Putnam Residents Gripe Over Common Core, Seek Solutions
Putnam County Residents are looking for ways to improve the education of local students under the Common Core, while debating the root of the current problems in education.
During a forum at the Kent Public Library hosted by county Legislator Toni Addonizio on Wednesday night, local teachers and parents discussed the impact that the Common Core has had on students over the past few years. More than 200,000 students were opted out of this year’s standardized math and English language arts (ELA) exams in April because many felt the tests were inappropriate.
Anthony Cardinale, a third grade teacher at Kent Elementary School noted that while the old standardized tests were designed to assess whether or not a student were performing at grade level, passages on recent examinations are too difficult for students. He explained that a recent Common Core ELA test for third graders included a passage by Leo Tolstoy, which was written on a seventh grade level. Christine Zirkelbach, of the Hudson Valley Parent Educator Commission, noted that a recent high school Regents examination included a passage from Aton Chekov, an author she did not read until she was in her forties, as well as a passage on the physics concept of String Theory by Stephen Hawking.
Cardinale and Zirkelbach noted the difficulty of the tests as well as the arbitrary cut scores, which determine how many children pass or fail each examination, guarantee that some children will be set up for failure. Zirkelbach, the mother of a special needs student, stated that the tests are particularly inappropriate for those who suffer from learning disabilities, including dyslexia, as well as those who are English language learners. These students are required to take the tests without any of the regular accommodations offered to them in class, with the exception of extra time.
“Right now, at this time in history for a student with dyslexia or dysgraphia, there is more technological supports for them to succeed and advance their education than ever before in history but now they can’t graduate unless they can read one particular test,” she said.
New York State requires all students must pass five Regents examinations in order to graduate, meaning that those who can’t pass the challenging Common Core tests may end up eventually dropping out of school, which is concerning to teachers and residents given the high rate of failure on recent tests.
Zirkelbach said 70 percent of students in New York State received a score of one or two, out of a possible score of four, on the 2013 Common Core tests. Under State Education Department requirements, any student receiving a score of one or two is required to be placed in academic intervention services (AIS) classes. In Brewster, these services cost an additional $950,000 to implement last year, said Zirkelbach.
Resident Ann Fanizzi questioned why students in Putnam County towns, like Brewster are not doing as well as students in other communities like Scarsdale, which has one of the highest performing schools in the state. Speakers at Wednesday’s event stated that, while the average student in Brewster may have been able to achieve the same score as the average student in Scarsdale, Brewster has pockets of poverty within the town as well as a significant number of students for whom English is a second language. Under SED regulations, non-native speakers are only permitted to take Common Core tests in their native language during their first year of testing.
Although Cardinale noted that poverty is only a small piece of the puzzle surrounding the Common Core, he noted that 48 percent of students in the state live in poverty, based on the number of children who qualify for free and reduced lunch. These students do not have the resources for tutors or other academic services that children of wealthier families may have. In addition, many of the current elementary school students were born at the height of the recession, and have had to deal with parents who may need to work multiple jobs and are therefore unable to dedicate enough time to helping them prepare for school. Although as some residents noted, even parents who do have time struggle to help their kids with homework.
Putnam Valley town board trustee and parent, Jacqueline Annabi noted that while her children are not having a hard time with the material, she doesn’t understand the Common Core methods educators are using to teach students, and she is therefore unable to help her children when they do struggle. In addition, she believes it’s unfair that part of a teachers Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) scores could be based on these standardized tests that are developmentally inappropriate and scored in what appears to be an arbitrary way.
“I opted my children out because I don’t like the way that [Governor Andrew] Cuomo stated that it was going to evaluate our teachers and I thought we had great teachers at a great school district and I didn’t want my children to be part of that as a pawn,” she said.
In addition to the implementation of the Common Core, parents and advocates are also taking issue with changes that have been made to other aspects of education, particularly the material that is being taught in Advanced Placement United States History (APUSH).
Cathy Sapeta, of New York is United for Kids, stated she and members of that organization are concerned about details that have been removed from the APUSH curriculum including aspects of early American history like Thomas Jefferson and the House of Burgesses as well as no mention of German dictator Adolf Hitler, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, or the Holocaust in regards to World War II. Sapeta said the new curriculum, which is laid out in a 98-page outline distributed by the College Board, which administers the Advanced Placement exams, “removes all examples of American exceptionalism. She is concerned that these events will be removed from all history classrooms as there is a push to begin aligning these exams, as well as the SATs, with the Common Core.
Sapeta also voiced disapproval with recently elected politicians who ran on a platform of putting an end to the Common Core but voted to approve Governor Andrew Cuomo’s educational reform agenda, which was tied to the recent state budget.
“It is more than sad that these politicians are using out children for political gain,” she said.
Dan Armstrong, a former member of the Byram Hills board of education and a four-time candidate for the Brewster board of education noted state politicians are not the only problem. He stated that many local school boards have become “cliques” and that he has seen too many boards unanimously vote through resolutions without any new idea or discourse about how problems might be solved.
“To change it, you’ve got to get the school boards thinking differently,’’ he said. “You’ve got to get the government thinking differently, but I think that’s hopeless.”
Photo caption: Legislator Toni Addonizio spoke at the start of the Common Core forum she hosted last Wednesday at the Kent Public Library.
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