscious for God’s sake!” Finally, the message to Albany is: you can be silent; you can ignore us, but we’re going to stay in the struggle; we’re going to demand a response and we will be heard – sooner or later. After all March is Women’s History Month!
“We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us.” - John Russwurm, Freedom’s Journal. 1827 America’s 1st Black Newspaper
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Open Letter to The Community
Thank You For Standing With The Buffalo Urban League!
I
am writing to thank the community for coming together in support of the Buffalo Urban League. Your prayers, assistance and showing up in unprecedented numbers at the Erie County Finance and Management hearing on the Erie County Comptroller’s Report shows our strengthen. It speaks volumes for the impact the League has in taking risk to provide help and hope to the most vulnerable. The League’s unwavering commitment and excellent service to this community has never been in question. Not even in the Comptroller’s Report or the Legislature’s hearing was this disputed. Yet, Comptroller Mychajliw and Committee Chair Lorigo, in their media comments and public behaviors, showed a total disrespect and disregard not only for the Urban League but every resident they are elected to serve. Both have directly attempted to hurt and harm through their mean spirited, malicious unsubstantiated statements about the League and its leader. A basic civic lesson teaches all citizens deserve transparency, honesty and fairness from their elected officials. The League and its leader, have earned the respect and reputation for addressing the inequalities that have prevented opportunities for all people, especially African Americans, other minorities and underserved individuals. The League’s advocacy and programs for responding to this community’s most pressing challenges is constantly demonstrated and sought after throughout the county and the nation. This leads to the following questions: •Why did the Comptroller’s Report differ significantly from the inflammatory media statements of fraud, systematic mismanagement, and dysfunction when these words do not appear anywhere in his Report? •Why did the Comptroller say he followed Generally Acceptable Government Auditing Standards for his review of the League when the League clearly documented that he did not? •What was the cost to the Erie County taxpayers’ for the Comptroller to conduct an investigation lasting over a year based on a letter from whistleblowers who failed to make their complaints to my wife or use the League’s internal whistleblower policy? And why did the Comptroller fail to mention in his Report the whistleblowers complaints were investigated by State and Federal agencies and were found to be untrue? •More importantly, what did the Comptroller Review cost the League in the reputational damages, staff and expert time to provide documentation in response to the Comptroller’s extensive requests over the past year? With all the attention to the economic comeback and opportunities in the community, this has only shown and reinforced that now more than ever, we must have a strong Buffalo Urban League. We must have the Leagues voice at the table. Thank you for standing with the Buffalo Urban League. Standing Strong and Still Here, Gerald McDuffie
dear editor
“Let Them Eat Cake...” Dear Editor: As referenced in my initial article, A Tale of Two Cities is a famous novel written by Charles Dickens (1859). This novel portrays in large part the mistreatment of the people by the Aristocrats and Nobility, before and during the French Revolution. In fact, their maltreatment is said to have been a major catalyst for the revolution. The causes of the French Revolution, the economic and social conditions, are frighteningly similar to what is occurring in the City of Buffalo and other major cities with a large population of Black residents occupying their urban centers, all across the United States. As the story goes, somewhere around 1789, Marie-Antoinette, bride of France’s King Louis XVI, was reported to have uttered, “Qu’ils, mangent de la brioche.” Or “Let them eat cake”, when informed that the people were protesting that they had no bread, meaning that they were starving. Historians have argued whether or not she actually made this callous comment. I have no intention of engaging in any scholarly debate about it. The comment interests me, because it is an illustration of how detached and clueless the “ruling” class was and is today from and about the suffering, poverty and deprivation of the people. It’s like a famous hotel heiress who was said to have replied, when she was informed that some staff had not been paid, “ Well, they are gonna have to dip into their trust funds!” Or how about, in response to the outcry and protestations of Blacks and Latinos in the City of Buffalo, about the disparity and discrimination in employment opportunities, despite it’s’ “boom” in the construction and other industries; “Why don’t you get a job!” George Santayana (1863-1952), an influential essayist, poet and novelist said one of the most well-known and quoted sentences of the twentieth century; “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Is Buffalo, doomed to repeat again and again the injustices and inequities of the past? And I wonder if so, will it be with the same consequences and results? Joan Simmons Human Rights Activist
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