On Monday, New York State found out that its Board of Regents, the governing body for education policy in NYS, decided to postpone accountability measures for teachers and schools in all of New York State, paving the way for educators to get their Common Core ducks in a row. The five-year postponement came at the recommendation of Regent Merryl Tisch, who said,

This report is designed to make significant and timely changes to improve our shared goal of implementing the Common Core. We have heard strong support for higher standards, but we have also heard a desire for more time. The Regents work group put together a series of strong adjustments that will help improve implementation without sacrificing the high standards we’ve set for our students. These changes will help give principals, teachers, parents and students the time to adjust to the new standards without stopping our progress toward the goal we all share: college and career readiness for every student.

Of course, what I failed to include was the part where she (and NY State Commissioner John B. King) mentioned that they listened to the concerned parents and educators yadda yadda yadda. Because, until now, people thought direct protests, letter writing, and meeting interruptions wouldn’t actually make anything happen. To the contrary, this proves that all the interruptions en masse can affect change.

For moderates who prefer not to rock the boat too much, they think, by making logical arguments and talking about things over tea, we can come to a peaceful agreement, and that those in power will somehow relinquish it since they’ll have “seen the light.”As if good graces were enough to shift the locomotive of the CCSS implementation.

No.

We needed a plethora of methods for dissent in order to push back against such powerful reformers. The advocacy, the protests, the social media knocking, the letters to our elected officials, and the changing of the guard in NYC all came from a movement from people. Obviously, the work continues as we need to hold elected officials accountable, but, from my purview, it seems that this was a solid victory in the way of true reform.

Now, if I don’t get all the way through my curriculum, I won’t be too worried. I think I can teach much better this way.

Jose