By STAN KARP
The New York Times says it’s “clearly the most important education reform in the country’s history.” But a recent Gallop poll says nearly two out of three people have never heard of it.
‘It’ is the “Common Core,” a new set of tougher curriculum standards and harder tests that is currently undergoing a bumpy rollout in 46 states, including New Jersey.
New Jersey has long had curriculum standards. In 1996, the State Board of Education adopted core content curriculum standards (CCCS) in nine areas. The standards have been revised periodically, along with state tests that outline the core knowledge and skills all students are supposed to acquire during their K-12 education.
In 2010, under federal pressure to qualify for Race to the Top grants, New Jersey endorsed the Common Core’s “college and career ready” standards in Math and Language Arts. They replaced the state’s existing standards in those two areas. New Jersey also agreed to replace its existing state tests with new federally funded exams aligned with the Common Core. Both the content of the new standards, and the process that produced them have been hot topics of debate in the education world. For a more detailed look at these issues see: http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2011/01/28/the-best-articles-sharing-concerns-about-common-core-standards/
The reauthorization of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1997 and the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2002, also strengthened federal mandates to make sure students with disabilities had access to standards-based academic programs and that the performance of all students was included in school assessment and accountability systems.
But while NCLB put a spotlight on gaps in outcomes and opportunity between student subgroups, it failed to provide the resources or strategies needed to close them. It also dramatically expanded the use of standardized testing. Before NCLB, New Jersey gave state tests in 3rd and 8th grades and once in high school. But NCLB required testing every student, every year in every grade from 3 thru 8 and again in high school. Schools faced sanctions for failing to meet what are now widely acknowledged to be inappropriate benchmarks in ten student subgroups. The benchmarks required 100% passing rates on state tests for all subgroups, a target few schools could meet. Diverse schools serving large numbers of high needs students were especially vulnerable to sanctions.
Growing recognition of the problems with NCLB’s accountability framework, and gridlock in Congress which blocked revision of the law, eventually led to “NCLB waivers.” New Jersey was one of the first states to receive such a waiver, which modified some of NCLB’s accountability rules, but retained the mandate for annual testing.
The Common Core introduces several new elements into this system:
- As noted, New Jersey’s previous standards in Math and Language Arts have been replaced by the Common Core State Standards. The new standards describe academic skills and abilities rather than subject area content standards. For example, instead of identifying specific works of literature to be read, the standards describe what students should be able to do at various grade levels. Implementing these standards will require developing new curricula and instructional plans, and providing new curriculum resources in many areas.
- Individual Education Plans (IEPs) will need to reflect the new standards, a challenging task that requires complex judgments about how to link higher expectations and standards-based curriculum to appropriate individualized instructional plans for each student. As one educator described the task, “the challenge is to drill down into a set of standards and determine which are the critical elements and then figure out how to get a child with disabilities to a point where he or she can understand those elements.”
- The new state tests, created by a federally-funded multi-state consortium called PARCC (the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers), will replace the NJASK, HSPA & AHSA. The new tests are designed to be given on upgraded computer networks that many schools don’t have, although there will be a paper and pencil option for at least the first year. The PARCC exams will be field tested in selected districts this year and implemented for all New Jersey schools and students in spring 2015. By all accounts, these new exams are more difficult than existing state tests. States that have piloted early versions have seen scores drop sharply.
- At the high school level, students will be required to take six new PARCC tests: language arts tests in grades 9, 10 & 11, and math tests for Geometry, Algebra I and Algebra II. Each exam has multiple parts. The tests will be given to all students starting in 2015.
- The new tests will require new high school graduation policies, which are still in formation. New Jersey’s current high school graduation tests, the HSPA and AHSA will disappear after the class of 2015, graduate. The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) has proposed a multi-year transition period during which students would take the new PARCC exams, but scores would not be tied to high school diplomas. The transition would affect current 8th, 9th, and 10th grade students and could be extended. During this transition, test results would be reported on student transcripts and could be used for college placement or other decisions, but would not affect high school graduation decisions.
- After the transition period, the Department’s plans called for reinstating graduation testing by requiring passing scores on some combination of the PARCC exams and additional end-of-course exams in subjects not tested by PARCC, such as science and social studies. The Governor’s College and Career Ready Task Force proposed as many as six new end of course exams in addition to PARCC.
- The Department’s graduation proposals have not been finalized, and will require approval by the New Jersey State Board of Education and the state legislature. New Jersey’s current graduation statute requires an 11th-grade test in language arts and math that sets “a minimum requirement for high school graduation.” It also requires that any senior who has not passed the graduation test “shall be eligible for a comprehensive assessment of said proficiencies utilizing techniques and instruments other than standardized tests.” Neither the PARCC tests nor the proposed end of course exams meet the requirements of the existing statute. Advocates will need to monitor this process closely as legislative proposals for revising the existing graduation statute move forward.
- Ensuring appropriate accommodations on the new tests for students with disabilities also raises many unresolved issues. PARCC has issued guidelines on accommodations, accessibility features, and “universal design” principals that are supposed to be incorporated in the PARCC assessments. The computer-based design of the assessments poses unique challenges about the use of embedded technology features that must be customized for individual students. While PARCC has issued general guidelines in these areas, member states can adapt the guidelines to conform to their own policies. NJDOE has already noted that PARCC’s guidelines on the use of calculators and “read aloud” supports “have not been permitted in New Jersey, to the extent proposed” and will be applied more narrowly. Accommodation and accessibility policies will require clarification as the PARCC tests are implemented.
- IEPs will continue to shape education programs for classified students with disabilities, and determine what level of testing is appropriate. In recent years, about 3.5% of all special education graduates received IEP exemptions from the state’s required graduation tests, but there has been wide variation in exemption rates across districts, from over 20% in some districts, to zero in others.
- At the same time, the U.S. Department of Education has proposed ending the “2%” rule that allows schools/districts to give the most severely disabled students modified alternative assessments for accountability purposes. If eliminated, the change will likely force more students with more severe disabilities to take the new PARCC exams.
- Yet another complication is how the new tests and standards will be used in the state’s new evaluation mandates for educators. Concerns have been raised that harder exams combined with test-based teacher evaluation frameworks will discourage educators from working with high needs students facing academic challenges.
Debates over the Common Core standards and the PARRC tests will surely continue as New Jersey proceeds with implementation. As Education Week stressed in a recent special issue on the challenges, “If the old adage is true — that a society can be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens — putting the common standards into practice carries the specter of a judgment about educational opportunity in the United States.”
Stan Karp is Director of the Secondary Reform Project for New Jersey’s Education Law Center. He is also a co-editor of Rethinking Schools magazine, and has co-authored several books on education reform. He was a lead teacher in Paterson, where he taught English and journalism to high school students for 30 years.
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