Wilson, Kennedy Question Common Core

The national debate over Common Core has landed in the Shoreline race for the open 12th State Senate District seat, with Republican candidate Bruce H. Wilson, Jr. calling for the state to reconsider its plan to require all school districts to adopt new academic standards along with new standardized tests.

Wilson said he believes in having standards in place but not ​“a central standard that is non-negotiable.”

His opponent, Democratic candidate Ted Kennedy, Jr., too, called for caution on rolling out new standardized tests, saying his sense is that ​“it is too much, too fast.” Kennedy said he is in the process of talking to parents, teachers and boards of education in the district to get their points of view.

As campaigns get underway in states across the nation, the education reform package known as Common Core is triggering strong, often divisive reactions in local, state and federal races. In Connecticut, Jonathan Pelto, a former state legislator, recently entered the gubernatorial ring with the promise of ending Common Core. All school districts are set to require new Common Core-aligned tests starting next school year. Facing criticism from teachers, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has called for delaying linking new teacher evaluations to student performance on those tests.

States like Connecticut have rolled out Common Core with the promise of elevating standards in schools, teaching kids to think more critically at an early age. Critics charge the standards require too much teaching to the test and are devastating the morale of teachers and students alike. (Click here for an in-depth New York Times story illustrating both sides of the debate.)

The Eagle interviewed Wilson, a businessman and Kennedy a businessman and a lawyer, about their reactions to Common Core and found they tended to agree on the controversial program’s impact on kids, teachers and schools in the 12th District. Both candidates agreed in separate interviews that educational standards are essential; both also said there may be other ways to achieve these standards, especially for high-performing schools.

Wilson Wants Local School Districts To Weigh In

Wilson (pictured), serves as a member of the Board of Education for the Madison school district, was better versed on Common Core; his board regularly discusses Common Core.

Wilson became a member of the Madison school board in September 2013. He said he first learned about Common Core during his Board of Ed orientation.

“When I sat down with the superintendent of schools in Madison and asked him about issues and challenges facing the school district in order to be a productive part of the board, one of the topics he raised was the issue of the common core standards, high-stakes testing and teacher evaluations,” Wilson said.

The 12th District includes the school districts of Branford, Durham, Guilford, Killingworth, Madison and North Branford. Killingworth and Durham are part of regional school districts, with Killingworth sharing a school budget with Haddam and Durham sharing a school budget with Middlefield. 

Overall the 12th District has numerous high-performing schools, especially among the high schools, but there are problems in some of the district’s elementary schools. 

Wilson said he is not against the Common Core per se. ​“I am against its imposition on high-performing school districts. And I worry that it starts to take control away from parents. Parents elect school boards, school boards represent the parents of the children in the community. So if we take control away from the school board we are taking control away from the parents. I don’t believe that is the right thing to do.” 

Wilson said Common Core state standards are based on the concept that all students across the country, regardless of where they live, will be taught to the same standard of mastery in subjects. ​“High-stakes testing” refers to the use of standardized tests to evaluate teachers or students or schools.

“I think that the notion that one group of people would get together in a room and decide not only that students need to be taught to the same standard, but what that standard is and then dictate that to local school districts, is not good thinking,” Wilson argued.

“The notion that children should be taught to a standard, absolutely, reasonable people will agree that that is a reasonable thing. So I am not against standards at all. I am against the idea that we need a central standard that is non-negotiable.” 

Both Kennedy and Wilson said that obviously some school districts in cities and towns across the nation obviously need help. Some are under stress just because of the socio-economic neighborhoods they are in. ​“Some of these districts might benefit from an out- of-the box program,” Wilson said.

But ​“when you look at the 12th District, as a district and most of the school districts in Connecticut, we have very high performing school districts, including the school districts in the six towns of the 12th District,” he said. ​“So we have a bunch of little towns that do a really good job of educating their children and preparing them for the next step of their life.”

Wilson disagreed that kids must think only of college and career ​“as Common Core proposes. It would be better and more appropriate to say prepare our children for the next phase of their life whatever that might be.”

Picking and Choosing What Works

“The idea that you would say to Branford or Madison or Guilford, or any high-performing town, ​‘We have a bunch of school districts and they are in Tennessee or Florida, Texas or New Haven that are struggling and not really getting their kids up to the standard we think they should be’ … So you have to throw out your program and go in with theirs doesn’t make any sense at all,” Wilson said. 

So what Madison has done, Wilson said, is pick and choose from Common Core. ​“We are looking at the Common Core and we are saying, ​‘You know what, we don’t think that fits our kids but that does, so let’s incorporate that into our curriculum.’

“Yes, we are picking and choosing. There are some good ideas in the Common Core for our kids. So where we see a good fit for our kids, where we feel it enhances their educational experience we are rolling that into the curriculum. We are blessed with a very strong curriculum and professional staff. So we have the ability to make those types of adjustments.”

Kennedy: Slow Down

“I agree with the central goals of the Common Core, which are to raise the expectations of students across the United States and to set those expectations high,” said Kennedy (pictured).

But he also agreed that in the 12th District, education in the public schools is not exactly broken. ​“So I think the problem is that high-performing school districts are wondering why they need to change.”

Should these schools be forced to accept the entire program?

“I think that is a legitimate question,” he answered. 

“I think there is a distrust and resentment of a central control of education. I think that is part of it. I think there has been very little input by parents and school administrators.

​“And I think kids are being tested on new standards that teachers have not had the chance to prepare for and teach. So the essential problem is that in the haste to adopt the new standards states are giving the exam before they may be able to fully introduce the new material. That is not fair,” Kennedy said.

“And the teachers feel set up for failure because the students do poorly and suddenly they are evaluated based on a new test they have not had a chance to prepare for or teach. That is not fair.”

If elected, Kennedy said, he would work ​“to slow down the implementation, give more time for schools to adjust. This is too much, too fast. It is unfair to measure teacher performance on the new standards that they are unfamiliar with and have not had time to teach. So I think we need to extend the time for implementation, which I think is happening now.

“There is a task force underway and teacher performance reviews should not be linked to the test for a period of time. I agree with that.”

Like Wilson, Kennedy agreed with the need for educational standards. But how to get there, both candidates say, is another issue, especially in schools that are performing well.

“Conceptually I agree with what they want to do but I think we need to slow down the implementation,” Kennedy said.

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