State revamps Common Core

The New York State Education Department last week released new draft English and math learning standards for public comment, which could mean big changes for Common Core, according to Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia.

Local school officials expressed cautious optimism this week that much-needed reforms would be implemented.

According to an Education Department news release, review committees comprising educators and parents discussed all of the English Language Arts and mathematics standards, and recommended changes to 60 percent of the ELA standards and 55 percent of the math standards. As the committees considered changes, however, they “focused on ensuring that the standards continue to be rigorous and challenge New York’s students to do more,” the release read.

School officials have been critical of the Common Core ELA and math standards since they were adopted by New York in 2012. The Baldwin Teachers Association has expressed concern about the Education Department’s testing policies. “Over the past year, the State Education Department has promised a number of changes to the upcoming [grades] three to eight math and ELA tests,” Baldwin Teachers Association President Christopher Geer wrote in March on the union’s website. “These changes, while billed as a major overhaul, simply do not warrant parents yet opting back in” to the state exams.

Across New York, some 200,000 parents kept their children out of the third- through eighth-grade ELA and math exams in 2015.

“The State Education Department has consciously avoided addressing the most significant problem with the tests –– their inappropriate level of difficulty,” Geer noted. “As long as the benchmarks are set at an inappropriate level, our students will continue to be used in an abusive process that labels children as not being proficient, when it is simply not the case.”

Dr. Melissa Burak, the Lynbrook superintendent, said, “As our mission statement states, the Lynbrook School District is a K-to-12 collaborative learning environment where all stakeholders are integral to providing each and every learner with a challenging and balanced learning experience. As standards evolve within New York state, Lynbrook will continue to provide its students with rich and rigorous learning opportunities.”

East Rockaway Superintendent Lisa Ruiz said that “as the standards in New York state evolve, the East Rockaway School District will continue to increase achievement of all students by creating engaging learning environments that successfully balance curriculum, expectations and pedagogy. The district strives to increase opportunities that foster academic, social and emotional achievement for all students.”

Last week, schools officials said they have been busy poring over the news standards released by the state. “We are in the process of reviewing the recommended revisions of the Common Core standards in preparation for commenting,” Dr. Kishore Kuncham, the Freeport schools superintendent, said in a prepared statement. The “pre-K through grade two standards seem to be more developmentally sound. We will be looking carefully at the recommended changes regarding text complexity and the secondary math standards. We know

Rockville Centre Superintendent Dr. William Johnson did not reply to a request for a comment on the proposed changes, and Baldwin Superintendent Dr. Shari Camhi was unavailable for comment.

The state’s move to reform standards follows four years of parents’ protests about the Common Core State standards. That led Gov. Andrew Cuomo to empanel a task force that year to offer recommendations to overhaul Common Core.

That process began last spring, and end in September with a raft of new standards. Two committees, comprising 130 educators and parents, recommended changing 60 percent of the English and 55 percent of the math standards. The State Education Department is now accepting public comments on the draft standards through Nov. 4.

“Learning standards form the very framework of our educational system, so it’s critical that we get this right for all of our students,” Board of Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa said. “As we work to support teachers in implementing these new learning standards, we will place a particular emphasis on educating English language learners, students with disabilities and other special populations.”

“Dedicated teachers, parents and educators from across the state put in countless hours to develop these new draft standards,” Commissioner Elia said. “I thank our review committee members for taking the time to propose meaningful changes to improve the state’s learning standards. Teachers will be able to use these standards as a basis for developing their curricula and lesson plans to meet the needs of students in their classrooms.

“These changes,” she continued, “reflect what I have heard from parents, teachers and administrators over the past year in my travels across the state. Now we want to hear from educators and parents so we can develop the best learning standards to prepare New York’s children for their futures.”

According to Elia, the new draft standards meet the 2015 legislative requirement that the standards be reassessed with stakeholders’ input. Teachers and parents, she noted, have had a voice throughout the revision process “and their input drove the recommended changes to the learning standards.”