Apodaca: It’s time to find common ground on Common Core

Last week’s statewide release of the results of the new standardized assessments linked to Common Core educational standards amounted to a massive Rorschach test for the good citizens of California.

The image each of us sees will likely be based on what we already believe to be true about Common Core.

Supporters see reason for, if not optimism precisely, satisfaction that we now have a clearer picture of where students currently stand in the ambitious quest to improve educational outcomes. They have waged a long campaign to keep initial expectations in check, warning that in the first year of this vastly new approach the learning curve has been steep, the bar intentionally set high. They’ve reminded us that we can’t compare the scores to those based on the old testing system, and that the first results from the new, more-rigorous test are meant to provide educators with a baseline from which to adjust future instruction.

Opponents, who seem to have quieted a bit recently, could see the test scores as a reason to speak up again. They might view the results showing just 44% of California students at grade level or better in English and 34% in math as evidence that Common Core is a failed experiment, or that the tests are hopelessly flawed and create an inaccurate picture. Either way, there’s new ammunition for the movement to kill the standards.

Which is really a shame. On one side we’ve been witness to near-hysterical over-reaction, on the other we’ve had far too much tone-deaf defensiveness.

What is really needed now more than ever is a seeking of common ground over the Common Core, a combined effort by critics and supporters alike to weed out what’s not working from what is, and to make adjustments based on supportable evidence.

That means no more alarmist conspiracy theories, and no more pat assurances and obfuscations over the problems that have surfaced amid an often-rocky implementation.

And that’s not the only shame. Amid this heated controversy, what has largely been missing are the voices of the teachers who have been tasked with figuring out the new standards and how to implement them in the classroom.

New Common Core-aligned curriculum has been dumped on them, oftentimes without adequate vetting, research, and training, with little time to learn the new materials themselves.

They’re the ones on the ground observing students day in and day out. Assessments only tell us so much. We also need to ask the teachers what is worth keeping and what should be done differently going forward.

The idea of Common Core only began about six years ago, and in that time the standards were written, 42 states adopted them, new curriculum was produced — some of it good, some of it not so much — and assessments were overhauled. A sense of urgency is understandable, considering our need to improve educational competitiveness, but haste has arguably been the enemy of clear and achievable means of reaching those goals.

California’s implementation of Common Core hasn’t even been the most contentious. In New York a huge backlash has arisen in large part because the schools there began testing students on the new standards before teachers had any chance to familiarize themselves with new materials. In many states aggrieved parents have mobilized to dump the Common Core and have urged others to have their students “opt out” of the new standardized tests.

The California tests, developed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, were administered entirely on computers and were very different from past fill-in-the-bubble assessments. They were much tougher, required more analysis and featured questions that adapted as students progressed, based on answers to previous questions.

Of course, aside from the standards and tests, per se, other complaints have arisen. One frequently cited fear is that it could enable the creation of a massive, nationwide database that will contain not just test scores but personal information, such as students’ health histories.

Indeed, at one Newport-Mesa Unified school board meeting earlier this year, one parent voiced objections to the “dangers” of Common Core not protecting students’ privacy.

Even some Common Core supporters have expressed reservations about certain aspects of the standards, such as whether such a rigorous approach is appropriate for the youngest schoolchildren.

In Newport-Mesa, problems with Common Core implementation surfaced during the past school year. The Daily Pilot previously reported that SWUN math, the core-aligned curriculum that the district bought from a Cypress-based company for $1.89 million, was riddled with errors.

Newport-Mesa still fared better than the state average, with 54% meeting the target in English and 47% in math.

Not surprisingly, results varied widely from school to school. Anderson Elementary had the highest overall scores, with 87% meeting or exceeding the threshold in English and 84% in math, while Rea Elementary’s were the lowest at 11% in both categories. Parents will receive their students’ individual reports by mid-October.

Despite the stumbles, it would be good if those predisposed to dislike Common Core didn’t immediately jump to the worst-possible interpretation and instead conducted a more careful, nuanced view of the results.

But it would also be helpful if school officials more readily acknowledged problems and mistakes, and demonstrated a greater willingness to take concerns and input from teachers and the community to heart.

PATRICE APODACA is a former Newport-Mesa public school parent and former Los Angeles Times staff writer. She lives in Newport Beach.