Thank you for writing. Many folks have expressed their concerns about Common Core and the Smarter Balanced Assessment processes. I share your concerns and am working with fellow members of the Education Committee to delay implementation until after a public hearing can be conducted to fully vet the programs, a process that has not taken place. We are also calling for a moratorium on spending to enact Common Core, including the reported $1 million public relations campaign, until after the hearing.
I have been meeting and communicating electronically with teachers, parents and school administrators in an attempt to understand everyone's concerns about the implementation of Common Core and the evaluation system, both largely unknown and untested - even in this, its first year of implementation. We are finding early-on that parents, teachers and administrators are pushing back and expressing serious reservations about the ambiguities of the program. Past experience leads me to believe that, the more onerous we allow the powers-that-be to make the testing, the more teachers will be pressured to teach only to the test, thereby eliminating practical, subject-based learning. Teachers are concerned that creativity will become a thing of the past. I have heard horror stories of students breaking into tears because of the pressure brought on by all the additional testing. There are huge, non-curriculum demands on student and teacher time and, from my perspective, hours spent in activities that detract from learning just do not belong in our schools.
We have a lot of kinks to work out in these programs, making this a very hot topic for this upcoming legislative session.
Please stay tuned and feel free to write again with new concerns or observation.
Best Regards,
Mitch Bolinsky
Representing Newtown's 106th District
In the Connecticut General Assembly
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