(East Newton R-6 Board of Education President Mark Knight offered the following statement this week to the Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, which held a hearing Thursday on HB 1490, The bill would prevent the implementation of Common Core Standards.)
Thank you for the opportunity to offer comments on the Common Core initiative from the perspective of the East Newton R-6 School District. We are a modest sized, but still very capable district and believe we well represent the needs of our students.
I cannot speak for our entire Board of Education on this issue since the Board was unable to meet and completely discuss the issues to be presented here today. However, during previous lengthy discussions (during a five month period) leading up to the passage of our resolution regarding Common Core, several things were made clear and today I hope to explain to you what led to the passing of the resolution to stop and re-evaluate the implementation of Common Core by the East Newton Board of Education.
1. The way in which Common Core was instituted not only in Missouri but throughout the United States was questionable. “No Child Left Behind” or 100% proficiency by 2014 was not a realistic goal and was impossible to achieve. Nearly every school district in the nation was heading for discreditation. States, just like our school board, were offered the opportunity to get a waiver from “No Child Left Behind”. One cannot imagine our excitement at the prospect of getting relief from the crushing weight of 100 % efficiency. Without knowing any specifics on Common Core we jumped at the chance because we would at least be able to keep our accreditation. In addition, States were promised an opportunity for additional monies in the “Race to the Top”. If an individual did such things, it might be called extortion or bribery, but when our federal government offers, it is called opportunity.
2. The cost associated with in the implementation of Common Core is an unknown. DESE has offered to continue paying for the cost of the testing; however there are many other costs to be considered. Our district is lucky enough to have the necessary technology in place, whereas many smaller districts do not nor can they afford the required updates. I have talked with several board members throughout the state that live in districts that have less than the basic technology requirements for the testing that will be required. New text books, professional development for teachers, and parent education are costs that must also be considered. We at East Newton have only two subjects ready for implementation, Mathematics and English Language Arts. What will be the cost associated with Science and History?
3. Once the testing or evaluations are in place, districts will try to align their own curriculum to the tests. This will increase cost of text books and teacher training. This is inevitable because in order to maintain accreditation, schools must show continuous improvement on the annual assessment or test provided by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Under Common Core, DESE has decided Missouri, along with 20 other states, will be using the Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium (SBAC) assessment. DESE has also stated that each school is in control of their own curriculum. However, once the assessments begin, schools’ improvement will be evaluated on the SBAC assessment or test scores. In order to show continuous improvement schools will slowly but surely adjust their curriculum to reflect the SBAC assessment. This will not only happen in the state of Missouri but throughout the other 44 states signed on to Common Core. Before you know it, we will have the children of 21 states under SBAC educated in lock-step fashion. Marching and learning in unison to the thoughts of only a few.
4. Although we are told that no more data will be gathered than that which is currently being collected, data collection is still another area of concern. If that is the case then why is it included? We are concerned that gathered and disclosed data could be used for purposes other than children’s’ education. What will be done with the data that is collected for the State of Missouri? Will it be sold? Will the people of Missouri become targets of pin-point accurate advertising or targeted for some other purpose? It is my understanding that if HB1783 is passed into law, this concern may go away.
5. Our board was inundated with concerns and requests for information regarding Common Core. Open community meetings were held to try and inform patrons of these changes and to question what they meant for our district. Opposition to Common Core provided a large amount of information, facts and reference material that was readily available for review. However, DESE’s information was slow in coming and they refused to participate in open discussions. DESE was invited to attend numerous meetings and refused even after the organizers offered to pay all their expenses. DESE suggested that Superintendents handle all communications and questions regarding Common Core. That is not why the East Newton Board of Education hired our Superintendent. We hired him to be the Administrator of our school, not to work for DESE. I was elected to the Board of Education nearly 14 years ago by the people that live within the district of East Newton R6. I am supposed to be their voice and their representative in seeing that the children in our school district get the best possible education with the funds and assets available. You, as legislators, were elected by the people of this great state to represent thepeople of your districts and accordingly you are overseers of the state of Missouri. Who is it that elects the people of DESE that represent and oversee the education system of Missouri?
In my business career, the use of “best practices” was something that we found valuable. We would see how other divisions or departments successfully operated in similar type situations and then we would adopt that type of “best practice” in our business in order to improve. That being the case wouldn’t it be great if our educational system operated the same way. We could set a standard of “best practice” in education, such as the one in the state of Massachusetts which is highly regarded as educators. Instead we adopt a program Common Core that is untested and unproven.
In order to improve the educational system in Missouri we need to set free the minds of our children. With the federal program of “No Child Left Behind” we concentrated on trying to get everyone proficient in the different subjects. It is a great idea, however what actually happens is “No Child Gets Ahead” because we work so hard getting the children at the bottom to become proficient that we lose sight of the other children that sit and wait. Children may be at multi-levels. For instance a student may be level 6 in math, 4 in English, and 12 in history. Teach to the student’s ability not to their age. Incentivize and challenge the students by letting them learn at a much faster pace when possible. Yes, we will still have those students that are slow to catch on, however we won’t be holding back the others.
Teachers can teach to the level of the students in the class not to the age of the student. If we were to do something like this perhaps there would be more George Bennions in the world. For your information, George Bennion is a senior at East Newton High School who scored a perfect 36 on his ACTs. Wouldn’t it be grand if the state of Missouri could have many George Bennions? I am far from convinced that Common Core will achieve that result.
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