Teachers learn how to execute Common Core
Assessment of standards delayed a year
The test that will show how well Tennessee students are doing under the new Common Core State Standards has been delayed a year, but nothing has changed with the standards themselves, now in place in every public school in the state.
Tuesday, thousands of teachers across the state were back in school, including about 200 at Ridgeway High, fine-tuning the way they teach under the standards and talking through hard parts, like how to teach multiplication and addition as concepts to students who don’t know when to add or divide.
“What do you do when your students arrive in your class without a foundation?” asked Debra Johnson, a teacher at Downtown Elementary.
Even if they didn’t nod outright, at least 10 out of the 14 teachers in the class for 3rd- to 5th-grade math teachers knew exactly what she was talking about.
“You think, ‘I have to be the only one going through this,’” said Shayla Walker, a teacher at Willow Oaks Elementary leading the 3rd- to 5th-grade math discussion this week. “You’re not.”
Over the past three summers, the state has trained 40,000 teachers how to teach the Common Core, which emphasizes deeper knowledge and more reading — particularly nonfiction — and writing. This summer, it will offer the same primer for thousands more. But it’s also rolled out the three-day class for 15,000 teachers who have volunteered to be resident guides at their schools on the standards, partly because state research shows students perform better under teachers who have studied the standards.
“Keep in mind, you will be presenting the whole thing to your team in a shorter amount of time,” Walker said, “a much shorter amount of time. What you learn in next three days, you will present in your schools in six hours.”
Two months after state legislators voted to delay for at least a year a test scheduled to replace TCAP, the state is moving forward with standards for students that will not show up on tests until spring of 2016 or beyond.
“These are our standards at this point,” said Kelli Gauthier, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education. “We are moving forward and are excited to offer the training that has been positively received in the past.”
Tennessee was one of 45 states that signed onto the Common Core, a set of standards governors in each state said was critical for their students to know. Tennessee, which was part of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers consortium, was scheduled to take its online assessment exam next spring.
“The debate all session, from January to April, was over the more rigorous standards and the assessment, which is PARCC,” said Rep. Mark White, RMemphis, head of the House Education subcommittee.
“We kind of came to a compromise. We can live with the standards, but we still have a problem with the testing,” he said. “Who designed the test? Was it designed by the same company that created the standards and is this fair?”
The delay means Tennessee will use TCAP another year, which is “80 percent aligned” to the higher Common Core standards, White said.
So far, Tennessee has spent nearly $38 million putting the Common Core in place, including nearly $27 million to reformulate its standardized state test.
This spring lawmakers ordered the state to seek bids on a new test. The RFP (request for proposals) is in the early stages of development, according to David Roberson, spokesman for the state Department of General Services.
“The central procurement office is working with the Department of Education to define the scope of services, determine an evaluation team for proposals and identify potential proposers,” he said.
The state expects to name a vendor by Dec. 31.
The governor of South Carolina signed a law in late May requiring the state to stop using Common Core after the upcoming school year. Days later, Oklahoma dropped the standards, effective immediately. Indiana pulled out this winter, leaving 42 states still on board.