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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

NY Ed Commish Walks Out on Testing Town Halls

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Wednesday, October 16, 2013   

ALBANY, N.Y. - Some New York parents and teachers who are upset about new tests in public schools, part of the Common Core curriculum, are even more upset by the Education Commissioner's latest move.

Angry parents loudly confronted State Education Commissioner John King Jr. at the first of a series of town hall meetings Thursday in Poughkeepsie. King responded by refusing to attend any more of the meetings sponsored by the state Parent Teacher Association.

"We felt that the town hall meetings provided parents with an opportunity for two-way dialogue, and the commissioner felt otherwise," said Rick Longhurst, executive administrator of the state PTA. "So we were disappointed that the meetings were canceled."

Tom Dunn, a spokesman for the commissioner's office, said the forum in Poughkeepsie "was not productive" and that the "disruptions deprived parents of the opportunity to listen, ask questions and offer comments."

Alternatives are being sought, Dunn said.

"We're going to continue working with the PTA to find an appropriate venue to engage in real, productive dialogue with parents about our students and their education," he said.

Carl Korn, a spokesman for NYSUT, the state's largest teachers' union, said parents and teachers are frustrated "at the overemphasis on testing and the rushed and rocky implementation of the Common Core - which in many cases has put testing in front of instruction, and that's just wrong."

The first of the new state English and math tests on the Common Core last spring came before teachers could teach the curriculum - and the percentage of students receiving proficient grades dropped from between 55 percent and 65 percent to just 30 percent.

Longhurst said he wants to delay the use of the test scores to hold back students or grade teachers.

"So, temporarily at least to break the link between student test performance and teacher and principal performance evaluation," he said. "That's getting in the way of implementing the intent of the instruction."

NYSUT wants a three-year moratorium on using test scores that way.


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