Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Vaccine Info
  • Money
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Vaccine Info
    Money
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

Teachers’ union calls Common Core rollout ‘botched,’ ‘mishandled’

  • Education
  • by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas
  • February 26, 2014
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"
Mark Waxenberg, the executive director of the Connecticut Education Assoication.

Jacqueline Rabe Thomas / The CT Mirror

Mark Waxenberg, the executive director of the Connecticut Education Association.

When it comes to the implementation of Common Core in Connecticut, “botched” and “mishandled” are among the words the state’s largest teachers’ union uses to describe the rollout.

“These goals which we want to achieve are falling out of reach and out of reality due to the implementation,” said Sheila Cohen, an elementary school teacher in Orange and the president of the 43,000-teacher Connecticut Education Association.

The union is pointing to a survey of 1,452 Connecticut teachers done earlier this month in which 55 percent gave implementation a score of five or lower on a 10-point scale.

“More than half of our schools and teachers give it a failing grade,” said Mark Waxenberg, the union’s executive director and a retired math teacher from East Hartford. “Give us time…It’s a botched implementation of national mastery test in the state of Connecticut.”

But Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor said earlier this week there are no plans to slow down implementation.

“We are implementing Common Core,” the governor’s education chief told legislators on the Appropriations Committee. “We are definitively moving forward.”

The commissioner Wednesday announced the department is hosting a daylong “Common Core Fest” in July to facilitate training for hundreds of Connecticut teachers on Common Core. To date, the State Department of Education has provided training on Common Core to more than 1,500 teachers from nearly every school district.

The State Board of Education adopted the standards in 2010, but the backlash has become increasingly apparent in recent months. Next school year, every student will be required to take a new standardized test linked to Common Core. Teacher evaluations will also begin using the tests within the next two school years.

“No Connecticut teachers were involved in the creation of these standards,” Waxenberg told reporters during a press conference at the state Capitol complex.

The legislature’s Education Committee is set to hold an informational hearing for invited guests to share details about Common Core on Friday, but some Republican legislators have been unhappy that parents, students and teachers will not be given the opportunity to describe their first-hand experiences.

House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, announced Wednesday that he had bypassed the Democratic co-chairs’ decision not to hold a public hearing on a bill that would delay Common Core indefinitely by taking advantage of a little-used legislative rule that allows the minority party to force a hearing by gathering 51 signatures of legislators.

“We have heard from hundreds of thousands of parents,” Cafero said during an impromptu press conference. “We as a legislature have a right to be aware” of what’s going on.

But Education Committee Co-Chairman Andy Fleischmann, a Democrat from West Hartford, said during an interview that the standards have been around for years, and that it’s inappropriate for lawmakers to debate repealing them during a short legislative session.

“It’s not like this Common Core suddenly descended out of the sky,” he said.

On repealing the standards while they are being implemented in many schools, Fleischmann said, “It just doesn’t seem to me as a deliberative process.”

Aware of the rising tide against the standards, Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and legislative leaders last month set up a panel to explore how implementation is going and to determine what needs to be done to ensure a smooth rollout.

“It is a very heavy lift to implement the Common Core, and we have the greatest respect for the hard work our teachers are doing to prepare our youngsters to be college and career ready. We hear these concerns and share the desire to get Common Core implementation right,” they wrote in a Jan. 28 letter. “In the next two weeks, I will establish a Common Core State Standards working group that will include teachers and other educators from across the state to make recommendations on Common Core implementation.”

That committee has not yet met, no date has been set for its first meeting, and no members have been appointed, a spokeswoman for the governor’s office said.

“We are in agreement that there’s no time to waste and we are actively working on it,” said Samaia Hernandez, adding the panel will be appointed in the next week.

Several national and one state survey have reported that teachers support the standards. A survey conducted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation of 279 teachers in Connecticut last July reported that nearly three-quarters are “enthusiastic about the implementation” of Common Core.

