Common Core - A time out is needed

If you believe that what students are taught in Barrington's schools, how it’s taught and how your son or daughter is assessed should be decided by a group of Governors colluding with a similar group of state school superintendents and funded in part with about $5 billion dollars in federal government grants, then you need read no further.  You should be very happy with these dramatic changes.
   But if you’re like me and a growing number of concerned parents, teachers, elected officials and citizens, then you may want to continue reading. Most residents don’t know it yet, but we have a completely different education system in the state now that is driven by what’s known as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  
   These standards – and the accompanying curriculum, student and teacher evaluations, and high-stakes testing are just starting to wake people up to a frightening new reality. Nearly 3 years ago, the CCSS were adopted by Rhode Island and over 40 other states. With much fanfare and promise of a brighter future for our children, I believed that the adoption of national standards was a significant move forward. 
   I was a naive initial supporter, even though there was little knowledge of the details or the implementation plan available to anyone.  So I started doing my homework.  Now, after much personal research and reflecting on my own experience as a public school educator and administrator of more than 20 years, and as the facts began to appear, I have slowly come to an entirely different conclusion.  
   And what have I discovered? I would like to make three points, although there are many other reasons for my change of mind, which I will elaborate at a future date. First, the CCSS were never field tested. 
   These standards and any associated curriculum were never once tried on a single student, school, or district prior to implementation. Therefore they are unproven and untested.
   Second, they were never vetted locally, by any state, district or town. Not a single school board in the state, not one parent, teacher or child was allowed any input. They were adopted whole cloth by the then-R.I. Board of Regents and Commissioner Gist, and of course, with the hearty approval of the “education experts” at the R.I. Department of Education (RIDE).
   Third, the implementation of such standards is costly and represents yet another unfunded mandate given that new texts and curriculum must be adopted and/or created.
   As troubling, is the apparent willingness to use at least some ready-made “for profit” materials from the Common Core approved set of educational products that have been prepared by the same cabal of “experts” that handed us the standards in the first place. Barrington residents foot nearly the entire local education bill each year with an annual budget approaching $46 million dollars.
   Is it too much to ask that parents, teachers, administrators, and school board members be allowed to discuss and vet these new standards before implementation? Is our educational system now in jeopardy of being controlled by an elite few at the state and federal level? 
   Why do local taxpayers once again have to fund yet another top-down state/federal initiative?  What impact will these standards have on our most vulnerable students - students in elementary school and students with special needs? What effect is the implementation having on teachers and administrators given the overwhelming requirements of the new teacher evaluation system?
    Ultimately, I would ask: Who owns our schools? Of course, it’s us - friends, neighbors and parents who pay the freight week after week, year after year. The idea that our educational franchise can be usurped by an elite few is a subversion of the ideal of education as a public good with broad public acceptance, support and buy-in. 
   I think it’s scandalous that there has been no local input allowed at any time, by any individual or group PRIOR to the adoption of this regime.
   Listen to what Diane Ravitch, a nationally renowned education researcher has to say about the CCSS: “They are being imposed on the children of this nation despite the fact that no one has any idea how they will affect students, teachers, or schools. We are a nation of guinea pigs, almost all trying an unknown new program at the same time. … I have come to the conclusion that the Common Core standards effort is fundamentally flawed by the process with which they have been foisted upon the nation.” Indeed!
   As of this letter, about six states that initially adopted the CCSS have either paused the implementation or dropped these standards entirely. Massachusetts recently decided to put off the testing piece, known as PARCC, for two more years.
   At this juncture, I believe that it’s time for R.I. to take a time out. Let's provide the primary stakeholders - parents, teachers, kids and elected officials - the opportunity to review, analyze and discuss these standards. It’s the only fair, transparent and educationally prudent thing to do.
   What's the rush? Our children’s current and future success is at stake. We can no longer squander their educational outcomes through untried and untested means.
   Were any of you in town when the ill-fated “Chicago math” program was highly touted as the new gold standard?
   Local control of education is as old as our Republic. I insist that we not yield this valued institution to a group of educational oligarchs for their own agenda, no matter their altruistic pleadings.  I urge you to do your own homework.  Look at the information that’s readily available about the Common Core.  Don't take someone else’s word for it – because it’s your kids and your schools.
   If you share these concerns I urge you to contact my fellow school committee members and your state representatives and ask for a pause in the implementation of the CCSS.  Because right now, all we can do is hope that the CCSS are better than what we had.  And hope is not a strategy for success.