My Turn By Kathleen Early-Buglino ‘We are more than a score’

My name is Kathleen Early-Buglino. I am a mother of three children (ages 8, 7, and 4) who are part of the M-W School District. I am here to speak tonight as a parent and a teacher. For the past 16 years, I have dedicated myself to educating children. I am here to tell you that I am more than a score on some test, and so are my children - the three that I birthed and the 22 I show up for every day.

Firstly, I want to shout bravo to Elsie Rodriguez for her support. Putting all state pressure and politics aside, she supported our children and our decision as parents to make choices for them. This certainly must be a very difficult position to be in, and you, Mrs. Rodriguez, are an upstander! I thank you.

‘Common Core is harmful’I am not upset with the testing being attached to my score. That is not what motivates me to seek change. The fact that Cuomo is trying to solve the problems in schools by doing that just shows his ignorance and agenda to work with educational monopolies like Pearson.

I believe in assessing children and identifying their strengths and weaknesses. The assessments should be developmentally appropriate. The curriculum should be developmentally appropriate.

They are not. Common Core is harmful. Merryl Tisch said last night that the tests are diagnostic and they give parents a snapshot of their child in comparison to everyone else.

We know that is a lie.
It would be unethical for me to pull my three children from public school and seek out private school or homeschool and leave the community I have worked for and the one I live in hanging in the wind.

I miss waking up at 2 a.m. with the crazy idea of making clay maps to teach the landform regions of New York State.

I miss having my room filled with stale marshmallows and toothpicks from the Family Metric Meter Challenge.

I miss my creativity that drove my instruction. Instruction of the CCSS now drives whether I have time to be creative. My heart is heavy because my passion and my creativity is what has made me a pretty good teacher.

‘My teachers saved my life’My teachers saved my life. My mother was killed by a drunk driver when I was 10 years old. My fifth grade teacher, Rosemary Manzi, was suddenly faced with teaching a broken-hearted little girl. Through her guidance and the numerous other teachers that came after her, I never became the statistic I watched my 14-year-old sister become.

This is what drove me to teach. I read books by Jonathon Kozol and headed to Far Rockaway to save all the children with my amazing teaching and let them know they could be more than from which they came. My teaching was far from amazing, but my students were loved and fed daily.

That drive followed me to South Orangetown in 2002. The students here didn’t need me to feed them, but they still needed me to love them ... and I have. I am their school mom. I want them to be successful.

I need parents to see this issue before them as more than just some test ... more than teachers needing accountability. There is not a teacher out there that feels they shouldn’t be accountable.

Of course, we should.
But does as six-hour test do that?

I was B+ student who could have been an A student had I cared enough, had I been able to see past my longing of wanting to be reunited with my mother.

Should Mrs. Manzi been deemed ineffective because of my state test scores in fifth grade?

‘Do I teach to the test to save my job?’

What about the children I have taught over the years whose parents have divorced, are struggling to get medical coverage for their child with a disability, or the parents who choose between being able to put food on the table or shoes that fit on their children’s feet?

I don’t mind facing failure and discipline for not meeting expectations, but I want it to be because it is I who truly failed. I want my passion and creativity and love for my students to not be held hostage by Common Core.

So here is my predicament: I start in September and teach to the test to save my job and do a huge disservice to my students.

Or I continue to follow what my heart says is doing right by my kids, and risk showing no test growth because I didn’t teach to the test.

My teacher heart chants the Hippocratic Oath of “first do no harm.” I can’t compromise my own ethical beliefs because it will save my job.

So my husband and I are preparing for what may come. If the governor has his way, there is a good chance I will not have a job in two years because the test scores may show I am not effective.

My salary, years of service and my pension will be gone.

So why will my children “opt out” of state testing come next year?

Because I know there is more to my children’s teacher than what shows up on some state test. I could let my son take the test next year because he is a three student and will do just fine.

But I will not.
I will not let the sum of my son’s teacher’s career come down to whether or not his scale score improved from year to year when the rule makers keep changing things up.

‘Take back control’Things needs to change. There should be transparency with the curriculum. No one should be able to put information in front of my children and forbid me from viewing it.

Nor should I, as a teacher, be gagged from discussing what I present in the classroom.

Transparency is needed. Parents need to stand up to the initiatives being made and take back control of their children’s schooling. I say this not because I need you to save my job … Joe and I are actually quite excited at the idea of homeschooling in two years.

I say this because regardless of whether or not I am in a classroom, I want our children to love school. I want them to love learning. The power is in our hands. We as parents and teachers need to take it.

We are more than a score.
This is a copy of remarks Kathleen Early-Buglino offered at last week’s Monroe-Woodbury School Board.