AFT President Randi Weingarten is calling for a moratorium on all stakes associated with the Common Core State Standards, saying that teachers have not had enough time or support to understand them deeply and shift their instruction accordingly.
In what鈥檚 being billed as a major speech this morning in New York City, Weingarten says that it鈥檚 unfair to judge students, teachers, and schools on test scores that reflect material that hasn鈥檛 been adequately taught yet. Those kinds of high-stakes decisions should be held in check until states and districts develop鈥攁nd carry out鈥攊mplementation plans that include the time and resources necessary for professional development, curriculum, and instruction to fully reflect the standards, she said in draft remarks shared with 91直播.
Weingarten鈥檚 speech was triggered by recent opposition in New York state to this year鈥檚 tests, which were newly designed to reflect the expectations of the common standards. The New York state teachers鈥� union, an AFT affiliate, raised objections to those tests鈥攁nd voluntary new curriculum鈥攐n similar grounds, as we reported to you last month.
In her prepared remarks, Weingarten praised the common core, saying it held promise for better teaching and learning, especially for disadvantaged students. She described a visit to a New York City school where 4th graders were mining Christopher Columbus鈥� diary for rich details of his experience, rather than memorizing facts of his journey. It took more than 50 hours for the teachers at that school to understand the new standards deeply enough to make necessary changes in their classrooms, and they still meet weekly to manage it, Weingarten鈥檚 draft speech said.
Few schools are managing such shifts, however, the speech said. Instead, common-core-aligned tests are often being introduced before lessons and materials are even available or fully put into practice. That kind of implementation is causing a 鈥渟erious backlash,鈥� according to Weingarten鈥檚 speech.
Before students, teachers, or schools are judged on mastery of the common standards, Weingarten says, adequate time and support must be available to understand them, develop curriculum for them, adapt instruction, and then find out鈥攖hrough 鈥渁 bunch of different measures"鈥攚hether all that is working. Putting the new standards into practice without adequate preparation, she says, is 鈥渁 failure of leadership.鈥�
Weingarten also takes a dig at the Obama administration, noting that it earmarked more than $350 million in the Race to the Top funds for assessments, but nothing specifically for professional development. (The U.S. Education Department provides about $2.5 billion in professional-development money to states and districts annually, through the Title II grants, which they鈥檙e free to use as they like.)
Anticipating the accusation that she is anti-accountability, Weingarten said in her remarks that she envisions the moratorium only in the 鈥渢ransitional years鈥� in which school systems are fully absorbing the required shifts.
While Weingarten is staking out this turf, others are claiming different parts of this policy debate. Yesterday, in anticipation of Weingarten鈥檚 speech, Tim Daly of the New Teacher Project blogged that . There has also been an upsurge in protests against testing in general, the being only one recent example.
For a full copy of Weingarten鈥檚 speech, .
Assistant Editor Stephen Sawchuk, who writes 91直播鈥檚 Teacher Beat blog, contributed to this report.