Today I attended the North Carolina Academic Standards Review Commission meeting in Raleigh. This is the Commission that was set up to evaluate Common Core in North Carolina.  It was the final meeting of the Commission and their assignment was to finalize their report of findings and recommendations to the North Carolina State Board of Education by December 31, 2015.

Senate Bill 812 gave the Commission its assignment:

SECTION 2.(c) The Commission shall:

(1)    Conduct a comprehensive review of all English Language Arts and Mathematics standards that were adopted by the State Board of Education under G.S. 115C-12(9c) and propose modifications to ensure that those standards meet all of the following criteria:

1. Increase students’ level of academic achievement.
2. Meet and reflect North Carolina’s priorities.
3. Are age-level and developmentally appropriate.
4. Are understandable to parents and teachers.
5. Are among the highest standards in the nation.

Initially the Commission was not funded, but midway through their investigation they received funding.  The Commission formed two Subcommittees–one for English Language Arts and one for Mathematics. They listened to a number of experts speaking both for and against Common Core. Somewhere between the listening and the writing the recommendations, the Commission forgot what they had heard.

The draft of the report includes the following comments about the English curriculum:

7. Efforts to implement the CCSS have resulted in a poorly sustained ELA curriculum. A clear example is demonstrated in the lack of time available for systematic K-12 writing instruction.

8. English Language Arts teachers are primarily responsible for the informational text standards. Several teachers suggested that all teachers, regardless of content, share the responsibility for teaching informational text.

9. The desire of many high school teachers is that ELA standardsreturn to a strong emphasis on rich, historical literature

The draft includes the following comments about the Mathematics curriculum:

1. North Carolina’s K-8 mathematics standards are unclear and include numerous typos, errors, and mathematical mistakes.

2. The North Carolina K-8 mathematics standards specify that teachers frequently use models. However, as evidenced by numerous published examples and parent complaints, some teachers make computations with models into monstrously complex exercises that parents and students cannot understand. In addition, these teachers require students to master these computations in contradiction to the NCDPI policy of letting students use any method they know.

The working draft of the Commission includes a realistic detailed account of many of the problems with Common Core. Assuming that draft stays available to the public, parents can read it to confirm their own observations.

The Commission report included recommendations for improvement in both English and Mathematics. The recommendations concerning changes to the English curriculum were rather vague and wouldn’t seriously impact Common Core. There was nothing in those standards about getting rid of Common Core. Those standards were quickly adopted by the Commission. It was also suggested that similar recommendations be applied to the Mathematics curriculum. They were quickly adopted. That’s when the meeting got interesting. The subcommittee that evaluated Common Core Mathematics made two strong suggestions:

In order to have world-class standards, all of the topics recommended by the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (NMAP) for the high school mathematics sequence should be included in the North Carolina standards. In addition, the following recommendations are offered for grades K-8 and high school mathematics.

Grades K-8

2. Adopt the Minnesota standards, which may require some editing to fit North Carolina’s needs while meeting the NMAP benchmarks. The revision process should include experts in childhood learning and development, a few university faculty, and a significant number of experienced North Carolina teachers with reputable success teaching K-8 mathematics. The State Board of Education, instead of NCDPI, should choose this committee because some members of NCDPI have extensive connections with the national common core group.

Note the last sentence: The State Board of Education, instead of NCDPI, should choose this committee because some members of NCDPI have extensive connections with the national common core group.

The mathematics subcommittee was blindsided as both of these recommendations were voted down by the Commission. It became clear that the serious efforts put forth by Dr. John T. Scheik and his subcommittee were intentionally being ignored. The original mathematics subcommittee recommendations were gone and only the watered-down, toothless recommendations previously designated for the English standards were left. The money and connections behind Common Core have temporarily won the day, and the school children of North Carolina have lost (at least temporarily).

If you are a parent or grandparent of a child in North Carolina schools, please note the following: If you do not get involved in the movement to end Common Core in North Carolina, your child or grandchild will not get the quality of education that you should be able to expect. It is now up to parents and grandparents to become involved. Your children’s future depends on it.