A chance to rethink Common Core

The Massachusetts State Board of Education recently rejected the battery of state exams required by the Common Core curriculum. It was a bold –– and pathetic –– move on the board’s part.

Massachusetts has required its students to pass a number of state exams in order to graduate for more than two decades. Given the state’s success in bolstering students’ test scores on national measures, Massachusetts Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester led the nation in creating the Common Core State Standards, arguing that the country needed a single set of standards to judge student performance.

After test scores plummeted under Common Core in Massachusetts and around the country, however, the Bay State is backpedaling –– big time. That’s just sad.

Now there are calls for New York to follow suit in nixing the Common Core. Ed Ra, a Republican state assemblyman from Franklin Square, was among the lawmakers to jump on that bandwagon. “Across the country, we have seen many states struggle with the one-size-fits-all curriculum and high-stakes testing that has come along with the hasty implementation of the Common Core,” Ra said last week. “Many states have taken a step in the right direction by rejecting components of the flawed curriculum and moving forward.”

We suggest that folks take a breather and not make any more quick decisions. New York was an early adopter of the Common Core. Former State Education Commissioner John King rushed the curriculum through, with little to no teacher training and even less of a plan. In 2013 and 2014, teachers were receiving the Education Department’s Common Core “modules,” or teaching units, after they had already taught the material.

The result was mass confusion. In June 2014 and 2015, many students sitting for Common Core exams in algebra and geometry had to take not one, but two Regents in these subjects –– one based on the Common Core standards and the other on the old standards. That’s because, at that point, some teachers gave the Common Core the old college try, despite inadequate resources, while many others just gave up and taught the traditional curriculum.

Talk about a mess!