Delaying Common Core Implementation Hinders Teachers and Students Progress

Last week the Tennessee House of Representatives voted to delay implementing the Common Core Standards and the associated PARCC exam.  Using a combination of procedural posturing and late amendments Common Core opponents in the state legislature have sent a bill to the State Senate that would postpone the new standards and next generation exam until 2016.

This delay is wrong for students in Tennessee who are currently languishing under ill-conceived standards that lack the rigor to ensure that all students are college and career ready.  Young people in this state are capable of much more and deserve the highest quality education possible, an education that they can be confident will equip them to compete with students from across the nation for both college acceptances and eventually career opportunities.

However, it is not simply students who will suffer if the legislature approves this last minute postponement of the Common Core.  Across the state of Tennessee teachers have been working tirelessly to create materials and shift to the new, more rigorous standards established by the Common Core.  This delay threatens to undermine all of that work, forcing teachers to shelve the innovative materials they have created this year and with limited turn around adapt to a new curriculum.  This delay threatens our teachers’ ability to plan ahead and make strategic curriculum decisions.

The uncertainty created by this possible delay injects additional confusion around how a teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom will be measured moving forward.  Currently TCAP is set to be phased out in favor of PARCC next year and it is unclear how the upheaval introduced by the threat of this delay will impact how teachers value-added score (TVAAS) score will be calculated, or what it will be based upon.

Finally the potential of this delay also represents a waste of millions of dollars in Common Core aligned textbooks, the training of core coaches across the state, the investment in computer technology, and professional development for faculty.

Ultimately all change, especially major change, is hard.  Without question implementing something as far-reaching and ambitious as the Common Core standards will create issues and as a state it is highly unlikely that we will ever be as ready as we want to be for this shift.  The fact is that our students cannot wait.  They are eminently capable and will rise to the standards that we as educators set for them.  In addition to cheating our young people of the education that they rightfully deserve, the potential chaotic delay instigated by the Tennessee House of Representatives will hinder teachers from planning purposefully for the coming school year.  This proposed delay represents another example of cheap point scoring by the legislature attempting to pander to the anti-reform crowd at the expense of our students and teachers.

To ensure that our students receive the education they deserve and our teachers ability to plan is protected contact your State Senators today and tell them to reject this last ditch effort to attack the Common Core State Standards.

By Ryan Winn

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