Common Core takes a hit: N.Y. Gov. Cuomo’s task force recommends overhaul
The Common Core initiative just took a hit in New York state: A task force created by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) to review the curriculum and aligned standardized testing is recommending a total overhaul, saying that there were big mistakes in its implementation and that some of the early childhood standards are inappropriate.
The report released Thursday recommends a thorough review and suggests that a transition period last until the start of the 2019-2020 school year, when a new system is supposed to be implemented. Until then, it recommends, test scores obtained from Common Core standardized testing should no longer be used to evaluate “the performance of specific teachers or students.”
In New York state, up to 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation has depended on student standardized test scores in an assessment system that many have said was haphazardly designed. It created situations in which teachers were evaluated by the test scores of students they didn’t have in class and in subjects the teachers didn’t teach. For example, an art teacher could be evaluated by student math scores.
Why? High-stakes standardized tests are only given in math and English language arts, but because all teachers have to be evaluated by them, districts have found unusual ways to use the scores. Sometimes, school test averages are factored into all teachers’ evaluations. Sometimes, a certain group of teachers are attached to either reading or math scores; social studies teachers, for example are more often attached to English Language Arts scores while science teachers are attached to math scores.
In an introduction to the report released on Thursday, task force Chairman Richard Parsons wrote that mistakes were made in the rush to implement the standards. He said:
Repeatedly, testimony and public comments to us focused on the fact that educators were inundated with confusing information and new material without having first been brought into the process of developing how these new approaches were to be integrated into curricula and taught to students. And some of the new standards were simply inappropriate for certain student populations.The Common Core Standards must be revisited to reflect the particular needs and priorities of State and local school districts and, building upon the foundation established by the Common Core Standards, high quality New York State Standards must be developed where necessary to meet the needs of our kids. Thereafter, new State curriculum resources and tests must beCommon Core takes a hit: N.Y. Gov. Cuomo’s task force recommends overhaul - The Washington Post:
