TAKE ACTION NOW! This is what I have done in Deerfield, NH. Contact me if you want to discuss it further. I come before you tonight to present to you a citizen petitioned Warrant Article to be placed on the Deerfield, NH 2015 Official Annual School District Election Ballot which reads as follows: “To see if the Deerfield School District will vote to reject and immediately discontinue participation in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the Smarter Balance Assessment, in favor of our own locally developed Deerfield School District academic standards and assessments, and recommend that the School Board form a committee (consisting of representatives from the school board, school administrators, teachers, and community members) to develop the Deerfield School District Academic Standards and Assessments.” In excess of 50 signatures, more than twice the required legal minimum, have been gathered to have this item placed on the ballot. I present this petitioned Warrant Article to give voice to the as of yet silent majority that opposes the implementation of both the Common Core State Standards and the Smarter Balance Assessment in the Deerfield Community School. We should be strong advocates for our long and storied tradition of local control. That which the locality can do for itself it ought to do for itself. That which is beyond the scope or the means of the locality should be delegated to the State. That which is beyond the scope or the means of the States should be delegated to the Federal Government. Common Core and Smarter Balance Assessment is an abdication of both local control and local responsibility. Where is the quantitative data and peer reviewed research that demonstrates that the Common Core State Standards or the Smarter Balance Assessment are superior to the previously used set of standards and assessments? I call on the Deerfield School Board to publish the works it reviewed supporting these suppositions before Common Core and Smarter Balance were adopted by the Board. Common Core is a top down, one size fits all, set of standards. This type of sweeping and massive national alignment can only serve to stifle and limit educational innovation and diversity. The Smarter Balance Assessment is also a top down, one size fits all model with further issues of concern. The Smarter Balance Assessment has not been benchmarked, and there is no peer reviewed data or analysis that demonstrates that it will measure and assess what it alleges to measure and assess. Further it is an online only assessment putting student identity and privacy at risk. Both of these schemes are privately owned and copyrighted. As neither is in the public domain there is a critical and serious lack of transparency associated with each. It is important to note that name of each are intentionally designed to mislead the casual observer. The Common Core State Standards have the word “state” in the name to misdirect the observer away from the fact that these standards are being rolled out as a national model. Likewise, the title “Smarter Balance Assessment” is ambiguous and designed to mislead. Smarter than what? More balanced than what? Further, Federal Law prohibits the development of a national curriculum. While I appreciate that neither the Common Core State Standards nor the Smarter Balance Assessment are curriculum, it follows that the curriculum will have to conform to the standards and further be winnowed to match the assessment. The test is designed to measure adherence to the standards and therefore the curriculum naturally must follow the lead of both. The Common Core and Smarter Balance will drive, and ultimately dictate curriculum. To state it plainly the Common Core State Standards combined with Smarter Balance Assessment is an end around the Federal prohibition on a national curriculum. For this reason alone both the Common Core State Standards and Smarter Balance Assessment should be rejected outright and on the whole. We should not allow the Deerfield Community School to become a cookie cutter widget factory producing that which private national interests dictate. We should be educating our children to meet the needs of our community, our state, and our nation. We employ a building full of “Highly Trained Professionals” in both our teaching and administrative staffs that stand ready and willing to provide the best possible education to our children. We, as a Community School, should employ their expertise, diversity, creativity, and innovation to develop a world class set of educational standards and curriculum for our students so that they will be ready and prepared to follow whatever choices they make for their future, be it college or career. The local school, under local control, should be the laboratory of educational development to produce a product that best suites and meets the needs of the local community. It is important to note that several states that have signed on to the Common Core State Standards are now either dropping out or working to drop out of Common Core. The standards are not alone in being rejected by an ever growing list of states and localities. Several of the states are also opting out of the assessment consortiums, be it Smarter Balance like New Hampshire or Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), or both. In fact over 20% of the states that have signed on to either Common Core and/or an Assessment consortium (Smarter Balance and/or PARRC) have reversed that decision so far, with many other states and localities currently considering the same action. The bills in the last session of the New Hampshire State Legislature relative to Common Core or Smarter Balance came down largely upon party lines. Why are we allowing some to play politics with our children’s education? In fact, one is hard pressed to find any positive coverage of either the Common Core State Standards or the associated assessment schemes in any reputable media outlet today. The volume of negative press seems to grow more voluminous in both quantity and scope each and every day. Opposition to the implementation of both the Common Core and associated assessments schemes is a bipartisan issue on the national level. A rapidly growing number of parents, teachers, administrators, unions, colleges and universities, premier education researchers, governors and other elected officials both Republicans and Democrats alike are lining up against implementation of both Common Core and the associated assessments. Amid all this controversy and uncertainty why would the Deerfield School Board or anybody else support this programs implementation in the Deerfield Community School at this time? Why is the Deerfield Community School lined up to be a guinea pig in this grand educational experiment? What if this is just the next educational reform misstep like open concept classrooms or “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB)? If the Common Core State Standards and the Smarter Balance Assessment are truly voluntary then there should be no issue with, or push back for the Deerfield Community School and Deerfield School District to freely choose to opt out of this scheme. There is no imperative to embark on such a radical and unproven course in education. Let the Common Core and Smarter Balance prove itself out elsewhere before we adopt it here. Our children only get one opportunity at their K-12 education. It is imperative that we not let them down or cheat them out of the very best that we can offer them. To members of the Board with school age children not attending the Deerfield Community School, is the school your children attend aligned with Common Core and are they participating in Smarter Balance? If not, are you actively and vocally advocating that they do align and participate? The question is not, “Is the Common Core better than the previous set of standards?” The question is, “What is the BEST set of educational standards for the students of the Deerfield Community School?” If you cannot emphatically and unconditionally state that the Common Core State Standards are the BEST possible set of educational standards for the students of the Deerfield Community School then you MUST support this Article. The time has come, and is long overdue, to have a more open, robust, and comprehensive debate on the adoption of the Common Core State Standards and participation in the Smarter Balance Assessments in the Deerfield Community School. Let us resolve to place such a serious and sweeping decision in the hands of the entire community to decide for themselves’ the best course of action based on the facts and merits of the debate. I encourage, and look for, each member of the Deerfield School Board to go on record, before or at the Deliberative Session, with regards to this Article. Respectfully submitted to the Deerfield, NH School Board Wednesday 19 November 2014, Kevin Verville Deerfield, NH 03037
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 22:11:26 +0000
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