5-29-15 Governor Christie Announces Review and Recommendations in Store for Common Core

Wall Street Journal - N.J. Gov. Chris Christie Orders Review of Common Core…Potential presidential candidate says academic standards possibly need a revamp

By Leslie Brody And Heather Haddon

Updated May 28, 2015 6:33 p.m. ET

PEMBERTON, N.J.—New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said the Common Core academic standards weren’t working and asked his education chief to tap a group of parents and teachers to review the program and possibly recommend new guidelines.

The state’s leading education organizations support Common Core, a set of standards for what children should learn in each grade. But the governor, a possible Republican presidential candidate, said the standards had sown confusion and the state needs its own standards.

“It is time to have standards that are even higher and come directly from our own communities,” he said in a speech at Burlington County College. “In my view, this new era can be even greater by adopting new standards right here in our state—not 200 miles away on the banks of the Potomac River.”

The New Jersey governor follows leaders in several other states, such as Tennessee, in reviewing the standards in favor of more local input. Indiana, which dropped Common Core last year, came up with new standards that opponents and supporters say closely resemble the Common Core.

Mr. Christie was a backer of Common Core in 2013, when he held a news conference to highlight its importance as a “building block” for the state’s education system, and promised “aggressive implementation.” The standards, now used by more than 40 states, were adopted by the state board of education in 2010 during Mr. Christie’s tenure.

Some Republican strategists said Mr. Christie’s repositioning on the matter could give him a leg up on former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, another presidential contender in the so-called establishment lane of the party.

Mr. Bush has continued to defend the standards, as has potential presidential candidate Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Most other declared Republican candidates have expressed negative views on the standards or called for their repeal, including former New York Gov. George Pataki in his presidential announcement Thursday.

“I think it certainly helps. Common Core is something our base is motivated about,” said Matt Mackowiak, a Republican strategist based in Texas. “It now gives Christie a chance to attack Jeb on it.”

National polls show that Republicans largely are opposed to Common Core. A Pew Research Center analysis last year found that 61% of identified conservatives opposed the standards. A September poll by Gallup found that 58% of those who lean Republican had negative views on Common Core.

Some education leaders at Mr. Christie’s speech said they were relieved he hadn’t repudiated Common Core altogether. But several said the standards were working and his shift was premature, especially since a commission the governor appointed last year to review testing and standards hadn’t yet delivered its report, due in July.

Anthony Scotto, a Barnegat Township, N.J., curriculum director and representative of the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association, said his teachers had worked hard to adjust to the standards, liked them, and should be given the chance to see how students fared under them before another change. “We want tough standards and they’re present in the Common Core,” he said.

Mr. Christie said the review teams of parents, teachers and other educators should study whether the current Common Core standards reflected New Jersey’s needs, will meet the expectations of colleges and employers, and will close achievement gaps. He asked for recommendations by the end of 2015.

The governor said this effort will not affect PARCC tests, designed by the multistate consortium Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. The new online tests sparked a rise in parents opting their children out of exams this spring, and the New Jersey Education Association has called the tests too time-consuming and flawed.

Wendell Steinhauer, president of the NJEA, said it made no sense to keep the PARCC tests, which are aligned to the Common Core, if the continuation of the standards they reflect is uncertain. He said the governor’s announcement would be confusing to teachers, who might be unsure about what they’re expected to focus on teaching.

The Common Core was developed by groups including the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Supporters of the standards say they promote critical thinking and will help U.S. students compete abroad, but some critics call them too hard and prescriptive.

Write to Leslie Brody at leslie.brody@wsj.com and Heather Haddon at heather.haddon@wsj.com

NJ Spotlight - Christie Stirs Things Up With Call to Drop Common Core But Keep PARCC…Change in stance, clearly aimed at national GOP, greeted with strong reaction in governor’s home state

John Mooney | May 29, 2015

Gov. Chris Christie’s declaration yesterday that the Common Core State Standards are “not working,” and that New Jersey can do better on its own, may prove to be good politics when it comes to appealing to the Republican base in other states.

But it certainly left his home state’s public schools, already in flux, even more uncertain about what it all means, especially considering that Christie went on to say immediately that New Jersey will stick with the PARCC testing aligned with the standards.

As was widely expected, Christie announced in an elaborate invitation-only policy speech at Burlington County College that his administration was backing off the national standards it adopted five years ago.

