Pugh: Christie's Review on Education Standards Will Hopefully Benefit New Jersey's Students

Common Core, PARCC, and TeachNJ have all been the source of much debate over the last few years with strong opinions on both sides. Governor Chris Christie’s speech on Thursday, May 28, at the Burlington County College (BCC) in Pemberton was the latest to mention all three, with an emphasis on Common Core.

However, there has been much confusion surrounding exactly what the governor stated and his plans for New Jersey in terms of education, which will be simplified here.

Common Core came to New Jersey in 2010, after being developed by a group of bipartisan governors and education experts to establish a foundation of skills and knowledge that students should have in grades K-12, and were fully implemented in the 2013-2014 school year.

While initially supporting the standards, Governor Christie had a change in stance beginning in 2014, which was furthered this week. Christie stated that “it’s now been five years since Common Core was adopted. And the truth is that it’s simply not working.”

However, the governor does believe in “rigorous education standards,” but not those that were developed “200 miles away on the banks of the Potomac River.”

The governor embraced an approach that “takes {standards} out of the cubicles of Washington DC … and returns it to the neighborhoods of New Jersey.”

To further this position, the governor directed New Jersey Education Commissioner David Hespe, to form a group of parents and educators to develop New Jersey educational standards, or the “New Jersey College and Career Readiness Standards,” which must be reviewed by the end of 2015.

The review will focus on whether standards reflect New Jersey’s needs, measure up to previous state standards, reflect expectations of New Jersey’s colleges and employers, and if they close the achievement gap.

The governor’s basis to have a New Jersey version is to create standards that are higher because Governor Christie says the current ones are not addressing the needs of New Jersey’s students.

He says this is supported by the fact that “anywhere from 60 percent to 82 percent of the students need remedial education before they can even begin to tackle college-level work.”

In addition, the Governor alluded that a New Jersey centric approach to the standards will lead to more buy-in since they would be created locally and thus more applicable to the needs of New Jersey students.

A very important item to emphasize is that the governor’s stance has not changed in terms of PARCC administration, the recently rolled out testing mechanism for New Jersey students.

Governor Christie declared that “we must continue to review and improve the test,” but that “we must test our children because federal law requires it and because it is the only way to objectively judge our progress.”

Along with PARCC, the Governor renewed his firm support for the TeachNJ Tenure reform statute, which aims to promote classroom accountability among educators.

In follow-up statements, New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) President Wendell Steinhauer voiced negativity toward some aspects of the governor’s remarks, referencing the delay it took to review the standards and he advocated for the abandonment of the PARCC test.

As someone involved in education, I personally support having strong standards. I have heard many complaints about the Common Core from educators and parents alike, and I am hopeful that the governor’s plan will build upon and review what is currently in place.

Some point to the timing of the governor’s speech in light of a possible presidential announcement, but it does not take away from the fact that the review of standards will hopefully benefit the state’s 1.37 million students, including, according to Christie, “every classroom to be a place where learning occurs for every student,” “every teacher to be invested in meeting parents’ expectation for their children,” and to return New Jersey “control over the education our students receive.”

The attached image is a Patch file photo from Governor Chris Christie’s recent visit to Moorestown

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Brandon J. Pugh is a local board of education member in New Jersey, a county school boards association president, and is involved with education policy at various levels. The views expressed here belong to him solely.