The Governor's Council on Common Core Review on Thursday recommended that the state's public school math and literacy education standards be reviewed, revised and improved but to keep in place the current Common Core State Standards until that is done.
The 16-member council of educators, parents and business people -- headed by Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin -- concluded four months of work on the education standards with a unanimous vote in support of nearly two dozen findings and a similar number of recommendations for future action to be sent to Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
"I want to thank the council and Lt. Gov. Griffin for their extraordinary and thorough work over the past several months," Hutchinson said in a prepared statement later Thursday. "My next step is to review and discuss these recommendations with the Department of Education and the Board of Education to determine the timing and specifics of proposed changes."
Some of the council's recommendations are for:
• Arkansas to maintain "complete and unfettered control over our educational standards."
• The governor to require a comprehensive review of the standards, with the goal of improving and replacing the existing standards as warranted and ensuring that the experiences of parents and educators are reflected in the standards.
• The standards to be reviewed and improved in accordance with processes already in state law and in Arkansas Department of Education rules, or in accordance with another appropriate process determined by the governor and state Legislature.
• Revisions and improvements to be ongoing and not viewed as a one-time task.
• The governor to maintain the current Common Core Standards until revisions and improvements to the standards are implemented.
Griffin called the six pages of findings and recommendations approved Thursday a synthesis of council members' views and not the view of any single member.
He said after the meeting that taking state ownership of the education standards and not feeling bound by an obligation to a national set of standards are the most significant aspects of the council's work and recommendations.
"The biggest obstacle to getting our standards right is that people said the standards were ours, but they didn't necessarily operate in a way that reflected that ownership," Griffin said. "There was always a caveat. 'They are ours, but,'" he quoted others as saying.
Developers of the Common Core State Standards say individual states can add to their standards by about 15 percent and still call them Common Core standards.
Griffin, who will have two children in the Little Rock School District when classes begin this fall, said state policymakers should have the flexibility to alter the standards to whatever degree necessary, be it 10 percent, 20 percent or 80 percent of the current standards.
"Release those shackles!" he said of constraints on making revisions. "Change what you need to change. Be free. These are yours. Quit treating it like your daddy's car. It's your car. You drive it. You paint it. You fix it."
Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key circulated a letter to Griffin and the council members before Thursday's meeting, expressing appreciation for the council's work and sharing the state's already established process for revising education standards on a periodic basis.
The math and English language arts standards are up for review next summer. That review process will begin this October with surveying of educators and others about standards and forming content-revision committees.
"We're going to work with the governor as he reviews these recommendations," Key said after the council's vote.
"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 2015-16 school year, we are moving forward," Key said.
He said it is yet to be determined whether changes in standards will take place in the 2016-17 school year. He also said it is still to be determined whether the Common Core name of the standards will change. He said there are some copyright issues associated with the use of the title.
An early draft of the council's recommendations to the governor called for the governor to terminate any memorandum of understanding on the Common Core standards between the state and the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. The governors association and the chief state school officers initiated the development of the common set of standards several years ago.
State Department of Education leaders have said the memorandum of understanding with the outside organizations expired after the state adopted the standards in 2010.
Key said there likely will continue to be a way to make state-to-state comparisons of student achievement, even as Arkansas and other states revise some standards. He also said there should be no backlash from the federal government over changes, as long as the standards serve to prepare students for college and careers.
The governor appointed the Governor's Council on Common Core Review earlier this year in fulfillment of his 2014 campaign promise to undertake an executive branch review of the Common Core State Standards in math and English/ language arts that were adopted by the state Board of Education and a majority of other states in 2010.
Arkansas schools phased in the common set of standards -- which are what students should know and be able to do in a particular subject and grade level -- over the 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years.
The Common Core standards were said to differ from Arkansas' previous education standards because they focused on fewer topics but delved into those topics more deeply.
Some educators and parents complained that parents were left out of the development of the standards and that the standards or the curriculum used to teach them, particularly in math, were not appropriate for the targeted grade level.
There were also complaints about the time consumed by the new Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers exams that were given last year and were based on the new standards. The governor's council earlier this year recommended to the governor that the PARCC tests be immediately replaced with the ACT Aspire exams.
