COMMON CORE CATASTROPHE

The general consensus among teachers, parents and school officials who attended a legislative delegation’s public hearing in December to speak out against the Florida Standards teaching method, was convincing: “Not one more year.”

State Sens. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, and Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, and state Reps. Larry Metz, R-Eustis; Jennifer Sullivan, R-Mount Dora; and Marlene O’Toole, R-Lady Lake allowed audience members to express their concerns about Florida Standards.

The goal of Florida Standards, according to its website, flstandards. org, is to “ensure Florida’s students graduate high school ready for success in college, career and life.” However, many educators and parents have grown concerned that the method’s standardized testing takes time from one-on-one teacher-student relationships and curricula.

“We lose a third of our school year to testing, which takes away from core instruction,” said Wes Locke, assistant principal at Spring Creek Charter School in Paisley. “We need accountability, but not at the expense of education. The state should trust me to know if my teachers are doing a good job, and if I don’t, fire me.”

While Debbie Stivender, chairwoman of the Lake County School Board, said the board voted on a resolution to implement a three-year moratorium to determine if Florida Standards truly work, parents such as Lory Baxley disagreed with such a solution.

“Florida children are not guinea pigs,” she said. “We must reject these standards and adopt ones that have 10 years of proven results in states such as California, Massachusetts and Indiana and in Washington, D.C.”

Jane Irwin, a mother of elementary school children, implored the delegation to fix the “train wreck” that she said is Florida Standards.

“There must be a resolution put forth to end the toxic testing system that has become prevalent,” Irwin said. “It is shameful that our kids no longer get a well-rounded education that includes the arts on a regular basis in order to pay for those tests. Not to mention the stress, the anxiety and the classroom time that is lost for real authentic learning.

“When we refuse these tests as parents, we are not asking permission to do so, we are just informing you and giving you the courtesy of letting you know and that we are very well aware of what the 14th Amendment guarantees us parents when it comes to the education of our children.”

Hays agreed something needed to be done.

“This is a mess,” he said. “We need to stop it right now.”

He also invited Irwin to come to Tallahassee.

“Ms. Irwin, would you please find the time and make the way to get to Tallahassee and say that same message with that same burst to every educational committee in the Senate and in the House?” Hays said. “They need to hear your message.”