More than one hundred people expressed their concerns about new Common Core State Standards for English/Language Arts and Mathematics at a lively forum on Thursday night in Cape Girardeau.
The Missouri Department of Secondary and Elementary Education hosted the forum. The guidelines are intended to facilitate greater critical thinking and unify standards state and nation wide to better prepare students for college and careers.
The new initiative has received support from some but remains contested by others. Pam Yant is the coordinator of the Sikeston Tea Party. She was concerned about the effect this may have on power distribution between governments.
“The federal government wants to take over everything in America right now. And by taking over education, they take all the power away from the states and give it to the federal government. And when you get too much power going to one branch, you end up with tyranny,” Yant said.
Jeff Lindsey is the Assistant Superintendent of Ste. Genevieve RII. He is in favor of the new core criterion.
“One of the things that I like about Common Core is it provides some consistency across states and between districts,” Lindsey said.
Lindsey said the process of aligning their curriculum with Common Core standards revealed a positive reaction from teachers.
“One of the things that I kept hearing from our teachers is that with Common Core standards that there’s more rigor,” Lindsey said. “Basically what that means is that, to a certain extent, instead of the curriculum covering a wide variety of topics, it was more focused and more in-depth coverage.”
The new standards will replace previous measures known as grade-level requirements and will take full effect in 2014.
