Learning the Common Core

More than 250 residents filled the Leon J. Campo Salisbury Center on Nov. 20 for a hands-on tutorial on the Common Core curriculum from East Meadow School District administrators and teachers. The goal of the workshop, which was coordinated by PTA Council officials and district administrators, was to give parents a better grasp of the new standards, to enable them to help their children at home more effectively.

The rigorous curriculum, which, according to the New York State Education Department, is designed to make students more “college and career ready,” has been a source of controversy throughout New York since its adoption by the state’s Board of Regents three years ago. Some have criticized the NYSED for its implementation “rollout” — a seven-year plan that involved the curriculum’s incorporation into state assessments for math and English Language Arts for the first time this year, which resulted in a historic, but expected, drop in test scores in school districts across the state.

In June 2014, Common Core Regents exams will be administered for ELA and Algebra I. The following year, the geometry and Algebra II Regents exams will follow the new curriculum. And 2017 will mark the first class of students who must pass the Common Core Regents exams to graduate.

Responding to the criticism, State Education Department Commissioner John King and Chancellor Meryl Tisch have attended local community forums in recent weeks — one of which was held in Mineola High School on Nov. 13 — to field questions from parents, teachers and administrators.

The state PTA recently went as far as to call for a one-year moratorium on Common Core exams, which it said would give the state a chance to catch up on its curriculum writing before it moves ahead with testing.

But during the districtwide Common Core workshop in East Meadow last month, the focus wasn’t on the rollout, testing or the State Education Department, but rather on helping parents learn so they, in turn, can help their children.