A family divided: Clan of Common Core critics differ on whether review process is working
Split in what parents, teachers want underscored
CrOWLEY, La. — Carla and Carl Hebert, with two daughters and a granddaughter in tow, made the hour-long drive from their home in Lake Charles in October to watch a panel of Louisiana educators transform the controversial national Common Core standards into “Louisiana standards.”
Like many, the Heberts’ anger over the Common Core began with homework assignments. Carla remembers days when the whole family grew frustrated trying to help her granddaughter with the new, Common Core-aligned homework questions. “When you have two teachers and a dad who has four college degrees all struggling to help out with elementary school homework, something’s wrong,” she said.
The two teachers she’s referring to are her daughters, Shawna Dufrene and Tiffany Guidry. Dufrene, a fourth-grade teacher at Moss Bluff Elementary School in the Lake Charles suburb of Moss Bluff, was serving on the review panel. Meanwhile, Guidry, a former teacher and mother of three, sat in the audience with their parents. They had all come looking for big changes to the standards. But by the end of the long day, the Heberts were divided on whether the review was living up to its promise.
Their frustration speaks to a tension felt across the country; with nearly two dozen states revising the Common Core standards, policymakers are grappling with what role, if any, parents should have in tweaking those standards. Can teams of educators in states like Louisiana improve standards that were years in the making? And A family divided: Clan of Common Core critics differ on whether review process is working - The Hechinger Report: