Getting Common Core implementation right

On Board Online • March 10, 2014

By Merryl Tisch
Chancellor, Board of Regents

Over the last year, the Board of Regents and I have heard a substantial amount of feedback from education stakeholders about our efforts to rapidly raise our educational standards. We held forums throughout the state, and it’s no secret that some of these boiled over with frustration – and sometimes misunderstandings – about changes associated with Common Core State Standards. We promised that we would listen and make appropriate midcourse adjustments.

The task of reviewing the feedback was given to a work group chaired by Rochester Regent Wade Norwood, and the Board of Regents recently acted on the work group’s recommendations.

It’s worth noting that we found broad support for higher standards. But there is also a strong desire for more ramp-up time. So we made changes in our timetable.

Originally, we planned to require students to pass Common Core-based Regents exams at the college- and career-ready level by 2017; we’re pushing that deadline back by five years, to 2022. With that change, today’s fourth graders will be the first cohort that will be required to pass Common Core Regents exams in order to graduate. That extra time should allow districts and teachers to adjust their curriculum and fully implement the Common Core before students are required to master it in order to graduate.

We’re also addressing the other most prominent concern that’s been voiced about the Common Core – that it has led, or will lead, to more testing. School board members should understand that all state tests – including the grades 3-8 assessments and the high school exams in English, math, and science – are required by federal law and had been in place long before the Common Core. However, we know that the state teacher evaluation law, particularly its provision for locally selected assessments, has created pressure at the local level for new measures of student growth. In some cases, this has resulted in students being tested more than needed. So the Board of Regents is taking several steps to address local testing.

First, we’re increasing districts’ flexibility to reduce the amount of local testing that informs teacher evaluations, and we’re creating an expedited review process for districts to propose amending their teacher evaluation plans to meet that goal. Also, we are capping at 1 percent the amount of instructional time that can be used for local assessments to inform teacher evaluations.

Another area of concern involves testing of students in grades K-2. While the state has never tested children below third grade and has long recommended against standardized testing for levels K-2, we are now putting in place an official policy against the practice at the local level as well. On top of that, we are further supporting a reduction in local testing by proposing a new “Teaching is the Core” grant program. These grants – for which we are asking for $500 million in funding in this year’s state budget – require districts to review their local assessment programs and eliminate any duplicative or unnecessary tests, and will support additional professional development initiatives to support the implementation of the Common Core.

These changes are consistent with having high standards. At its heart, the Common Core isn’t about testing – it’s about outstanding teaching.

And though only 1 percent of teachers were rated ineffective in the first year of statewide evaluations, the board is studying additional protections to ease the transition, including a measure to protect teachers and principals from unfair termination based on the last two years’ assessment results. That is a subject that we will take up for discussion at the April Board of Regents meeting.

Lastly, the board is delaying the launch of our partnership with inBloom to create dashboards for student data. This will allow us time to work with the Legislature to address privacy and data-security concerns we have heard from parents and local school boards throughout the state.

What remains unchanged is our belief that the Common Core standards are critical for our kids’ success. We cannot afford to let our students fall further behind where they need to be. But what we can do – and will do, whenever we can – is make the implementation process stronger. We know that a project this big and this important can only succeed when all involved feel that it’s working for them, and that their voices are being heard. We’re committed to making that happen.