State revamps Common Core

The New York State Education Department last week released new draft English and math learning standards for public comment, according Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia.

“Over the past year, the State Education Department, under the leadership of Commissioner Elia, made a commitment to addressing the concerns raised from the field as well as parents throughout the State of New York around the Common Core learning standards in English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics. An active task force was created that made revisions based on that feedback, as well as their own expertise,” said Superintendent of Oceanside School Dr. Phyllis Harrington.

The move follows four years of parents’ protests about the Common Core State Standards that were adopted by New York in 2012. More than 200,000 parents opted their children out of grades three to eight English and math state exams across the state in 2015. That led Gov. Andrew Cuomo to empanel the task force that year to offer recommendations to overhaul Common Core.

Island Park Superintendent Dr. Rosmarie Bovino said, “The newly released draft of the State ELA and Math Standards represents a great cooperative effort on the part of parents, teachers, administrators, and state representatives partnering to make revisions. Indeed, the language in the new standards has been changed in several instances and they have a more “user friendly” read; the new Standards are also less politically charged.”

That process began last spring, ending this September with a raft of new standards. Two committees comprising 130 educators and parents recommended changing 60 percent of the English and 55 percent of the math standards.

“In many cases, there is less jargon. However, other changes include word substitutions such as “participate” instead of “engage” and “norms” instead of “rules,” which are nominal. There has been some streamlining by combining Reading for Information Standards and Reading for Literature Standards under the single heading of Reading Standards. While the content has not changed significantly, the merged items comprise most of the “new standards” for ELA and are less repetitive,” Bovino added.

“In Oceanside, we have already begun the process of analyzing these proposed changes,” Harrington said. “An initial review of the changes suggests that, in some cases, minor revisions were made and in others, a more dramatic shift was noticed.

“I remain confident that the master educators in Oceanside will continue to do what matters most, which is ensuring that the curriculum in every individual classroom is rigorous, yet differentiated enough to meet the needs of all learners. I intend to work directly with PTA representatives in order to keep parents informed throughout this process.”

“Learning standards form the very framework of our educational system, so it’s critical that we get this right for all of our students,” Board of Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa said. “As we work to support teachers in implementing these new learning standards, we will place a particular emphasis on educating English language learners, students with disabilities and other special populations.”

“Examples are no longer included in the standards themselves; they have been placed in a separate section for guidance. While this reduces the density of the Standards, a parent of a second grade child who wants to know what a ‘reflexive noun’ is will have to find the separate guidance document to see examples such as myself, ourselves, etc.,” Bovino added.

“Dedicated teachers, parents and educators from across the state put in countless hours to develop these new draft standards,” Elia said. “I thank our review committee members for taking the time to propose meaningful changes to improve the state’s learning standards. Teachers will be able to use these standards as a basis for developing their curricula and lesson plans to meet the needs of students in their classrooms.

“These changes,” she continued, “reflect what I have heard from parents, teachers and administrators over the past year in my travels across the state. Now we want to hear from educators and parents so we can develop the best learning standards to prepare New York’s children for their futures.”

“Students are still expected to read on grade level; however, the term “grade-level texts” has been removed,” Bovno said. Similarly, we will no longer be using the term “different cultural backgrounds,” which harkens back multiculturalism; we will now use the term “diverse backgrounds” when helping children develop understanding of different perspectives.

“If parents are looking for a less rigorous curriculum than the Common Core, they will be very disappointed,” said Bovino. “ With few exceptions, the rigor remains; moreover, there are many more Writing Standards, all of which aim at raising the caliber of writing.”

“As a parent and educator I find the draft revisions to the ELA and Mathematics standards to be a very encouraging move toward parent, administrative and teacher collaboration for continued student success in the future,” said Oceanside PTA Council Advocacy Chair Jeanine Perez. A mother of students at School No. 4 and School No. 6, Perez said “A real focus on developmentally appropriate standards. Especially in the early grade English standards is especially promising. The State education Department also acknowledges that this is a continued work in progress. I am encouraged lo learn that the new standards focus on the whole child and the idea of learning through play,” said Perez.

According to Elia, the new draft standards meet the 2015 legislative requirement that the standards be reassessed with stakeholders’ input. Teachers and parents, she noted, have had a voice throughout the revision process “and their input drove the recommended changes to the learning standards.”

“The standards have not changed,” she said, “What changed was how they rolled out the program.” Perez felt education is a fluid process. She praised both Oceanside for going thorough the program from the start, pulling out those pieces that did not work, and cutting and pasting in the ones that did, and the state for acknowledging there were problems and working hard to find solutions.

The State Education Department is now accepting public comments on the draft standards through Nov. 4.