New York State Set to Vote to Delay Common Core Rules

The New York Assembly is set to pass a bill to postpone implementation of its Common Core rules chiefly because teachers objected to the standards being held against them during teacher evaluations. 

Another reason is concerns over student privacy.

The bill (“An act to amend the education law, in relation to reforms in commoncore,” A08929) was introduced because teachers worried that their evaluations would suffer as students struggled to learn how to fulfill Common Core testing requirements.

Sponsored by Assembly Education Committee chairwoman Cathy Nolan (D-Queens), the bill says in part that “common core has caused significant challenges that have strained our school districts” and driven testing scores down as kids struggled to catch up to the requirements.

Teachers have complained that they have been given “inadequate, limited resources” to prepare students for Common Core, and teachers’ union representatives are afraid that teacher evaluation scores will fall as a result. 

In fact, they already have.

“An indicator of such challenges occurred in the spring of 2013 when student test scores dropped significantly after taking the new Common Core aligned assessments,” the bill says.

Another worry comes from parents who have reported that their children have been slammed with new tests and are having a tough time keeping up.

Student privacy rights are another concern. Earlier this year the Assembly introduced the APPLE Plan, which called for restrictions on use of student data, also introduced to help alleviate troubles caused by the state’s Common Core policy.

The bill seeks to delay implementation of the Common Core rules to sort these issues out.