Jonathan Shorman

News-Leader

JEFFERSON CITY – Opposition to educational standards adopted across the country reached a boil last week in the Missouri legislature. Senators decried what they called an overbearing and elitist process — done out of the sight of lawmakers — to impose a national curriculum on children.

Some lawmakers are seeking to thwart the use of the Common Core educational standards in Missouri. They cite concerns over student privacy and a curriculum that activists say is inappropriate for small children.

The Missouri Senate on Wednesday held an hours-long hearing on a bill that would bar implementation of the standards in Missouri. A similar House hearing in February lasted five hours.

Yet as legislative anger builds, Springfield education leaders — including incoming superintendent John Jungmann — embrace the standards.

"Common Core is a set of standards, of expectations, of performance for kids," Jungmann said. "They're not bad standards, they're good standards; they're higher standards than we have and they are appropriate."

How Common Core standards were adopted

For many lawmakers, concern with Common Core stems from how the standards were adopted. Development of the standards began in 2009. According to the official Common Core website, the project was a joint effort of governors and state education commissioners from nearly all states.

The site says Common Core's purpose is standardizing the definitions of proficiency among the states — meaning that before Common Core, each state had its own list of what students should know at each grade level.

Missouri's Board of Education adopted the standards in 2009, around the same time most other states did as well. In Missouri, the Common Core standards are set be fully implemented during the 2014-2015 school year.

Federal law prohibits the federal government from enacting national curriculum standards. But critics of Common Core, such as Sen. John Lamping, R-St. Louis County, argue Common Core provides a back door to national standards.

"Over time, many in academia, politics and business have pined for national standards. The elite believe they know best," Lamping said.

Lamping is sponsoring Senate Bill 514. The bill prohibits the state, along with local school boards, from adopting Common Core.

A supporter of the new standards, Springfield school board member Annie Busch said consistency is one of the objectives of the comprehensive curriculum approach. "The whole purpose of Common Core is to have a national set of standards," she said.

Busch said any efforts to undercut the implementation of Common Core undermines that consistency. She expressed frustration that lawmakers were trying to alter changes already embraced by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

"The decisions about what needs to be done needs to be made by educators, not legislators," she said. "We do need higher standards."

Sen. Bob Dixon, R-Springfield, said higher standards are needed in education, but he takes issue with how Common Core was implemented.

"We need to hold teachers and schools accountable, but it's really process we're talking about. I don't like the process that was used, and I think there's many folks that don't," Dixon said.

Missouri adopted Common Core when the state board of education agreed to the standards, and Gov. Jay Nixon gave his approval in 2009. The legislature was not involved in the approval process. Nixon's office issued a news release the day the state Board of Education voted to endorse Common Core, praising the board for its decision.

Sen. Ed Emery, R-Lamar, is sponsoring Senate Bill 798, which also prohibits implementation of Common Core.

"The process whereby Common Core was implemented in this state is completely devoid of government by laws and is purely government by men. Decisions were made unilaterally, without the involvement of the legislature or any other elected officials," Emery said.

Springfield Associate Superintendent Marty Moore said she believes attempts to dismantle the implementation of Common Core are misguided.

"What I have to believe is that they don't understand what it is," she said. "If they understand it, they wouldn't be fearful."

No drastic difference in Springfield

Common Core spells out what students need to know and be able to know at each grade level, but each district determines how students will learn by picking its own curriculum. Springfield, for example, decided to continue teaching handwriting and cursive in the early grades.

Moore said Springfield has embraced Common Core because it aligns with what the district was already doing. It emphasizes literacy and writing, exposes students to more nonfiction, helps students better process information and prizes critical thinking.

"A lot of what Common Core does is what our best teachers have already been doing," she said.

During a hearing, Sen. Gary Romine, R-Farmington, said his daughter, a second-grade teacher, is teaching to the Common Core standards. He said based on his daughter's experience, he does not see a drastic difference in Common Core material.

Common Core opponent and Springfield resident Mary Byrne testified in response to Romine that the standards are inappropriate for small children.

"What I am hearing is a great deal of frustration from children that are being pushed to do too much too soon," Byrne said.

Though Jungmann supports Common Core, he is concerned about the possibility of additional testing.

Jungmann met with members of the Springfield community during a final, daylong interview on March 3 before he was hired as superintendent. He explained that while he supports Common Core, he has also been part of statewide efforts to successfully push back against the additional layers of testing that were expected to accompany the new curriculum approach.

"I do have concerns with expanding the assessment footprints that have been tied to Common Core," he said.

In Missouri, that expanded testing requirement would have meant more in-depth testing more often for students in the state. But Jungmann, working with the Missouri Association of School Administrators and other statewide groups when Jungmann was superintendent of Liberty Schools, helped keep the testing burden from expanding significantly under Common Core.

Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield, sits on the House Education Committee. He said he has found nothing alarming about the curriculum that his child is using in kindergarten. But he said he is alarmed by the possibility that Common Core allows personal student information to be shared with outside organizations.

According to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, adopting Common Core has not changed schools' data reporting requirements. Schools give DESE dozens of pieces of information about each student; however, personally identifiable information can only be shared with parental consent or as allowed under federal law.

Alleged intimidation

Missouri lawmakers who oppose Common Core focused much of their ire at school administrators last week, who they say have in some cases attempted to intimidate teachers from speaking out against Common Core.

At a Wednesday hearing of the Senate Education Committee, Susan Kimball, who teaches kindergarten in the Sikeston school district, told lawmakers she had been denied the use of a personal day to testify before the committee.

"I have been strongly discouraged from saying anything negative by my administration and school board members," Kimball said.

Sikeston school district superintendent Tom Williams told the News-Leader the district is aware of the allegations and is investigating but declined to comment further.

—News-Leader reporter Claudette Riley and The Indianapolis Star contributed reporting.

Can Common Core be killed?

Although Common Core opponents were a vocal presence at the Capitol last week, the prospects for actually derailing the standards appear slim at the moment.

Previous legislative efforts to stop or slow implementation have failed. A bill from Sen. John Lamping last year would have required the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to hold a series of public meetings ahead of full implementation. A 2012 House bill prohibiting Common Core was not even given a hearing.

In addition, Gov. Jay Nixon, who signed the original agreement allowing Missouri to join the Common Core initiative, would almost certainly veto any bill that stopped implementation.

Efforts at stopping Common Core in other states have been gaining traction, however. Earlier this month, Indiana became the first state to drop the new standards.

More than 200 bills on Common Core have been introduced this year in state legislatures across the nation, and about half would slow or halt implementation of the standards, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.