Common Core Forum Suspended by NYS Education Commish

Posted by Carisa Giardino

New York state education Commissioner John King has "suspended" future roundtable discussions on the new Common Core standards until further notice.

A forum hosted by the Garden City School District, in conjunction with Nassau PTA, was called off Tuesday. Additionally, King has called off three other forums scheduled to take place this month.

See YouTube video of meeting here

Emotions ran high at a common core standards dicussion in Poughkeepsie Oct. 10 at Spackenkill High School. Anna Shah, 41, a parent in the Spackenkill district, said "the meeting ended abruptly after five speakers presented, leaving at least 75 who were denied the chance to speak," according to a Poughkeepsie Journal report.

King said "the disruptions caused by the 'special interests' have deprived parents of the opportunity to listen, ask questions and offer comments," according to a Newsday report.

King, who assumed office in 2011, is the fourteenth commissioner of education for New York State. He is the youngest person to ever hold the position.

A statement on the New York State PTA Facebook page reads: "While our goal was to provide an opportunity to learn and share, based on review of the initial October 10 meeting, the Commissioner concluded the outcome was not constructive for those taking the time to attend."

Garden City Mom Maureen Strysko said she is more than disappointed. "Disgusted is more like it. If you watch the video of the parent comments at the upstate meeting, it is apparent that Commissioner King is not interested in parental input," she told Patch.

"He spoke for over an hour and a half but did not give the parents the same courtesy they extended to him. When it was his turn to listen, he couldn't help but defend some of his points that were made earlier ... Even though the parents already heard it all and they were supposed to be able to comment, he would not just listen and then ended the session after 23 minutes - far short of the hour they were promised."

Individualized score reports for children in Grades 3-8 who took the New York State English Language Arts (ELA) and math exams last spring were expected to be mailed to parents in late September.

Common Core standards scores were generally lower as a whole across New York State since the implementation of the new tests, including in Port Washington, according to superintendent of schools Kathleen Mooney who spoke at a school board meeting last month regarding the scores.