Board of Regents Makes Changes to Common Core Implementation
By Janine Bowen
Following a torrent of criticism, the state Board of Regents announced Monday that it will adopt a series of measures to adjust the implementation of the Common Core Standards.
The changes passed two committees and are scheduled to be voted on the by the full board today (Tuesday).
‘We are absolutely committed to a successful implementation and are truly committed to moving forward in a way that balances the concerns we’ve heard with a sense of urgency about the needs of our students,” said state Education Commissioner John B. King Jr.
Under the new changes, the requirement for students to pass Common Core-based Regents exams will be extended, so that the class of 2022 will be the first to face the tougher graduation requirements. In addition, the graduating class of 2017 will be the first to take the Common Core Regents exams. For now, students will have the option to take Regents with the Common Core standards as well as the old standards, and take the higher grade.
The board hopes that the changes will reduce the high-stakes nature of the standards for students. In order to help pupils adjust to the higher standards, the requirements for Academic Intervention Services will be revised. Also, the state Education Department (SED) won’t require or encourage schools to make student placement decisions based on state test performance. The use of local traditional standardized tests for K-2 students will be eliminated.
Along with announcing changes to the Common Core, the Board of Regents also revealed that they will be placing a delay on` the sharing of student data with third parties until higher security is put in place. This is a change that many school officials, including Pleasantville Superintendent Mary Fox-Alter and Chappaqua Trustee Victoria Tipp, had previously hoped to see in a potential delay.
Fox-Alter said she was delighted to hear that the board would now delay this measure, but was concerned over what the next step would be. She expressed a desire for the board to eliminate student data sharing altogether.
In a previous interview, Tipp said that she was hopeful the current testing and teacher assessment models will be suspended until the validity of the tests are examined. The board appears to be taking this concern into account.
Changes to the Common Core Standards will now allow for a reduction in local testing that was meant to help evaluate teachers. Under the changes, a cap of 1 percent of instructional time will be allowed for local assessments to influence teacher evaluation. The new standards also aim to prevent teacher termination based on unfair teacher evaluation. Under the new systems, teachers who face termination based on evaluations may offer their districts’ untimely implementation of the Common Core as a defense.
The board has requested $8.4 million in state money to change the way state exams are printed. Currently, the state allows only four forms of a test to be printed, compared to more than 20 in other states.
King explained that the money would allow the board to eliminate standalone multiple choice testing in order to reduce testing time for students, as well as release a larger percentage of the test items for educators.
Fox-Alter, a vocal Common Core critic since its implementation, was unimpressed with the revisions.
“The changes they’re making are just slight tweaks. There’s nothing of substance in here,” she said of the information.
She also said the Pleasantville School District had already made many of the changes, such as discounting state test results for student promotion.
The move to adjust the Common Core comes just days after legislators across the state, including several in Westchester, requested a two-year delay in using Common Core testing to evaluate students and teachers.
The Board of Regents acknowledged that the rollout of the standards have been problematic, but maintain that they are making these changes in the best interests of students.
“We think there is urgency to get the common core right in every district but we acknowledge that it has been uneven across districts and any time you implement a change across…tens of thousands of schools, you’re going to need to make adjustments along the way and we’re making those adjustments,” King said.
In response to the recent opposition, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office released a statement acknowledging that it is aware of the issues surrounding the Common Core. Cuomo has also assembled a panel to review and correct the flaws.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
