Indecision about whether to continue implementing the national Common Core State Standards or to pull Indiana schools out of the program continues to frustrate local educators.
Last week, a 12-person committee of lawmakers tasked with evaluating the standards declined to make an official recommendation to the Indiana State Board of Education about what to do.
Schools throughout the state — including in Dubois and Spencer counties — have fully implemented the new standards in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms and are requiring a mixed curriculum of Common Core and Indiana Academic Standards in the higher grade levels.
“We were planning to implement Common Core only in grade two when the Department of Education put the brakes on the transition,” Greater Jasper Consolidated Schools Superintendent Tracy Lorey said. “The lack of clear direction is clearly frustrating in terms of which academic standards we will be using.”
So far, 45 states have agreed to use Common Core. Indiana first became a part of the initiative in 2010. The math standards focus on problem solving, abstract and quantitative reasoning and construction of arguments while the language arts standards ask students to demonstrate understanding of multifaceted information and adjust their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills for a variety of tasks and disciplines.
Lorey said educators also are concerned about a possible change to state standardized testing that has not yet been decided. Under the original Common Core adoption plan, all grade levels would be fully implementing the new standards by next school year and a new Common Core-linked test would replace the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress exams in 2014.
“At the ISTEP grades, the ISTEP will test Indiana standards,” said Northeast Dubois School Corp.’s Kathy Klawitter, the district’s coordinator for assessment, curriculum and technology. “Teachers would like to know exactly what is expected of them.”
Klawitter added that despite the long delay, she knows that the decision that must be made is an important one.
“Because these standards will determine what students are doing for many years, it is critical that the decisions regarding their implementation is based on sound pedagogy,” she said.
Some schools already have made investments in Common Core textbooks, electronic content and instructional materials, and teachers and administrators have attended professional development training courses on the new standards. In the Southwest Dubois School Corp., the teachers at all grade levels up to the high school have begun making the switch to the new guidelines as planned and are trying to maintain their focus on Common Core until they hear a change has been made at the state level.
“We’re just focusing on that right now,” Superintendent Mike Eineman said. “If they change, we’ll have to make an adjustment. There’s nothing you can do about it.”
To save money in case Common Core is sacked, Eineman said, all training on the new standards has remained in-house and new materials have been acquired through the Department of Education. He said maintaining a good attitude in the face of indecision is key to keeping morale up for staff.
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