Evelyn on Common Core forum panel

District 13 Superintendent Constance D. Evelyn will be a panelist at a forum that will focus on the next steps for Common Core testing on Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. at South Side Middle School in Rockville Centre.

“This forum is designed as an informational session for discussing where we as a state will go with Common Core and the latest reports from the legislature and governor’s office,” said Assemblyman Brian Curran, who coordinated the event. “Our children, parents, teachers and school administrators have a right to know how these new items will impact our state’s education policy.”

Evelyn and Valley Stream resident Geoffrey Canada Sr. were selected by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s to join the Common Core Task Force in September. The group reviewed the current student testing system and recommended changes.

In its final report issued on Dec. 10, the task force called on the state to place a four-year moratorium on the use of students’ state test scores to evaluate teachers’ classroom performance.

The recommendation came amid a slew of proposed policy changes intended, as the report states, “to right the ship.” The governor formed the task force after mounting parental anger over plummeting exam scores led more than 200,000 students in grades three through eight to opt out of the battery of state tests required under the Common Core last spring.

Curran and Evelyn will be joined by Assembly Education Committee Ranker Assemblyman Ed Ra, Assemblyman David McDonough, Rockville Centre Superintendent William Johnson, Covert Principal Darren Raymar, Jeanette Deutermann from Long Island Opt Out and retired South Side High School Principal Carol Burris. For additional information, contact Curran’s district office at (516) 561-8216.