Barge on Common Core
Georgia State School Superintendent John Barge recently gave a “Myth vs. Fact” presentation about the Common Core State Standards at a State Board of Education meeting:
MYTH ONE: The federal government developed the Common Core State Standards.
Fact: The federal government played no role in the development of the Common Core State Standards. State education chiefs and governors, through their membership in CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers) and the National Governors Association (NGA), led the development of the Common Core State Standards.
On behalf of the National Governors Association, then-Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue co-chaired the effort. These standards represented a common sense next step review of the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS).
As much as 90 percent of the current Common Core Standards came from existing Georgia standards.
MYTH TWO: The Common Core prevents teachers from teaching literature.
Fact: The standards do not limit reading to nonfiction, but suggest a balance between literature and nonfiction texts so students can build knowledge and broaden their perspectives. Recognizing that teachers, school districts, and states should decide on appropriate curriculum, the standards do not offer required reading lists. They establish what students need to learn, but do not tell teachers how to teach so they can tailor instruction, allowing for continued flexibility and creativity
MYTH THREE: Implementing the standards require states to collect and house vast amounts of personally identifiable student data, including biometric and psychometric data.
Fact: There is no data collection requirement of states adopting the Common Core State Standards. Standards define expectations for what students should know and be able to do by the end of each grade. Implementing the standards does not require data collection. Georgia does have a Longitudinal Data System, but no student-level data is shared with federal government or any other outside entities. Georgia also does not collect any biometric or psychometric data as has been claimed.
When the Common Core State Standards were finalized and released almost three years ago, there wasn’t much fanfare outside the education community.
In recent months, opposition across the nation — and in Georgia — has coalesced. Opponents have said the Common Core standards are a federal “intrusion” or “takeover” of public education, cited concerns about the collection of student-level data and accused the federal government of “indoctrinating” students by rewriting key concepts of American history.
Officials in the Bulloch County school system, which has invested a significant amount of time and money integrating the new standards into its classrooms, are watching the developments with concern.
Gov. Nathan Deal, a supporter of the standards, tried to head off these concerns last week by signing an executive order that essentially changes nothing about how the state is implementing the standards but does assert Georgia’s sovereignty over public education in its public schools.
“We’re all committed to giving Georgia students the best education possible and preparing them for highly skilled jobs so that they are competitive in the global marketplace,” Deal said in a news release accompanying the executive order. “We can achieve these worthy goals while at the same time protecting student privacy and maintaining local control over how and what we teach Georgia’s children.
“Common Core standards do not require information sharing with the federal government and they do not impose a federal curriculum,” he continued. “This executive order aims to send a clear and unambiguous message that, in Georgia, we will maintain local control over curriculum while working diligently to achieve high educational standards.”
Common Core opponents called this a good first step but weren’t satisfied. Virginia Galloway, the state director of Americans for Prosperity-Georgia, applauded Deal’s executive order while criticizing Common Core as a “federally controlled straitjacket.”
“There are legitimate nonpartisan concerns that the federal government is creating yet another expensive, intrusive, untested education program that will fail, just like every other federal education program has done,” Galloway said in a news release. “We support Governor Deal’s step towards protecting Georgia students and school systems from the worst aspects of Common Core. We hope that this will be followed by a deep consideration of other steps to extract Georgia from Common Core.”
Sen. William Ligon, R-Brunswick, was among those attending the governor's announcement Wednesday, according to The Associated Press. Ligon introduced a bill mid-session that would have halted implementation of the standards. It did not pass but remains active for consideration next year.
"While this is a step in the right direction and we appreciate the governor's efforts, this does not ultimately move Georgia out of the Common Core program," Ligon told the AP. "The executive order issued today does, however, make a good-faith effort toward preventing the disclosure of our student's private information. ... Now it's up to the Georgia Legislature to pick up where the governor left off."
Education officials, both at the state and Bulloch County levels, expressed support for Deal’s executive order but were concerned about continuing calls for Georgia to reverse course on a major education initiative that it has been – and still officially is – fully committed to.
“This would be a huge setback for our school district,” Bulloch County Schools spokeswoman Hayley Greene said in a written response to a series of questions emailed by the Statesboro Herald. “Bulloch County Schools has invested more than $25,000 in professional development training, more than $50,000 in district-level funds for resources, and more has been spent in addition to this at the school level for supplemental manipulatives and supplies.”
Those investments and major adjustments were designed to ensure “we provide consistent, pervasive instruction in all classrooms in order to significantly affect student achievement,” Bulloch County Schools Superintendent Charles Wilson said.
“We wanted to build on the knowledge that all teachers share,” added Monica Lanier, the school system’s assistant superintendent of organizational effectiveness. “One of our professional development goals is to build districtwide knowledge, skill and implementation of critical teaching and learning behaviors in all schools and all core academic classes in kindergarten through 12th grade.”
Common Core has prompted Bulloch County teachers to collaborate and share insights with each other more than before.
“Teachers have to carve out time to work together with their grade-level or subject peers and administrators are providing more time to plan,” said Krista Edwards, a ninth-grade English language arts teacher at Statesboro High School. “At high school level, the curriculum frameworks are less structured, so there are still opportunities to use individual teaching styles. There is more accountability, learning to work in faculty teams (Professional Learning Communities) and with team dynamics.”
Jason Wermers may be reached at (912) 489-9431.