Between the lines: Task force served a purpose

Common Core retained, panel still helped calm criticisms

Common Core education standards just don't appear to be quite the problem they were being made out to be.

At least a panel of Arkansans, led by Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin, doesn't seem to have found them all that disturbing.

The recommendation last week from the Governor's Council on Common Core Review is for Arkansas to continue to follow those standards for math and literacy education in the public schools, although the panel is open to changes after further review by the state Department of Education and the Board of Education.

It was a responsible finish for the panel's work, given that the 2015-16 school year is upon us. Teachers and administrators preparing for the new school year didn't need the complications that might have resulted from a too-quick, unnecessary leap away from the Common Core.

The standards reflect what students should know after completing each grade in public school. The goals have been agreed upon by a majority of states and embraced by the Obama administration, which may be the real problem here.

Anti-Obama sentiment, on this or anything else this president embraces, drives too much of the politics behind the policy in Arkansas and other places.

The agreements were struck in 2010 and the public schools have been phasing in the standards over recent school years, some with greater success than others.

The standards themselves may never have been all that difficult. What went wrong apparently has been with implementation and part of that stems from the buy-in, or lack of it, by local educators and school districts.

That should change, given this review and the opportunity for state education officials to guide better implementation.

So, the ballyhooed result of the Governor's Council on Common Core Review is that Arkansas will leave it to state Education Commissioner Johnny Key, his department, the state board that oversees the agency and, of course, Gov. Asa Hutchinson, to tweak the standards and maybe call them something else.

Meanwhile, as should have been done in the first place, the emphasis will be on the common implementation and understanding of just what the standards require of the state's public schools.

The idea behind "common" standards for schools nationwide was good. Students at particular grade levels should be expected to learn roughly the same things with the intent to prepare them all to compete in this country and internationally with their peers.

That's still a great goal, whether the measuring stick is the Common Core standards or something slightly different with a new name.

Key told the advisory panel last week that the math and English arts standards are scheduled for review next summer and that the process will begin this fall. And he said he would work with the governor as he reviews the recommendations from the Griffin-led panel.

That's really business as usual and would apparently have happened with or without the involvement of this council's input.

But the council definitely served a purpose, traveling as it did around the state to gather feedback from people disturbed about Common Core as well as those who are supportive of it.

The council's creation kept state lawmakers from too much meddling in public education during the last legislative session and the council's report may help deflect some of the criticism that has been directed to the Common Core.

Most importantly, the public schools can get back to work, following through on long-made plans to meet these standards.

It is, as Commissioner Key said last week, time to move on.

"We're going to start school in August, and the schools need to proceed as they have planned up to this point. We don't have a timeline for the governor's consideration of these recommendations. So for the 2015-2016 school year, we are moving forward."

There may eventually be changes in the standards Arkansas schools follow but, until then, the Common Core will do just fine.

Commentary on 08/05/2015

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