A group of state lawmakers want Indiana to abandon its implementation of the Common Core educational standards, adopted by the state Board of Education in 2010. Common Core is a nationally-crafted set of academic standards adopted by 45 states. Indiana has already begun implementation.
Indianapolis parent Erin Tuttle says she and other parents have serious concerns about the quality of subject matter, particularly in math. And she says because the standards were developed at a national level, she believes there’s a loss of local control.
“The Common Core adoption increases the distance between the problem in your child’s school and the people available to provide a solution.”
Mike Petrilli, executive vice president of the Fordham Institute, a nationally-recognized education think tank in support of Common Core, says going back to Indiana’s old educational standards won’t necessarily work.
“While you have had some of the best standards in the country, you have also had one of the worst student achievement records on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.”
Petrilli says reverting to the old standards also will waste all the time and money spent on implementing Common Core in Indiana before now.
State Superintendent Glenda Ritz says Indiana should not completely abandon the Common Core educational standards. She wants the Department of Education to evaluate the standards first.
“First, I would establish a standards review committee, but expand that process to include public participation. The committee will then make recommendations to the Education Roundtable for review and then the standards will come before the state Board of Education for adoption.”
Ritz says now is not the time to simply eliminate Common Core, because schools have begun the transition from the old to the new standards.
Senator Scott Schneider (R-Indianapolis) is backing down from his original proposal to eliminate Common Core in Indiana. Instead, he says he will offer an amendment that will give the state more options.
“If there are certain aspects of this that Indiana agrees to through our vetting process and a collaborative process are good, then we should have the, sort of the flexibility to do that.”
The Senate education committee took more than three hours of testimony on Schneider’s bill Wednesday, though it did not take a vote or consider Schneider’s amendment.
