![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/04\/4-12-Gerald-Conti-quits-300x199.jpg\" "\\"4-12")
<\/a>flickr \/ griffithchris<\/p>
Gerald Conti's resignation letter is making waves with critics of the Common Core.<\/p><\/div>\n
Conti is retiring from Westhill High School<\/a> in Syracuse, NY at the end of this school year and his resignation letter has become a manifesto for critics of the Common Core.<\/p>\n In his letter \u2014 which he posted in full on Facebook <\/a>\u2014 Conti laments that the push towards standardized testing and the Common Core<\/a> has fundamentally changed teaching:<\/p>\n \u201cSTEM rules the day and \u201cdata driven\u201d education seeks only conformity, standardization, testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic Common Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential Learnings. \u2026 My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic \u201cassessments\u201d) or grade their own students\u2019 examinations.\u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n According to a profile of Conti from The Post Standard<\/a>, the retiring teacher sent the letter in February, but it blew up on the web after he posted it to Facebook in March. More than 2,500 people have shared the letter since March 29th.<\/p>\n Conti is not the first person to outline criticism of the movement towards new standards<\/a> and testing, but his conclusions about the changing culture of education struck a nerve<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cFor the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, \u201cWords Matter\u201d and \u201cIdeas Matter\u201d. While I still believe these simple statements to be true, I don\u2019t feel that those currently driving public education have any inkling of what they mean.\u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What do you make of the letter? Leave us a note in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the spring semester winds down around the country, one teacher, Gerald Conti, is not going quietly. Conti is retiring from Westhill High School in Syracuse, NY at the end of this school year and his resignation letter has become a manifesto for critics of the Common Core. In his letter \u2014 which he posted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":17994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[1157,814,1161,1082],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17993"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}