Common Core (Update: Legislation)

State House advances Common Core standards for schools

By Lori Higgins Detroit Free Press Education Writer

   The Michigan House easily approved a resolution Thursday that allows the state to move forward with implementing the controversial Common Core State Standards, but the future of an exam that would assess those standards remains iffy.

   The resolution passed on an 85-21 vote. It now moves to the Senate.

   Missing from the final version was language added earlier in the day that would have required lawmakers, the governor, the state schools superintendent, local superintendents, principals and members of school boards to take state exams. It required the results to be published in the news media.

   The language was added during a morning meeting of the House Education Committee. It was removed on the House floor, said Ari Adler, spokesman for House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall.

   “Requiring thousands of adults to take this test would have had a significant cost, and we believe the money would be better spent on educating children,” Adler said in an e-mail.

   Further, he said, requiring the news media to print the results “would likely be considered unconstitutional.”

   The resolution vote capped months of debate about the standards, a set of expectations of what students should learn in English language arts and math that will prepare them for college or work. The State Board of Education adopted them in 2010 — making Michigan among 45 states that have adopted the standards.

   The standards are backed by a wide range of groups and individuals in Michigan, who argue that the standards are rigorous, will prepare students for life after high school and will help them compete internationally. But critics question the overall rigor of the standards and say it takes local decisions about standards out of the hands of teachers and parents.

   Lawmakers earlier this year barred the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) from spending any money to continue implementation of the Common Core or the Smarter Balanced Assessment, an exam that the MDE is planning to move to in the next two years that would be based on the core standards. The resolution approved Thursday would allow MDE to begin spending money on the standards and test if the Senate also approves it.

   The resolution to move forward with the Common Core standards came after a summer in which a subcommittee chaired by Rep. Tim Kelly, R-Saginaw Township, heard 17 hours of testimony about the standards. “I think we addressed most if not all concerns as far as what can and cannot be done with Common Core,” Kelly said.

   The resolution came with conditions — such as allowing local districts to opt out of adopting the standards. Michigan also must be able to add or remove standards as it sees fit, the standards can’t dictate curriculum and local districts must be able to maintain control over curriculum, textbooks, education materials and instructional methods.

   A key condition, though, is one requiring the MDE and the State Board of Education to issue a report to the Legislature by Dec. 1 that includes a review of all available student assessment tools, information about how they would be used, and how much they would cost to implement. That could set the stage for the state to back out of its membership in a consortium of nearly two dozen states that have signed on to administer the Smarter Balanced Assessment.

   Lawmakers on the committee expressed strong misgivings about the test.

   “There’s a lot of red flags” with the exam, Kelly said. “We’re looking for alternatives.”

   Contact Lori Higgins: 313-222-6651, lhiggins@freepress.com   or via

   Twitter @LoriAHiggins

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