Hot topic for 2014: Common Core and testing

As state legislatures convene in 2014,  look for renewed debate about Common Core academic standards and the testing that comes along with it,  says Pam Goins, director of education policy for the Council of State Governments.

Goins

"Rising numbers of stakeholders are questioning the Common Core State Standards Initiative, state assessment systems and teacher evaluation models. Of the 45 states that adopted the common core, as many as 20 states may re-open the discussion on rigorous academic standards,"  Goins wrote in a news release last week. "The remaining states likely will review their commitment to overhauling state assessment and accountability systems."

That's certainly true in North Carolina,  where questions about testing are raging and the state is moving toward new exams developed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium that will provide cross-state comparisons of higher-level skills.

In addition to assessment and accountability, the council pegs the top five education issues for 2014 as expanding access to early childhood education,  increasing college/workforce readiness,  figuring out the best uses of digital learning and increasing college completion.

Those all sound on target for our state,  though I'd add teacher compensation and charters/choice to North Carolina's hot-topic list for 2014.  Any other big items on your radar?

Can you pass the national exams?

Dang it, I still don't know if I'm as smart as a fifth-grader.

Practice versions of new English and math tests,  designed to provide a consistent measure of whether students are meeting national Common Core standards,  were recently posted by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.  I tried my hand at the fifth-grade math exam -- partly to see how rusty my skills had gotten and partly to see what online testing is all about.

I found the online format a bit random:  Sometimes you typed in numbers,  sometimes you clicked and dragged them from columns.  It took a bit of figuring out,  but didn't seem terribly daunting.  But it was such a letdown when I finished,  clicked submit and didn't get a report on what was right and wrong.  A spokesman for the consortium said the scoring rubrics won't be finished until later this summer.

Of course,  the purpose of posting the tests is to let teachers,  parents and other concerned people get a feel for what's on the horizon.  Plans call for North Carolina students to start taking the national online tests in 2014.  A big part of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools budget is geared toward building the capacity for all schools to do online exams.

But now there's a twist:  Even though North Carolina is among 26 states that make up the Smarter Balanced Consortium,  officials say it's unclear whether the state will spend the money to actually buy the exams. "NC has not made a decision about Smarter Balanced yet. We anticipate making a decision (really our state Board of Education will make a decision) in 2014,"  said Vanessa Jeter, spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.

The Common Core movement has proven controversial in many states.  N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory and Lt. Gov. Dan Forest recently added their voices to those raising questions,  saying they want to know more about the Common Core and the state's testing regimen.

Understanding Common Core

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has launched a web page to help parents understand the Common Core standards that are supposed to transform education across the country.

That's good, because I'm having trouble getting my head around it.

I know the standards are supposed to make sure students across the country get more rigorous lessons, with a testing system that allows for good comparisons from state to state and country to country. I know there are a whole lot of new tests coming to North Carolina,  starting this spring,  and that we're likely to see some pretty grim results the first time out.

But I haven't yet had that moment where the light bulb flashes over my head and I say, "OK, now I get it!"  I thought last week's school board report might flip the switch. Nope.

My confusion comes partly from the fact that curriculum is not the kind of thing that's easy to translate into newspaper writing.  Another big issue is that the answer to a whole lot of questions seems to be  "We don't know yet."

I know North Carolina is among 24 states working with the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium to create new online English and math tests based on Common Core standards, and that some CMS classrooms will pilot those exams this spring.  Other states are working with a group called PARCC to do the same.  Superintendent Heath Morrison said last week that there has been talk of 10-hour tests,  based on an estimate by PARCC,  but no one seems to know how solid that is or exactly what it will mean for local students, teachers and schools.

The good news is that CMS leaders seem to want to explain this as much as I want to understand it.  I'm meeting with them later this week.  Here's how you can help:  Readers with close ties to schools  often know the key questions and issues before I do.  So let me know what you're hearing, wondering and worrying about.

For instance,  a reader shared this example of what's supposed to be a state-issued bubble sheet for this year's exams,  illustrating the difficulty of bubbling in open-ended math answers  (the top row is correct,  the bottom row wrong). Board member Tom Tate asked last week about how CMS plans to deal with potential confusion on answer sheets.  That's exactly the kind of thing we all need to understand.