State Board of Education Chairwoman Barbara Hampton said Thursday that she and her colleagues will oversee a public review of Common Core, a set of national academic standards that has drawn the ire of some political conservatives.
Hampton’s comments, made during the board’s monthly meeting, were in response to a call from Gov. Nathan Deal to review the standards, viewed by some tea party activists and others as a national intrusion into state oversight of K-12 education.
Board members received word of Deal’s request for a Common Core review before they participated in committee meetings on Wednesday. Several, including Hampton, were unwilling to discuss the request, saying only that it would be addressed when the board meets again in September.
But at Thursday’s meeting of the full board, Hampton said Deal’s request would be carried out.
“We don’t have specifics on how we are going to do this,” said Hampton, who, like all board members, was appointed by Deal. “But it is evident that there needs to be a very public process.”
Deal’s request for a review drew quick praise from opponents of Common Core, including Kelly Marlow, a school board member from Cherokee County.
On Thursday, Cherokee Superintendent Frank Petruzielo fired back, praising the standards and criticizing opposition to them as political.
“It’s unfortunate when elected officials contribute to narrowly-defined interest group activity through politicizing the efforts to establish national performance standards designed to ensure that every student is provided a more rigorous education and one that is globally competitive,” the superintendent said in remarks the district distributed to news outlets.
Tea party activists are an important constituency for Republicans, and their strong opposition to Common Core is sure to be a factor in next year’s race for governor if Georgia Superintendent John Barge challenges Deal. Barge is expected to make a decision next month.
Deal is already facing a bid from Dalton Mayor David Pennington, who has said he would have opposed the standards, which were embraced by the state in 2010.
Both Deal and Barge have publicly backed Common Core, though they opposed as too expensive a national, standardized test tied to the standards.
Deal’s request for a review of Common Core and for a comparison with the state’s previous standards, the Georgia Performance Standards, could lay the groundwork for pulling the state out of Common Core. Georgia is one of 45 states that have agreed to adhere to the standards, which are touted as a way to better prepare students for college and careers through more critical thinking and writing.
The standards are not lesson plans. Instead, they serve as national targets for what material students should know and when they should know that material.
Some opponents of Common Core have argued that the state’s previous standards were actually more rigorous than those of Common Core.
“I think it is prudent to stop and compare,” Hampton said. “We are going to be doing this task diligently. It’s a chance for a real comparison.”
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