Eterno Chronicles Regent Grading Fiasco at ICE Blog

I assume you are aware of the Regents grading mess where because teachers cannot be trusted to mark their own kids' exams, they are sent to detention
grading centers to mark exams of kids from other schools. Or maybe their own since you can't tell anyway. But the DOE needed to toss some money McGraw Hills' way so first exams are sent to Connecticut to be scanned and posted on the internet -- which by the way, teachers could actually access from their own schools. But why quibble.

NYC Educator had his usual funny take.

Thank goodness we have Meryl Tisch making policy for us. In the old days, we would have students taking Regents exams, and kids would give the exams to their teachers. Then, the teachers would grade them. This was a terrible system. First of all, no technology was involved. Secondly, no corporations made money from this. And worst of all, every single teacher in the world is a lying, worthless, conniving. self-serving fraud who cares about nothing but appearance.

Because of this, we now have a far better system. First of all, we've paid McGraw-Hill 9.6 million bucks to scan all the tests. That's a huge improvement. Not only have we given a corporation millions of dollars, but we've also managed to add the element of scanning thousands and thousands of papers. This, clearly, is highly effective, and that's what matters in King Reformy John's feifdom.

Read it all at: Ms. Tisch and the Brilliant Innovation

With so many bloggers out there covering ed issues in so much a better way than the mainstream ed press, I find less and less need to comment myself. I assume Ed Notes readers are checking the blog roll but in case you are missing some of them, here is a quick summary on the current hot button issue of Tweedie incoherence. Every time you see Walcott or Shael or any Tweedie talk their jive, just think of the almost daily fiascoes and laugh in their faces.

James has been doing a great job. Read in reverse order.

• REGENTS SCORING DAY 9: ARE WE DONE YET?
• NY TIMES FINALLY DISCOVERS REGENTS SCORING MESS
• REGENTS MARKING DAY 6: WILL WE EVER FINISH?
• REGENTS MARKING DAY 5: SOME IMPROVEMENT BUT NO END...
• SOCIAL STUDIES REGENTS MARKING DAY FOUR & THE SKIN...
• SOCIAL STUDIES REGENTS GRADING DAY 3 REPORT; UFT M...
• Danielson: What We Lost – Creating an Environment...
• NO REGENTS EXAMS TO GRADE SO IT'S BACK TO JAMAICA
• REGENTS MARKING

MORE has put out a statement:
Regents Scoring Debacle – Trouble for English Language Learners - The following is an op-ed written by MORE’s Joanna Yip about the effect of the Regents scoring problems on a particularly vulnerable population.

Other bloggers have chimed in:

RBE:

94% Of Regents Exams Graded As Of 1 PM Monday

According to Gotham Schools, 6% of the city's Regents exams still need to be graded.
Tests are still being scanned by McGraw-Hill and teachers sat around the grading centers today with nothing to grade.
Wednesday is the last day of school.
I cannot remember a Regents exam grading season as chaotic as this one.
Will there be some accountability for the Tweedies who put this system into place and signed off on the contract with McGraw-Hill? 

DOENUTS

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

All Documents Have Been Graded For This RIB

That's the message that teachers across the city have been getting when they access regents exams in a vain attempt to scores them for students.

Look, for three full days, we have have not been unable to access these exams because the private, for-profit company that has been asked to scan and present the exams to us for grading has not been able to do their job. We've sat in these rooms for this time accomplishing nothing (a particular pet peeve of mine) because our department struck a deal with some company that couldn't even deliver on their end of the bargain. This screw up is jeopardizing the graduation expectations of high school seniors all across the city and I'm sure that several hundred family vacations are currently hanging in the balance (with the potential for summer school still alive for many teens who would otherwise know their scores by now).

This whole time we at our schools (grading along the time honored tradition) would have been finished with this task, or would have been very close to finished, by now and none of this would be happening.

You see, we would have delivered, as we have for decades now. They didn't. 

And who will they turn to to fix their screw up? Why us, of course!
The DOE, as rumor would have it, has decided to offer us all per session (DOE-speak for overtime) on Thursday and Friday evenings -and all day on Saturday, as well as all day Sunday- to make up for this train wreck. Yep.
We're in this fiasco because the department had decided -astoundingly!- that it was us who could not be trusted to produce accurate results for our own students! That's right. They concocted this system as a way to keep us and our professional judgement at bay with regard to assessing our own students at our own schools. We're here because we weren't trusted to act as professionals. 
People who read this blog know that I really don't complain and I really don't gripe. Maybe I'll throw out the occasional piece of sarcasm, but wining isn't something I really do. But as you read the blogs and Ed. news sites tonight figuring out exactly what is causing this mess, and as you go into your grading 'hub' tomorrow wondering if it will continue for yet another day and wondering when you will find out how well your students performed on their* state tests  I'd like to you to remember just one thing:
We're here at these grading hubs experiencing this fiasco because they said that they could not trust us to be professional!
And ain't that a hoot!?