A professor of education reform addressed her concerns with Common Core standards to parent-teacher work groups and members of the Missouri Coalition Against Common Core at the Capitol on Monday afternoon.
Sandra Stotsky served as senior associate commissioner in the Massachusetts Department of Education and on the Common Core Validation Committee, where she refused to sign off on the English standards because she believed they would not make students college ready.
She advocated for more participation of teachers of higher education in developing the standards for students, especially in math and science.
"Because they know what's happening when these kids coming from Missouri high schools go into your colleges," Stotsky said. "We don't need a bureaucrat from Washington telling us they are ready for college work at the University of Missouri."
Before she spoke, Sen. Ed Emery, R-Lamar, addressed the crowd about HB1490, which formed the work groups in attendance. He said the bill was created to abolish Common Core in Missouri and create the work groups.
There was a lot of opposition to getting rid of Common Core, he said, because some of its standards were good. So the legislators took out the references to Common Core in the bill and instead said they were not going to use anything that was public domain, "which probably effectively eliminated Common Core," Emery said.
Stotsky declined to take a stance on the bill, saying it has already passed so it does not matter whether she is for or against it. She also said the bill did not mandate that those in charge of the group be experts in the school subjects the groups presided over. She continued to say someone from outside the state, outside of the Department of Education, who is involved in teaching higher education should be in charge of the committees. For example, a literary scholar could be in charge of the English committee, she said.
Also, she mentioned she was not against setting national standards, but the Common Core standards were wrong and need improvement. The standards are the bare minimum, she said, and teachers are not given enough meaningful incentives to teach past the bare minimum.
"I don't see that one kind of set of standards is going to do the trick for this country," Stotsky said. "You want maybe the same set for kindergarten through seventh or eighth grade, but you need choices in high school programs."
The suggestion she offered was to have more specialized high school programs, such as schools for math and science as well as schools for performing arts. She also mentioned creating more public support for vocational training and apprenticeship programs, and getting local industries to support them, citing programs in Germany and Norway.
"Not every kid can be catered to for everything if they live in isolated rural areas," she said when asked how social mobility can affect students who are not close enough to schools they want to attend. She said children in rural areas could take online courses, have parents create home school cooperatives to hire professionals to teach, and use helicopters to fly students to the course work they desire.
She later mentioned the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was pushing the Common Core standards and had a lot of influence in the program. She did not have a solution as to keep outside influences away from public school curriculum. But, she said, there should be a way to address "political" issues that affect public schools.
"That is natural politics, let it play out the way it is and whatever happens, happens," Stotsky said. "There should be some way to acknowledge that there are differences socially across the country, and when kids go on to college they can go anywhere."
She also mentioned the lack of vocal opposition by teachers for the Common Core standards and that they are afraid to speak out against it.
Her visit to the Capitol was sponsored by the Missouri Eagle Forum, said Sarah Greek, spokeswoman for the forum founded in 1972 by Phyllis Schlafly. The forum claimed to be opposed to feminist goals, gun registration, the Equal Rights Amendment, as well as all variations of amnesty and guest-worker visas for immigrants.