Sheree Gibson defends Portrait as response to students, families, and employers

You see.

Okay.

Good afternoon, members of the New York City Council Committee of Education.

Chair Denevitz, thank you for the opportunity to speak today on the New York State Portrait of a Graduate.

My name is Cherie Gibson.

I'm a proud New York City public school alum, a high school parent, a citywide Title I parent leader, an education advocate who served as a member of the New York State Blue Ribbon Commission on Graduation Measures.

The portrait of the graduate came out of the recommendations of the commission and is foundational to the systemic change of what education in New York State could be, encompassed in the entire New York Inspires transformative plan.

The portrait of a graduate was a direct answer to what we heard resoundingly from students, families,

higher education official employers that we have not been preparing our young people for post-secondary success or future past the 21st century.

A focus on regents, a one-day exam, piecemeal work on providing variety in their students'learning experiences, which was mainly in extracurricular clubs and activities, as you heard from the journalism students today.

Assessing educators'effectiveness just on a standardized exam.

The, excuse me, rigor has been mentioned a lot today, but it's not found in just a one-day exam.

The dependence or focus on the regents has minimized the importance of classroom work and participation.

And in looking at additional experiences,

that we think that there's no other way to assess our students'mastery of a subject is only from a regents.

Have you spoken to a teenager lately who's taken a regents?

They walk out of the regents either saying, whew, man, that was so easy.

We learned that at the beginning of the school year, or nothing we learned this whole school year was on this test.

And so if we're stating that their rigor, their mastery is to be learned by the exam.

Thank you for your testimony.

All right.