Next month every school district will FINALLY release the 2012-13 assessments given to North Carolina’s students. These assessments were developed by the Department of Public Instruction, and were the first in NC to be aligned to the Common Core Standards.
The State Board’s delay in releasing the scores is due to the extremely low rates of proficiency. I previously wrote on that issue.
The Department of Instruction (DPI) is busily working on a media campaign to assure parents and the public all is OK. The reason for the lower scores is simply the alignment to the “new, rigorous expectations.”
GET READY – if New York is any indication of what may happen in North Carolina the public will not simply accept their reasoning any longer.
Parents, teachers, superintendents have expressed frustration over the rapid pace of change. NY’s Commissioner of Education, John King tried to calm everyone down by a series of town hall meetings sponsored by the NY State PTA. Due to the hundreds showing up mad, confused and tired of being jerked around he has now decided to do what any bureaucrat does in the face of an angry crowd, just cancel the rest of the meetings!
An Education Week blog describes the situation:
NYS Education Commissioner John King has begun presenting at public forums about the Common Core State Standards across the state. Hundreds turned out at each one, angry and prepared for disruption…shouting over his attempt to answer questions, assaulting him with name calling, and booing and cat calling. The tension was palpable from the beginning. Police were present and were needed. In the last one, he left the stage without a salutation, a sign, a farewell. There was no applause for his valiant effort to carry his message to the field.
It’s unfortunate that Commissioner King was abused by a crowd, but I feel even worse that students have been abused by a system of leaders who didn’t listen to the cries of educators who asked for slower changes and better professional development to understand those changes. And because people like Chancellor Merryl Tisch said there is no time to slow down the Common Core, ignored the mess of state assessments, imposed changes on students, parents and teachers… people snapped. Sadly, from his response to the cancellation of the town hall meetings it seems that John King still doesn’t get it.
This sounds way to familiar to what happens in North Carolina. The State Superintendent and others in the system continue to label parents and public who have questions simply “misinformed.” These standards have never been field tested, our state board and local boards have no control of the copyrighted material, and many experts question the developmental appropriateness of these standards.
