A group of the Common Core’s vocal critics will gather to discuss the controversial educational standards, continuing a nationwide debate with great implications for local school districts.
Four Suffolk County school district superintendents, the head of the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park Teachers Association and state Assemblyman Edward Ra (R-Franklin Square) will speak Monday at a forum about the standards, titled “Public Education at the Crossroads.”
The standards, first introduced in 2012, aim to teach conceptual thinking and problem-solving skills at each grade level to prepare students for more complex future coursework.
Some educators and administrators say the ideas behind the curriculum are strong, but its rollout has caused problems for New York’s teachers and students.
Common Core’s biggest flash points for criticism are its standardized tests, which opponents say are unnecessarily tough for students, and the direct link between test scores and teacher evaluations.
The panelists have spoken out against these pieces, and some have encouraged a growing movement of parents across Long Island to pull their students out of the tests.
Common Core opponents across the county lauded Joseph Rella, superintendent of the Comsewogue School District in Port Jefferson, when he wrote a viral 2013 letter to state senators asking them to either help his district deal with the tests or remove him from office.
David Gamberg of the Southold and Greenport School Districts on Long Island’s North Fork sent parents a letter in March with instructions on how to opt out of the tests, as did Steve Cohen of the Shoreham-Wading River district.
Almost 60 percent of students in Gamberg’s districts and 73 percent of those in Cohen’s district didn’t take the 2015 tests, the Suffolk Times reported in April.
Patchogue-Medford Superintendent Michael Hynes sent his own letter to teachers in August telling them not to worry about student scores on what he called “meaningless, invalid and inhumane” tests.
“Keep your head up and your eye on what is most important…your students and your teaching craft,” he wrote.
Ralph Ratto, a fifth-grade teacher at New Hyde Park’s Manor Oaks School and president of the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park Teachers Association, had a 2014 blog post critical of the tests featured on the Washington Post’s website.
He also recently spoke out against the state’s Common Core “toolkit” for teachers, calling it “a slap in the face” at his district’s Nov. 9 school board meeting.
Ra has also long been critical of the state’s actions on Common Core and of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who in September launched a task force to revamp the curriculum.
Ra, a ranking member of the Assembly’s education committee, most recently panned Cuomo on Wednesday for what he called an “unenthusiastic” response to state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia’s recommendations for fixing Common Core.
“Rather than limiting the conversation, we must be willing to listen to all recommendations to thoroughly develop a solution that best benefits our students, parents and educators,” Ra said in a statement.
“Public Education at the Crossroads” will take place at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 23, at the New Hyde Park Elks Lodge at 901 Lakeville Road.
