Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

SEPT. 10 DEADLINE

Public quiet on new proposed state education standards

Would replace Maine Learning Results

By Matthew Stone mstone@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

AUGUSTA -- Members of the public have until Sept. 10 to share their views on Maine's adoption of a new set of academic standards that more than 30 states have already embraced.

But no one so far has taken advantage of the opportunity to share an opinion on whether Maine should adopt the Common Core state standards.

A public hearing held on Monday as part of Maine's adoption of the Common Core drew no testimony from the public. Similarly, the Maine Department of Education so far has received no written feedback since the comment period opened on Aug. 11.

"I think in this case that no response is a positive thing," said Dan Hupp, director of state standards and assessment at the Department of Education.

The Common Core state standards outline the skills students should master in English and math from kindergarten through grade 12. A group of teachers, school administrators, university professors and education experts sponsored by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers developed the document.

The Department of Education is in the process of provisionally adopting the Common Core standards. Legislators will have the chance this winter to review that decision.

If Maine ultimately adopts the set of national standards, the Common Core would replace the Maine Learning Results, the standards currently in effect in Maine schools that took effect in 1997 and were revised in 2007. The Common Core standards would take effect in schools during the 2012-13 academic year.

While no one from the public showed up for Monday's hearing, two Department of Education staff members used the opportunity to discuss the new standards with those in attendance: two legislative staff members, a member of Gov. John Baldacci's staff and a reporter.

The Common Core standards shouldn't cause radical changes for teachers in what and how they teach, Hupp said.

Teachers, however, should find the Core standards more specific than the Maine Learning Results since they outline skills by grade level, instead of the grade ranges used by Maine's current standards.

In addition, teachers should find that the Common Core standards focus on teaching fewer standards in greater depth, said Wanda Monthey, the Department of Education's team leader for curriculum and assessment.

"Standards across the country tend to put everything in every year," she said.

The transition to Common Core comes as the Obama administration puts an emphasis on rigorous, common academic standards that eliminate disparities among states.

In the Race to the Top education reform competition, evaluators awarded points to states that had signed onto the standards initiative. And Race to the Top will next award money to consortia of states developing standardized tests based on the Common Core standards; those tests would replace the New England Common Assessment Program tests Maine students will take for the second time this fall.

"It's going to be very interesting to see how it plays out," Hupp said. "It's going to be very exciting."

While no one has yet officially commented on Maine's move to adopt the standards, not all are on board with the change.

Jim Burke, a regional mentor to western Maine school districts on integrating technology into instruction, fears the widespread adoption of Common Core could infringe on state and local control of education.

"My concern is that the Common Core was not, for the most part, created by the people who are closest to kids," he wrote in an e-mail. "They were created by testing companies, textbook publishers and university professors with the support of large corporate foundations." The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was a major funder of the initiative.

Burke -- who blogs regularly about Maine education -- is at work on a website, https:sites.google.com/site/learninginamerica, that will offer teachers free resources for teaching to the Common Core standards.

In math, Maine's current standards clearly need work, but the Common Core standards aren't necessarily the answer, said Beth Schultz, a Woolwich parent and co-founder of Maine's chapter of the U.S. Coalition for World Class Math.

"The bottom line is that the (Common Core) math standards are better, but they are not world class," Schultz wrote in an e-mail. "What has stopped us from improving our standards at the state level without involving national testing?"

Parts of the Common Core math standards lack any logical progression, said Audrey Buffington, a retired math teacher and math state supervisor for the Maryland Department of Education, and don't mark an improvement from Maine's current standards.

Plus, Buffington notes, the shift to another set of standards in Maine will mark the fourth change in fewer than 15 years.

"The student assessments in Maine have been changed so often that scores are not valid and have little use to the teachers," Buffington, who now lives in Thomaston, wrote in comments she recently mailed to the Maine Department of Education. "Imagine that just after 'adopting' NECAP, there would be another change in a year or two. It will be a true fiasco."

The Common Core standards can be found online at www.corestandards.org. Comments can be submitted by e-mail to the Department of Education at jaci.holmes@maine.gov or wanda.monthey@maine.gov.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com