Eldred votes on Common Core

Posted 8/21/12

ELDRED, NY — To the extent possible, members of the board of the Eldred Central School (ECS) want to protect students from some of the more extreme impacts of standardized testing and other …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Eldred votes on Common Core

Posted

ELDRED, NY — To the extent possible, members of the board of the Eldred Central School (ECS) want to protect students from some of the more extreme impacts of standardized testing and other elements of Common Core standards. The board voted unanimously on January 14 to approve a resolution that, in many cases, places ECS priorities over Common Core priorities.

At the December 17 board meeting, Superintendent Robert Dufour gave a lengthy presentation about Common Core standards, and then the public was invited to submit public comments. The comments were filled with dissatisfaction about Common Core, leading the board to initiate the resolution.

One repeating theme of the resolution is that the Common Core reliance on high-stakes testing has lead to negative consequences. It says, for instance, “the over-reliance on high-stakes standardized testing in state and federal accountability systems is undermining educational quality and equity by hampering educators’ efforts to focus on the broad range of learning experiences that promote innovation, creativity, problem solving, collaboration, communication, critical thinking …

“The over-emphasis on standardized testing has caused considerable collateral damage in too many schools, including narrowing the curriculum, teaching to the test, reducing love of learning, pushing students out of school, driving excellent teachers out of the profession and undermining school climate…”

The cure for these ills is to place ESC priorities above those of the state. The resolution says, “The Eldred Central School District will emphasize District measures of teacher effectiveness over State measures and standardized test scores, to the degree allowed by law... the Eldred Central School District will emphasize district measures of authentic student progress and engagement over state measures and standardized test scores, and will not use state assessment scores beyond what state and federal law requires... and ECS will evaluate the Common Core curriculum standards to determine which are not developmentally appropriate for our students and minimize their impact on our teaching and learning.”

In his state of the state address on January 13, Gov. Andrew Cuomo addressed education and Common Core, and said, “We reduced testing, we increased parental participation and empowered local districts. These reforms were essential because we saw that parents were losing faith in the system. Roughly 20%of our students opted out of exams, and in some districts as high as 90% opted out. Simply put, the education system fails without parental trust.”

That has been true across the state. ECS board member Brian Siegel, who has been focused on the issue since joining the board in July 2015, said Cuomo didn’t have much of a choice in calling for reform of Common Core because it was being so thoroughly rejected by parents. But he believes what’s really needed is a change in philosophy by the Board of Regents, whose members are appointed by the state Assembly, and who then enjoy a great deal of autonomy.

Two members of the Board of Regents have said they are retiring soon. Also, in December the Board of Regents announced it would postpone linking teacher evaluations to Common Core tests scores until at least 2019.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here