About Westborough Today Opinions and Editorials Good-bye MCAS? Hello (Lower?) National Standards and Federal Control of School Curricula?
Good-bye MCAS? Hello (Lower?) National Standards and Federal Control of School Curricula?
Have you heard about the move to drop MCAS standards and curriculum in favor of the national "Common Core Standards in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics". (See previous article, below).
This issue was discussed Thursday night on the "Nightside with Dan Rea" show on WBZ, which featured a conversation with Jamie Gass, Director of the Center for School Reform, of the Pioneer Institute.
This vote to adopt these standards is not without controversy and concern. Consider the first part of a report from Boston's Pioneer Institute, titled "National Standards Still Don’t Make the Grade - Why Massachusetts and California Must Retain Control Over Their Academic Destinies" which says (emphasis mine -- webmaster):
"In conclusion, if California and Massachusetts adopted Common Core’s standards for their own, the intellectual demands on students in the areas of language and literature would be significantly weakened. Adopting Common Core’s standards would also weaken the base of literary and cultural knowledge needed for actual college-level work now implied by each state’s current or draft standards."
Another voice expressing uncertainty in this direction is found in the BU article "Will National School Standards Dumb Down Mass.? SED prof says trade-off could be worth it to help the country".
On the other hand, the press release from the Commonwealth's Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) states "Curriculum experts and educators from across the Commonwealth reviewed and submitted comments on drafts that were incorporated throughout the development process to ensure that the expectations set in the final versions met or exceeded the state's strong standards for students."
Who has the correct analysis? Will the national standards be worse, or at least as good as (if not better)? Pioneer Institute? Or the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education?
In fairness, the BESE press release also states: "Later this summer the ELA and mathematics curriculum framework review panels will be reconvened and charged with identifying unique Massachusetts standards to augment and strengthen the Common Core. This will be brought to the Board this Fall for final approval."
(Huh? If these national standards are so great, why would we need to "augment and strengthen the Common Core"? However, let's not look a gift horse in the mouth. Let's work to ensure that parents' and educators' voices are well-heard by the curriculum framework review panels, and let us demand superlative academic standards for our children.)
The following quotes come from NECN in their article "Mass. board unanimously approves national education standards"
Paul Reville, MA Secretary of Education: "It's good for kids, it's good for teachers, it's good for the Commonwealth, it's a great day."
Charlie Baker (Republican gubernatorial candidate):"By hitching our wagon and our future to some national consortium that is untested. This move has the potential to erode our gains."
Governor Deval Patrick: "And I am proud to be supporting standards that will raise the standard for all our children."
Mitchell Chester,MA Commissioner of Education: "I can't imagine having done a more thorough job of considering these standards and making sure they are right."
(Webmaster note: the final versions of the released Core Standards were made available only 6 weeks ago -- nearly 500 pages of PDF documents. Why couldn't our Board of Education at least be like Washington state, which has provisionally accepted them? Washington state set for themselves the goal of creating a report for their legislature by January 2011 to "include a comparison of common core and the current state learning standards for reading, writing and math, and an estimated timeline and costs to the state and districts to implement them.")
Additional formal statements, as reported by NECN:
Statement from the Governor:
"Massachusetts leads the nation in public education. Our children perform in the top tier, not just in the country but in the world. I want to keep it that way. That means we have to continue to raise the bar. That's why we passed the education reform bill, to close the achievement gap once and for all. And that's why I support the Board's decision to sign on to the national Common Core standards. These standards will be as strong as the ones we already have in place, and in some cases will be stronger. And they are consistent with our MCAS, which has been and will continue to be a key element of our progress. Common Core will enhance the Commonwealth's already rigorous standards."
Statement from the Lt. Governor:
"The overwhelming body of evidence and research has concluded that Common Core will add tremendous value as Massachusetts remains committed to ensuring every student receives access to an excellent education. Today's important action by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education means that Massachusetts students will stay at the top as we continue to institute increased standards and expectations and strengthen current rigorous assessment tools, like the MCAS, which will remain a requirement for graduation."
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