Districts steer clear of Common Core fight
A media contact from one of our area school districts called me the other day, wincing and squirming.
This is on the phone, so admittedly I’m imagining the physical discomfort in what was very real strain in the person’s voice.
“Are you calling anyone else?”the person asked.
Common Core brings this out these days.
I had this idea — knowing that field testing of potential state assessment items is underway to prepare for new Missouri and Kansas exams in 2015 — that it might be interesting to visit a school and get some test-takers’ impressions of what lies ahead.
All of our area districts are implementing the standards for math and English language arts. Superintendents and school boards are broadly supportive, though concerned over implementation issues.
The storming protests that have descended on the state capitols and fueled divisive legislative battles have not found their way among parents and community members into area school board meetings.
The person on the phone wanted to stay low and keep it that way.
Head on down the road, please, with that story idea.
Major education institutions, the national teachers unions and national chambers of commerce are supporting the state-led work over the past decade to establish common learning targets that aim to set higher standards across state lines.
But fear over federal influence, corporate opportunism and compromised local control have inflamed opposition that cuts across and through education’s traditional dividing lines, splitting the political parties and spawning unexpected alliances.
For instance, Republican tea party — meet the “Badass Teachers Association.”
That might sound like the main event of a professional wrestling card, and if the topics were unions, teacher tenure or private school vouchers, it probably would be.
“We’re mostly progressive Democrats,” said a Kansas City member of the Facebook-based teachers group that has grown to nearly 42,000 members nationwide. But in opposing Common Core, she said, “we found a common bond.”
That teacher also wants to keep her name and her school out of it. The Kansas City school district is intensely focused on regaining accreditation, which means getting high and enthusiastic participation in preparing for this spring’s current state tests, she said.
In some states, parents are pulling their children out of tests in protest of Common Core, and she wants none of that.
Keep the fight outside, say both the media contact and the teacher. And keep the children learning.
This story was originally published April 1, 2014 at 11:59 PM with the headline "Districts steer clear of Common Core fight."