Craig Caruana, the Republican candidate running against Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village), held a rally in Middle Village last Friday against the city’s controversial new academic curriculum that has incited outrage among numerous educators throughout the five boroughs.
Common Core is a new curriculum that was implemented in the city’s public schools at the beginning of the school year and which city officials say is designed to hold students to more rigorous standards.
“Common Core are effective standards,” Caruana said at the rally outside PS 128 in Middle Village. “The problem is the way they are being implemented.”
Caruana believes that the teachers need more time in adjusting to the Common Core curriculum.
“One of the things they did was tying it to teachers’ evaluations in the very first year,” he said. “At the same time they didn’t give the teachers the resources necessary to implement the new standards. All I’m saying is maybe wait a year or two before tying the Common Core standards to teacher evaluations.”
The teachers at the rally agreed with Caruana.
“It is being implemented way too quickly, and we don’t have the materials to actually do so,” said teacher Sandy Boos. “I don’t think it’s fair for the kids to be graded, as well as ourselves, until they are comfortable taking the test and being taught to the common core standards.”
Teacher Anthony Zalak also slammed the curriculum’s implementation.
“The city provided no… materials for it last year, and we were promised that before the students arrived in September we would have all the materials we need to fully implement it – and we still don’t,” Zalak said.
The teachers do believe that Common Core provides good standards, but the issue is the emphasis that is being placed on them right away. Under the Common Core curriculum, educators said there has been an over-emphasis on standardized tests, which they said places too much stress on the students. It also puts pressure on them and their schools, as they are funded based in part on test results.
“It puts a lot of pressure on the kids in such a small period of time,” Boos said.
“It forces us to teach test prep instead of the curriculum because we are tied to it and so is our schools letter grade,” Zalak added.
The teachers do believe there are positives in the Common Core curriculum. It makes students think more critically and not just give us a summary of the work, Zalak said.
Both Boos and Zalak thinks that Common Core is great and students should be challenged, but it needs to be implemented over time.
Rose Ann Randazzo, a fellow teacher, spoke at the rally and agreed with Boos and Zalak. “The problem is not with Common Core – the standards are fabulous, our students should be ready for college and a career, and we really do need to raise the bar,” she said. “The problem is the implementation. They would work effectively if they were distributed effectively and we were trained on them effectively.”
Randazzo stated that the emphasis on the test has created a higher stress on the students because they know the standards they need to meet.
“I think city council should take a vote that New York City won’t judge teachers by these Common Core test standards,” said Caruana. “I will make this an issue at City Hall.”
By Michael Florio