The governor's council heard from about 50 witnesses who talked about standards, teaching and testing during 40 hours of hearings in Little Rock. The council also conducted nine public forums across the state before developing its findings and recommendations.
In their written findings, the council members said educators across the state were "almost unanimous" in the opinion that the standards used before the Common Core State Standards were inferior. Many educators also believed the Common Core standards are "fundamentally and instructionally sound" and noted that educators have spent "countless hours learning and implementing" those standards.
Complaints about the standards "range widely from well-founded to completely baseless," the council said. Much of the criticism targeted the testing program and curriculum that are related to the standards but not actually part of the standards.
The council found inconsistent implementation of the standards, a lack of clarity -- including the use of reading lists that are given as examples but used as if mandated -- and increases in racial achievement gaps among students.
Among its recommendations to the governor, the council is calling for improved communication among the state Education Department, education service cooperatives, school districts, schools and parents so that standards are implemented consistently and that there is clear understanding about them.
Additionally, footnotes and commentary should be added to the standards to help with that understanding, the council said.
Educators and parents should "pay special attention to the suitability" of Arkansas standards for kindergarten and first grade, in particular, and "make changes in accordance with lessons learned."
The governor should ensure that school districts are encouraged to use the most appropriate teaching methods to help their students master the standards, the council urged.
Teachers and other educators should understand that they are free to use a variety of instructional methods and are not restricted to just one program, such as the Cognitive Guided Instruction strategy for math. That one instructional program -- singled out in the recommendations -- generated some complaints from parents and teachers who thought the program was required under the Common Core State Standards instead of being one means of many to teach those math skills.
The council also proposed that the governor direct the Education Department to develop "a smartphone app" on the standards, so that the public has mobile access to the standards and other related materials.
Still other recommendations call for the governor to ensure equitable and appropriate funding and resources for the schools, and to monitor and address racial achievement gaps.
The governor should work with the state departments of education and higher education to evaluate student success as those students move through postsecondary institutions and/or the military.
The council recommendations also covered testing requirements for students with disabilities -- proposing that Arkansas match federal law in that regard.
The council recommended that the governor and Legislature consider stricter legal limits on the use and distribution of personally identifiable student information to third-party companies and entities that deal with student testing.
The recommendations made note of the council's earlier recommendations to discontinue the use of the PARCC exams and replace them with ACT Aspire for the coming school year and beyond. The state Board of Education approved that plan earlier this month at the urging of the governor.
"The governor should stay the course and use the test prepared by ACT because it reduces the testing time and is aligned with college and career readiness standards," the council's recommendation says.
Cindy Allen, a council member and Fort Smith teacher, said after Thursday's meeting that the council's work will result in improvements for students.
"I'm ecstatic about the change in testing because of all the days I lost for instruction," said Allen, who had to forgo teaching several days to oversee students as they took the tests. Changing that, she said, "is my favorite part, but I think all of it will be an improvement. I'm glad we have done it this way."
Jonathon Guthrie, a member of the council and a principal in the Bentonville School District, said his district really likes the Common Core State Standards.
"The process that I thought could have been clearer is the revision process [for the standards], Guthrie said. "This addresses that. I don't look at it as dumping Common Core. I look at it like we are keeping Common Core and adding a revision process that will make it more of our own."
Guthrie said he honors the work that teachers have done in recent years to implement the standards.
"That work is certainly not in vain," he said. "We are looking to stay the course. We want them to continue to do that work to do what is best for kids."
Karen Lamoreaux, a Maumelle parent of school-age children and a leader in the Arkansas campaign against the Common Core State Standards, called the council's recommendations "forward progress."
"We've been asking for five years for public open discourse, and this discourse has determined that these are not necessarily the best standards for our state. We can do better, and we will do better," she said. "This time, parents will be involved."
Lamoreaux began home-schooling her children during the campaign against the standards. She said Thursday that she would like to eventually re-enroll them in public schools once she feels that there is integrity in the curriculum and is assured that personal data about her children are protected.
"Once we get some of these things in place, I would absolutely love to come back to public schools," she said. "I believe in public schools."
Metro on 07/31/2015