WHAT IS COMMON CORE?
Common Core refers to a set of national education standards embraced by Georgia, 44 other states, the District of Columbia and two U.S. territories.
The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers began a push to create a set of national standards in 2008. The idea is that having students across the country meet the same standards would improve education. In July 2010, the state Board of Education voted to have Georgia adhere to the standards.
The most recent school year was the first when Common Core was followed in English/language arts in kindergarten through grade 12; in science literacy, history and social studies in grades six-12; and in math in kindergarten through grade nine.
The Obama administration backs Common Core and has used education grants to encourage states to do so. No state is required to adhere to Common Core.
—- Wayne Washington
A routine textbook purchase that erupted into a heated debate over state standards ended Wednesday with the Cobb school board agreeing to buy electronic math books, which students must access by computer, for middle and high school students.
The board voted 4-3 to spend $2.9 million on the electronic books, which are linked to Common Core, a set of learning standards that critics say dumbs down students and amounts to a federal takeover of education. Cobb board members originally rejected the purchase for fear the state could toss Common Core in the near future, making useless any textbooks written to match those standards.
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Buying electronic books is seen as a stop-gap measure, said board chairman Randy Scamihorn. Administrators will now have to scramble to get CDs and website passwords out to math teachers by the time school starts Aug. 7.
“We are looking for a way to save our finite tax dollars and get our school teachers through this year,” said Scamihorn.
Wednesday’s vote approved a dramatically scaled-down version of an earlier $7.5 million proposal that 100 teachers endorsed. That purchase would have provided traditional printed math textbooks, workbooks and online resources to each of the district’s 108,000 students and their teachers.
But it was rejected in a split vote in April after a group of tea party activists told board members that buying books would sacrifice local control.
“To consider spending $3 million on these materials is truly disgusting,” Cobb resident Tammy Slaten said Wednesday. The proposed textbooks “are filled with cumbersome nonsense,” she said.
Cobb teachers and parents said textbooks provide sample problems, step-by-step explanations to complex math concepts and are used to build lesson plans.
They also say purchasing just electronic books – as the board did Wednesday — will leave behind its growing population of poor students who don’t have Internet access at home.
“I’m deeply concerned that we’re providing for some and not for all,” said board member Scott Sweeney.
Board member David Morgan voted against Wednesday’s proposal out of concern that his constituents in South Cobb would be left behind.
Administrators said they’ll provide poor students with CDs or DVDs of classroom material and print out homework assignments.
Shortly after school starts, teachers will give middle and high school students, but not elementary students, software and online access to a copyrighted digital copy of a math textbook. Textbooks are not as crucial in elementary grades, administrators said. Elementary teachers will have electronic access to resources such as lesson plans and classroom activities.
“You need to put education over ideology and conspiracy,” said Mike Holzknecht, a Cobb parent. “Any plan that reduces textbooks in classrooms is a formula to reduce the quality of Cobb schools and race to the economic bottom at warp speed.”
Math is a sensitive and frustrating topic for Georgia parents and educators. State leaders have changed math standards three times in the last six years. While 61 percent of Cobb students passed their algebra end-of-course test in 2012, just 31 percent did this year. Cobb’s current textbooks are six years old and test scores have suffered partly because of it, administrators said.
The debate over math textbooks in Cobb played out over several late-night board meetings this summer where teachers, parents and tea party activists heckled each other and used worn-out textbooks, pies and rotten apples as props.
“Cherokee hasn’t had textbooks and they’re doing great,” said board member Kathleen Angelucci, who opposed Wednesday night’s vote. “This is not the end of the world. The sky is not falling.”
April’s vote made teachers feel “discounted and ignored” by the board said Connie Jackson, the president of the Cobb County Association of Educators. “For us to be sitting two weeks before the start of school with no resources, textbooks or a clear-cut plan on how to teach math, a basic fundamental class, is pretty damaging to not only teachers but also our children.”
In June, board members bashed Superintendent Michael Hinojosa after a central staff member’s email went viral that criticized the board’s vote and encouraged teachers to protest. Board members asked if Hinojosa, just two years into his job, would attempt to undermine future decisions he didn’t like.
One board member, David Banks, said that by picking textbooks, the board was micromanaging the administration and placed the district at risk of being investigated by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the district’s accreditor.
Cobb will save the $4.6 million not used on book purchases, to have in case the state scraps Common Core.
Those opposed to the electronic material purchase said the board gave the public little time to review the alternative proposal presented Wednesday.
“While I would much prefer having the original recommendation made in April, in the spirit of compromise, it’s important for our teachers to have access to resources,” Hinojosa said. “This is something the administration can live with.”
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