State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos on Feb. 4 called for a moratorium on using Common Core-aligned tests for high-stakes decisions about teachers, principals or students. 

In response, UFT President Michael Mulgrew issued the following statement:

Parents, principals and teachers spoke in one voice about how their children have suffered because of this grossly mishandled rollout of the Common Core standards.

We gave our kids tests, and only after our children failed — and after that failure became part of our students' permanent records — did anyone even think about getting teachers the curriculum and materials they need to help their students succeed.

The New York State Department of Education needs a time-out to fix this and to develop a plan that gets it right this time.