Supporting students not scores

The Common Core standards being taught in public schools has created a buzz within education communities nationwide. On Nov. 30, more than 50 teachers and parents from area school districts gathered at Levittown Hall for a seminar on Common Core and Regents testing.

“Student and teacher rights are human rights,” educator and administrator Lori Koerner said about the rigor of Common Core education. Koerner was the first speaker from a panel of five administrators from Suffolk County, to give her opinions of the testing.

The panel and its information session, “Educational Crossroads…Where Do We Go From Here?” has been traveling all over Nassau County to help districts examine the risks of teaching the Common Core.

Koerner led her presentation with pictures of her own children having a hard time studying for the Regents exams and becoming overwhelmed with the homework. She said she feels that Common Core testing should be replaced with individual projects and portfolio work to reduce anxiety.

“I always tell my fellow teachers, ‘Never teach what you test but test what you teach,’” Koerner said. “Even though there are varying views in education, I think that it’s best that we come together in forums, such as these, to listen and learn from each other in order to make the best decisions for our children.”

As a professor of education and a mother, Koerner has seen the changes in the education system both professionally and personally.
“If my daughter had been in the system currently, I don’t think she would have had the same opportunity with the arts,” Koerner added.

Koerner, along with the other superintendents, said she feels that it is no fault of the teachers but that due to the mandatory testing, they cannot allow time for additional education in music, art and exploratory science.

“There are some disturbing trends in education,” said Carla Hoene, Hicksville PTA president of Lee Avenue Elementary School. “I’m not an educator but I do know from my own children that things are at a crossroads. People are starting to notice that children are geared more towards robotic learning rather than the traditional ways of learning such as playing and socialization.”

Another speaker from the panel, Steven Cohen, spoke of the research he did on private schools and how “classes” of children are slowly being formed due to common core testing.

“There are awfully a lot of people who say that without these standards, we will not be able to deliver the high-quality education that kids are going to need,” the superintendent of Shoreham-Wading River schools said. “These folks send their kids to private schools that don’t do any of this. The relationships between the teachers and the test standards have created the perfect national marketplace.”

Overall, the Common Core has created a stir in the community for many teachers and parents. Marianne Adrian, a member of the Levittown Board of Education, was present at the meeting along with other PTA members and parents from the district. The notion, “What’s worth fighting for,” came up several times in the presentation regarding the livelihood of children. The difference between training and education was also discussed to a deeper degree.

“It’s scary to think that there might be a lot more money and corruption behind what they are trying to teach our children,” Hoene added. “It has uncovered a lot.”