A commission of parents and teachers will review them, as well as the state’s previous standards, with an eye on coming up with recommendations for a new set of distinctly New Jersey standards, he said. The review will happen in the next six months, Christie said, although any new standards will likely take much longer.

“Today, I’ve directed the Commissioner of Education to begin immediately to assemble a group of parents and educators to consider developing New Jersey educational standards: New Jersey College and Career Readiness Standards,” Christie said.

Christie was strongly defending the Common Core standards as recently as two years ago.

But as he positions himself for an all-but-certain bid for the GOP presidential nomination, he had lately been hinting at such a reversal, as the Common Core has come under intense fire -- especially from the conservative right -- as a federal power grab over schools.

Christie’s language yesterday was directly aimed at that right flank, blaming the standards on the Obama administration and saying it was the product of “federal bureaucrats.”

“It is time to have standards that are even higher and that come directly from our own communities,” he said. “In my view, this new era can be even greater by adopting new standards right here in our state, not 200 miles away on the banks of the Potomac River.”

His claim is a bit off, as the standards are not federal but were adopted through a collaboration of business leaders and the individual states, including New Jersey. New Jersey educators served on panels involved in the development of the Common Core.

Still, the Obama administration pushed for adoption of those standards, and the Common Core has become a prime focal point of conservative critics.

Either way, the role of national politics was obvious yesterday – it was probably no coincidence that Christie was scheduled to go on New Hampshire radio right after his speech.

But what effect Christie’s stance would have on education in New Jersey was much murkier.

For one, while Christie said the state would stay with the PARCC testing aligned to the Common Core, at least for now, it is actually the PARCC testing that has generated the most debate, with tens of thousands of students sitting out the tests this spring and the PARCC consortium making changes to address the concerns of some parents and educators.

And Christie chose his words carefully when he spoke about Common Core, explicitly saying there would be a “review” of the standards and that recommendations “may” come out of that review. A whole new set of standards in math and language – the two subjects covered by the Common Core – could take years to develop and implement, if history is any guide.

Those uncertainties left educators, advocates and others scratching their heads yesterday.

A group of principals and supervisors invited to the speech stood together in the lobby afterward, several of them indignant that Christie was essentially tossing aside the work that they and other educators have taken on.

“What this means is the work we have been doing for the last three or four years in aligning everything to the standards is taking another shift,” said Emil Carafa, a principal in Lodi and past president of the state’s principals association.

“We were just getting comfortable and knowledgeable with the standards, and this now uproots that,” he said. “It uproots everything we have been working on.”

Others pointed to how Christie only last year appointed a state task force to examine the state’s use of PARCC and other assessments – and the fact that the task force has yet to issue any report. To now disavow the standards behind those tests is unsettling, they said.

“We haven’t released our report, we don’t know what PARCC has done,” said Nicole Moore, a school principal in Shamong who is a member of that task force. “We are still doing our work, and to say otherwise is premature. And this puts us in a tricky position.”

It was not universal confusion. The audience at the college auditorium in Pemberton was filled with leaders from business and higher education, and several afterward said any review of Common Core and PARRC would be worthwhile.

“I didn’t hear anything that gives me any concern,” said Steven Rose, the longtime president of Passaic County College. “We absolutely backed the Common Core, but if we can get this through and it makes it easier and won’t have the same controversy, great.”

“If we can find a New Jersey version that still has the high standards, that would be great,” he added. “The thing I was listening for was that we still have PARCC.”

A statement from the New Jersey School Boards Association also said that the review would be helpful in improving on the standards.

“We view Governor Christie’s directive as an opportunity to build upon an already strong set of standards,” said Lawrence Feinsod, director of the association. “A matter as important as our state’s academic standards is worthy of reflection and review.”

But the voices of skepticism, if not outright opposition, were more widespread. Some were predictable, including from the New Jersey Education Association, the teachers union that has been in frequent combat with the governor.

Wendell Steinhauer, the NJEA president who was in the audience, said afterward that Christie was using “backward logic” by supporting PARCC while disavowing the Common Core.

“I like the approach that he will bring in educators and make it New Jersey, that is all great and I hope NJEA is involved in that,” he said. “But to continue with the PARCC test, that does not make any sense at all. The PARCC test is completely aligned to the Common Core.”