A Common Core Review Group ordered by Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ) started its work this month. In three months we’ll know how New Jersey plans to rebrand Common Core.
It would be great if they would jettison it, but as recent history has shown us states that engage in a review process, for the most part, change very little. So I’m not going to hold my breath.
I am especially doubtful as the state and Governor Christie remains committed to using PARCC as their statewide assessment. So there is little to no chance that standards will be changed.
I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt that I am.
Twenty-four people make up the group given the task of following up on Gov. Chris Christie’s call to rethink the Common Core State Standards for New Jersey – and then there’s the 70 other people named to subcommittees.
Starting this month, and over the next three months, they will have a busy schedule as they try to come up with revisions to the state’s standards to meet Christie’s sudden – and some say politically driven — dictate this summer that the Common Core Standards aren’t good enough for New Jersey.
A vast majority of the members of the so-called Standards Review Committee work in K-12 public schools, but at least four more members are parent representatives, while two represent business groups and another five are from the realm of higher education. Three of the members are school district superintendents, and one is a leader from charter schools.
…Christie wants the committee to recommend revisions to the standards in math and language arts by the end of the year, a deadline he set when he declared that he was backing off his support of the Common Core, saying it’s not rigorous enough and that such academic standards should be developed locally.