Georgia’s current social studies curriculum will remain in place at least until the 2015-2016 school year, the chairwoman of the state Board of Education said Thursday.
Gov. Nathan Deal in August asked the state board to review the social studies program while taking a look at the new set of standards under the politically controversial Common Core, comparing them to the Georgia Performance Standards that Common Core replaced.
Board Chairwoman Barbara Hampton said the board will conduct an open – and deliberate – process in considering changes to the social studies curriculum and Common Core.
She laid out a broad outline for how she and her colleagues on the board will go about seeking input from teachers, curriculum specialists, parents and other community members.
Common Core will remain the state’s standard unless the board chooses to change its curriculum.
The governor’s request pushed the board, whose members he appoints, into the choppy political waters of Common Core.
Common Core was conceived by state governors, officials in higher education and business as a way to make sure students in different parts of the country were learning similar course work at similar grade levels. The Obama administration does not require states to adopt Common Core, but it supports the concept and has given grants to states that have signed on to the standards. Georgia agreed to adhere to it in 2010.
Deal’s request for a review pleased some conservatives and tea party activists who have criticized Common Core and the books linked to it. Conservative and tea party support will be important to the governor as he seeks re-election next year.
The board got a dose of the opposition to Common Core at its meeting Thursday.
State Sen. William Ligon, R-Brunswick, told board members he asked several academic experts to look at Common Core.
“They’re saying our standards will not prepare our students for what they truly need to know,” Ligon said, adding that experts have said the math standards associated with Common Core “will set Georgia students back a year or two.”
Ligon said “there are gaps” in the current social studies curriculum.
He also said that some of the books suggested on Common Core reading lists “graphically depict sexual behavior.”
He presented board members with a packet of information detailing expert criticism of Common Core as not being strong enough in math or in English/language arts.
One article in the packet said Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” should not be suggested to 11th-graders through Common Core. Another article in the packet blasts “Dreaming in Cuban” by Cristina Garcia as “porn” and said it should not be recommended reading for 10th-graders.
Both books have graphic descriptions of sex, but both are from accomplished authors. Morrison has won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature, and “Dreaming in Cuban” was nominated for the National Book Award.
Ligon gave board members a 38-page report from Emory University English professor Mark Bauerlein and Sandra Stotsky, a professor of education reform at the University of Arkansas. Their report was titled “How Common Core’s ELA Standards Place College Readiness at Risk.”
Ligon’s packet also included a 36-page study by Mary Kay Bacallao, a math education professor at Mercer University, who wrote: “As a mathematics education professor and former teacher of elementary math, I am concerned that Georgia students are not being challenged. Our students are capable of so much more than what Common Core math requires.”
No one at the meeting spoke in favor of Common Core.
Hampton said she and her colleagues will finalize their review process at their November meeting. A draft plan discussed Thursday calls for board members to hold public meetings in their districts. Members of the public who plan to speak at those meetings would need to submit their comments in writing. Teachers will be surveyed.
“Teachers will be vitally important to this,” Hampton said. “What’s going well? What’s not going well? We will have that feedback from teachers.”
Board member Brian Burdette said he is concerned that teachers will not be willing to speak out against Common Core.
“A lot of teachers are afraid they’ll lose their jobs if they’re candid with us,” he said. “We don’t need that. No one’s going to lose their jobs if they criticize this curriculum.”
Board members seemed to grasp the high level of passion associated with Common Core and social studies.
“This is a serious issue,” Mike Royal said. “This is the biggest issue that’s before us right now.”
With some seeing Common Core as an unnecessary federal intrusion and others seeing it as an important way to standardize and improve education, making agreed-upon changes is not likely to be easy.
“We need to consider where we need to be at the end of this process,” Burdette said. “We want both sides of this to be in agreement. That’s a tough prospect.”
It will also be tough to come up with an agreed-upon list of books that teachers can use in their classrooms.
Martha Reichrath, the state’s deputy superintendent for curriculum, instruction and assessment, told board members that book lists are often divisive.
“People simply don’t agree on what is acceptable,” she said. “Finding common ground is a challenge. I am going to project that we will still have people who will disagree.”
Reichrath and board members expressed some hope that a review can bring some agreement to what Georgia students should be learning and the standards to which they should be held.
“The controversy needs to stop,” Reichrath said. “We need to come to an agreement. We all have the same goals here. We want our children to be competitive.”
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