Massachusetts School district petitions legislature to opt out of common education standards
A Massachusetts school committee has petitioned their legislature to opt out of Federal education standards which most states have adopted in attempt to get federal funding during lean budget times.
The Tantasqua Regional School Committee, the equivalent of our local Board of Education, is working with their state legislature to allow them to opt out of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
School Committee Chairman Kathleen Neal told the Gazette committee members are concerned with the cost of implementing the program as well as the way the standards were adopted with little public input last year.
The Massachusetts Core initiative was adopted during the summer and Neal said the committee had no idea it was being discussed until after the vote was passed with almost no notice to the general public. “If you are going to change the way you do assessments you should bring the people who are invested in it to the table.” She expressed frustration at state officials lack of asking the local districts for solutions.
After having gone through the alignment of the WI state math standards (which were subsequently thrown out) against the Achieve standards (which are really solid) a few years ago and the fact that the Achieve standards are close to the Common Core math standards, I would hesitate to move away from the Common Core math standards. They promise rigor and with their help maybe we can close the achievement gap.