“After listening to thousands of parents, educators and students, the Task Force has made important recommendations that include overhauling the Common Core, adopting new locally-designed high quality ny standards, and greatly reducing testing and testing anxiety for our students”.
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The recommendations were part of a report, released Thursday afternoon, that reflects parent and educator concerns about state tests, evaluations, and the rollout of the standards that have been brewing for years.
The change in course that was met with support from the teachers union and education reform groups.
“The Common Core was supposed to ensure all of our children had the education they needed to be college and career-ready – but it actually caused confusion and anxiety”, said Cuomo.
– periodic reviews of the Common Core standards.
English teacher Meghan Bornhorst said the standards will continue to guide her lessons, even though not all of her students will be directly tested on them. Earlier this year, Cuomo successfully pushed for the scores to weigh more heavily in the ratings.
But Buffalo Teachers Federation President Phil Rumore is still skeptical about the Governor’s efforts.
“Americans across the country have been fighting for a reset in education policy”, Weingarten said.
Cuomo said Thursday that he’s still committed to serious academics in the public schools.
“Right now, Catholic schools are still trying to figure out how they respond to the Common Core and how deeply they embrace it”, said Dan Guernsey, director of K-12 programming at the Cardinal Newman Society. That gave Common Core supporters a minor victory to celebrate Thursday. Use that feedback to develop tests that will take fewer days and decrease the duration of the tests.
Parents across the state complained that Common Core tests were so long and hard, the tests were making their children anxious. But they have been criticized as intrusive and are under review in several states.
“I’ll believe it when I see it”, said Rumore in a WBFO News interview.
Cuomo appointed the 15-member task force in September, partly in response to the unprecedented wave of testing opposition this spring.
A Cuomo spokesman said some of the panel’s findings could be adopted by the state education department without changes to state law.
The Common Core Task Force announced its final report on changes to how testing is done in schools across New York State.
The recommendations of the governor’s task force now go to the Board of Regents with a decision expected in early 2016.
An initiative by the National Catholic Education Association makes available detailed lesson plans that integrate spiritual components into a standards-based curriculum. This review process would be conducted by the teachers themselves.
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Parents and teachers also objected to the state’s use of the tests to evaluate teachers and schools.