Leaders of the state union say their survey also shows heavy support for Common Core in theory (64 percent), but that the problem is with the actual implementation and the plan to begin testing students next year on the standards.

“Teachers are calling for a moratorium,” Waxenberg said. “Teachers are not saying we don’t want standards, what we’re saying is give us time to digest what we are being asked to do, to make sure we can get this done right before children are being judged improperly.”

Pryor, the state’s education commissioner, said during an interview Wednesday that the union’s concerns are “valid and justified” and that the tests aligned with Common Core have already been scaled back. For the current school year, districts were given the option of administering the Common Core Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium (SBAC) tests or the tests students have been taking for years. The department also decided not to require districts to use the results of the standardized tests when evaluating teachers this school year. The department wants to further delay using those results in evaluating teachers again next year, but needs federal approval.

“The SBAC assessments are being delivered in a low-stakes environment,” Pryor said. “We have fought for flexibility and have delivered it.”

Melodie Peters, the president of the state’s other teachers’ union, AFT-Connecticut, called the changes made thus far a “much-needed course correction.”

“We have been and continue to welcome the workgroups the governor is establishing to study implementation of the Common Core State Standards. We have long said that all stakeholders need to understand how these standards should work before we make them count,” she said.

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jacqueline Rabe Thomas is CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter and an original member of the CT Mirror staff. She has won first-place awards for investigative reporting from state, New England, and national organizations. Before joining CT Mirror in late 2009, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. She has also worked for Congressional Quarterly and the Toledo Free Press. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College.

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
Report: Twice as many CT high schoolers are in danger of being held back
by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

Research released Monday confirms what many parents and educators already suspected — more students than ever are falling behind during the pandemic, a problem especially present among those learning entirely from home in some of the state’s larger districts. The RISE Network tracked about 12,000 students in nine high schools in historically struggling districts to […]

State’s largest teachers’ union urges educators be prioritized in vaccine rollout
by Adria Watson

Educators said teachers should be able to receive the vaccine immediately when the next phase begins.

Lamont’s education funding plans under fire
by Frankie Graziano & Ahjane Forbes | Connecticut Public Radio

As Gov. Ned Lamont rolls out his budget for the coming biennium, education funding seems poised to become a battleground.

CT budget debate heats up quickly over equity
by Keith M. Phaneuf

Urban lawmakers on the Appropriations Committee charged Gov. Ned Lamont's budget largely ignores inequities in education and health care.

Miguel Cardona is one step closer to becoming next U.S. education secretary
by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

In a swift meeting, senators voted 17 to 5 to forward Cardona's nomination to the U.S. Senate for final approval.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion The historical basis of zoning begs for reform
by Lawrence Rizzolo

Discussions of race are fraught with emotion. Witness the zoning reforms being discussed in our legislature. I will attempt to advance a dispassionate argument that is based on government-sponsored racism that occurred during my lifetime and led to the structural problems that persist today.

Opinion Lamont must stop waffling on the Killingly power plant issue
by Tennyson Benedict

On January 19, Gov. Ned Lamont gave his bluntest comments yet regarding the controversial Killingly natural gas plant, saying, “I don’t want to build Killingly.”  Yet, Lamont still refuses to wield his executive authority to actually stop its construction, and instead offers vague suggestions that market forces will stop the plant’s construction.

Opinion Religious freedom is less than righteousness
by Spencer Hill

The CT Viewpoints opinion “Religious freedom is more than religion” shows just how entrenched is the sincerely held belief that one man’s notion of “freedom” dictates the liberty of others.

Opinion To boost economy, state should invest in the ‘last mile’ of broadband connectivity
by Thomas J. Peters, Ph.D

In his budget address on February 10,   Gov. Ned Lamont announced his intent to expand broadband connectivity in Connecticut, an effort to be lauded. Connecticut enjoys a significant competitive advantage for economic development in the Connecticut Education Network (CEN), “ a 2,500 route mile, all optical, high-performance internet network.”

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO