Oklahoma questions education standard’s source

Photo by: Will Gentry

 

When Indiana became the first state to overturn the Common Core standard on March 24, it launched a debate for Oklahomans on whether they should follow suit, despite adhering to the Common Core for the past four years.

 

The Common Core standard is an education system for Pre-K through 12th grade, and is used to help define how students should perform academically in the classroom. Teachers use the Common Core standard before the school year starts to gauge how to help students in certain areas. The Common Core standard aims to prepare students, particularly those in high school, for college.

 

The Common Core pushes certain education standards in English, writing, language arts and math.

 

Associate Professor of Education Rhonda Morris said that the education system is preparing for the change.

 

“What we’ve dealt with, at least in our teacher [education] program, is knowing that it’s coming,” Morris said. “So we’ve tried to expose the Common Core standards and objectives to our teacher candidates.”

 

According to Morris, the affordability of taking tests and how the tests are taken will affect whether Oklahoma will continue to adhere to Common Core standards.

 

“The Common Core standard, that’s one thing, but we have to assess those standards and so that means now we have to contract to some company to have tests,” Morris said. “Testing’s obviously very huge in education, and all of that costs money.”

 

Morris said that this will not affect the students or the teachers of Oklahoma, but it will cause teachers to do things differently.

 

“I don’t think teachers necessarily have an issue with it, but I think what teachers are seeing is, ‘OK, so we want to do something differently, how are we to implement that?’” Morris said. “I think there’s been a disconnect there.”

 

According to senior Cody Summerville, if the state backs down from the Common Core then Oklahoma could waste a lot of money. He pointed out that teachers are preparing for the Common Core.

 

“What they’re going to do, or what [the senate] is trying to do, is just develop new standards,” Summerville said. “We will have to pay to develop new standards. Then we’ll have to pay for more teacher training and then we’ll have to pay for new state tests to be developed, and that whole process takes several years, especially with testing development of that. So if we back out now we’re just going to keep going on this path of uncertainty and no real clarity of where we’re headed.”

 

Summerville said that four years ago it was scary because no one knew where the Common Core was going to go, but now there will be less anxiety.

 

“I think next year will be the year to kind of have some peace in the classroom and know what’s expected of us,” Summerville said.

 

However, with the passing of the new bill there will be another level of uncertainty.

 

“It might be another four years until the teachers have that kind of certainty and ground back under it,” Summerville said.

 

There are 16 other states considering changing the Common Core or getting rid of it altogether, with Oklahoma being the second.

 

“Some states haven’t been successful, Indiana obviously, but Oklahoma could be the second to do it within the next week,” Summerville said.

 

The main reason why the state is considering overturning the Common Core is because of the federal government.

 

“Common core is widely a national movement,” Summerville said. “I conclude it’s not developed by the federal government. They did encourage states to adopt the standards when no one was required to. Lots of people are arguing that it isn’t letting teachers teach what they should be teaching, which is completely false, because Common Core is not really any different from any other state standards that we’ve had in the past. Common Core doesn’t teach you how to teach anything, it just tells you what teachers and what grade level they teach you at, which is no different than anything that would be developed if we got rid of Common Core.”

 

According to Summerville, the education system will not be affected much by the Common Core movement.

 

“[The Common Core] is just going to shift around when things are taught,” Summerville said. “There might be a few things that are left out in certain grade levels. It just will put [teachers] into another period of uncertainty, what these standards are going to look like, what the tests are going to look like.”

 

If Oklahoma overturns the Common Core, students might have to relearn materials taught the year before. Teachers might also have to get new textbooks and rely on other sources.

 

The date for the possible overturn is set for the next school year in 2015, and revised academic testing for the new standards are to be used by the 2017-2018 school year.