Not so fast on Common Core

Legislators in Albany have finally taken the complaints of parents and educators to heart, and have called for a delay in the implementation of the state’s new Common Core curriculum, just as the state Department of Education announced changes in that implementation. Both moves, however, may face opposition from Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Last week, State Senate Co-Leaders Dean Skelos and Jeff Klein, along with Senate Education Chairman John Flanagan, called on Cuomo and the State Education Department to institute a two-year delay in the implementation of Common Core and the high-stakes testing that goes with it.

“We continue to support the goals of an improved education curriculum that increases standards and ensures that students are college and career ready,” the senators said in statement. “However, after having spent months listening to parents, teachers, administrators and educational professionals at public hearings conducted throughout New York State, it is our belief that while the implementation of Common Core Learning Standards may have been well intended, it has been poorly executed.”

The senators said they did not want to do away with the new curriculum altogether. Rather, they want to take two years to fine-tune it so that educators can more effectively teach it and students can learn it better.

Their announcement came two weeks after Republicans in the State Assembly went public with a similar idea, releasing what they called the APPLE plan — Achieving Pupil Preparedness and Launching Excellence — to guide changes to the Common Core.

This week, the Education Department’s Board of Regents announced changes in the implementation of Common Core. Under the new guidelines, the class of 2022 would be the first to be required to pass a Common Core-based Regents exam in order to graduate from high school.