US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Thursday that states could take an additional year to adjust to the new curriculum by keeping standardized test scores out of teacher evaluations for now, the New York Times reports.
In a blog post in which he also thanked teachers for their work, Mr Duncan said the current transition, from individual state learning standards to standards that are more closely related to the Common Core in math and English language arts, “represents the biggest, fastest change in schools nationwide in our lifetime.
“And these efforts are essential to prepare kids to succeed in an age when the ability to think critically and creatively, communicate skillfully, and manipulate ideas fluently is vital.”
He acknowledged critics of the new standards but also said teachers, in their classrooms, are trying their best to make it work. And with the recognition that some annual testing, as required by federal law, is certainly necessary, the tests themselves have become the focus in many cases, not the learning.
I believe testing issues today are sucking the oxygen out of the room in a lot of schools — oxygen that is needed for a healthy transition to higher standards, improved systems for data, better aligned assessments, teacher professional development, evaluation and support, and more. This is one of the biggest changes education in this country has ever seen, and teachers who’ve worked through it have told me it’s allowed them to become the best teachers they’ve ever been. That change needs educators’ full attention.
So, for at least another year, the federal government won’t require teachers to focus on the test and will give them a little breathing room to focus on the standards and on learning itself. We applaud the move but note that many states have already enacted laws that require the use of standardized test scores in teacher evaluations. Those laws may change as a result of the new guidance.
