O’side schools ready for state mandates

By HOWARD SCHWACH

hschwach@ liherald.com

Bob Fenter is responsible for implementing the fast-moving mandates given by the state education department to the Oceanside School District.

As the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and research, Fenter, 48, has to make mandated programs such as the Partnership for Readiness for College and Career (PARCC), Common Core and the Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) program work for the students and staff at Oceanside schools. He says that he and the district he has served for 25 years are equal to the task.

“This is going to be a challenging time in education, Fenter told the Herald in a long and wide-ranging interview late last week. “When and if the state implements common core and the PAARC testing program, we will be ready, even though the program has been rushed into the schools and brings overwhelming changes over a short time period, we have been in front of most of the changes and we will make it work. It’s going to take a lot of energy and money, but we can do it.”

Fenter said that the state recently did a presentation that indicated that most of the changes were about the use of technology for learning and for assessments; something that the sate says is “better than pencil and paper.”

“The new way of teaching and testing is more performance-based, more engaging for students,” Fenter said. “The common core will ensure an even better way for students to learn and understand the concepts necessary to provide a better depth of learning and more meaningful experiences.”

Having said that, however, he has his doubts about making any meaning from state assessments over the past several years, calling the state testing program “inconsistent,” and giving doubt that those tests can give rise to teacher assessments or student outcomes. He said that the common core is good, but that all the other elements that surrounding the program, such as the testing program that requires the school purchase large amounts of technology over the next two years, is a “distraction.”

“This is only the first year of the program,” he pointed out. “We should not rush to judgment. “In Oceanside, we have healthy elements such as our school board, our excellent teachers and an active administration. While the changes will not come without cost, we are healthy enough to keep ahead of the changes.”

“What we have to do,” Fenter said“is to take the reforms we are mandated to make and then minimize them for the Oceanside student body. It’s not going to be easy, but we have the obligation to do it with a bottom line that we have to do what best to make our students productive and thoughtful citizens.”