Common Core concerns aired at PAPER meeting

Common Core is about loss of local control, centralization of education and minimum standards -- not high expectations, Stacy Shore, legislative liaison for Concerned Women of America of Missouri told an audience of 117 at the Rose Theatre on Sunday.

Shore, a Camdenton, Mo., mother of three, has been sharing her concerns about Common Core standards with parents, teachers, school board members, administrators and legislators across Missouri. With her were Gretchen Logue of Missouri Education Watchdog and Anne Gassel of Missouri Coalition Against Common Core. The event was organized by PAPER, which stands for People Actively Promoting Education Reform.

Common Core, known as Missouri Learning Standards in Missouri, defines the knowledge and skills all students should master by the end of each grade level to be on track for success in college and career, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website said.

Already partially in place in local districts, Common Core standards will take effect statewide for the 2014-2015 school year.

To receive federal stimulus funds, Shore said, states had to assure the federal government they would adopt Common Core such as instituting teacher evaluations tied to student test scores on exams that haven't yet been seen; turning around low-performing schools; and providing significant amounts of data. Missouri received $1.735 billion in stimulus money in return for its assurances, she said.

Shore said Concerned Women and Common Core opponents are not enemies of school districts, superintendents, administrators or school boards. Recently there has been some backlash -- the National Education Association has rescinded its support for Common Core; Farm Bureau has come out against it; a large New York teachers union has withdrawn support; and 1,500 principals in New York sent out an open letter to parents against the initiative.

"What we want you to realize and understand is that it is ominous. Superintendents, administrators and teachers have no choice. It's a federal mandate," Shore said. " ... We all have to take a stand if we don't agree."

"They will lose their accreditation, or so they are told, unless they implement" Common Core, Shore said.

"Common Core has nothing to do with standards; it's all about control," Shore added.

In her own experience, Shore said her son was having difficulty reading, so she was helping him at home. She was called in by his teacher who told her to stop because she was confusing her son. She wound up placing her son with a teacher who helped her son in the evening.

The same thing happened with math when she tried to help her son and showed the work he'd done along with the problem. Shore was told it wasn't about getting the correct answer, it was about the process.

Jackson parents Jessica and Jeremy Heinley attended the gathering. Jeremy Heinley said he's been told a few times not to help his child with his homework, "and I didn't realize that that was part of it."

"We're frustrated in the reading levels and everything else that we're seeing in our younger children, so we were just wondering what's going on and this helped clarify a few things," Jessica Heinley said.

Asked what was wrong with having minimum standards and holding schools and districts responsible for how students perform, PAPER president David Larson said, "My question to that is, at what level do we do that? Do we hold it at the federal level? Do we have it at the state level, or do we have it at the county level? No, I think that if we go back to the philosophy behind a one-room school house, not that that's the model to work with, but if we go back to where the teachers and the parents are interacting for the good of the child, that's the standard that should be met."

T. Wayne Lewis, a Jackson School Board member, came to the PAPER meeting because he was invited and wanted to get more information. " ... I think it's very important that we hear the many different sides of what's going on," Lewis said. "People are people; they're all good and have the basic intentions that they want to help the children and that's what I hear. Has it made me any different on the Common Core, probably not, but in the same respect, it makes me look at it to bring the knowledge that they've brought to check things out."

That's Shore's aim as well.

"You don't have to believe everything I say," said Shore, but she encourages everyone to do their own research.

Another PAPER meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. today at Delmonico's restaurant in Jackson.

Officers were due to be revealed at Sunday's meeting, but currently, Larson and interim secretary Esther Bohnert are the only officers. Bohnert said other members are reluctant to reveal their names because they're afraid of blowback from their employers.

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