News

Media Coverage of Tampa Standards Hearing - FSCCC Quoted

The October 17th stop on the Florida Department of Education's Listening tour was covered by WUSF before the hearing and afterwards by the Tampa Bay Tribune. FSCCC was quoted in both pieces. Below are some excerpts. Dr. Effrem's prepared remarks are available here.

WUSF - They linked to our list of national expert recommendations about how to move on from Common Core.

Opponents of Common Core say the new list of skills that students must master are moving in the right direction, although they insist more work remains.

Karen Effrem is the executive director of Florida Stop Common Core Coalition. She says this is not just a political exercise.

"There's certainly a political aspect to it," Effrem said. "But people that have followed this all along realize what an educational disaster Common Core has been."

She especially lauded Corcoran's new literature reading list as a step in the right direction. She said her coalition supporters also want to see more phonics and basic math equation skills, sooner.

"It's still a work in progress, but we're heading in that direction," Effrem said. "For instance, in the math requirement, the use of the standard algorithm in Common Core didn't start until fifth grade, which is about two years behind, when it should be [earlier] for high performing countries and states. It's now down to third grade, which is much, much better.

Tampa Tribune

By contrast, some speakers said they would have preferred the state not just adjust the existing benchmarks, but rather dump them completely in favor of the requirements in other states that never adopted Common Core. They pointed to examples such as Minnesota's math standards.

The Common Core, which undergirds the Florida Standards, is an "educational disaster," said Karen Effrem, who leads the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition and called for more work to find developmentally appropriate standards.

Asked if the ongoing revisions would get rid of every last vestige of the Common Core, as the governor has sought, Oliva pointed out that many of the expectations are fundamental and preceded the controversial set of standards. The state will build upon them and sharpen them, and in the end the initiative will differ significantly from the model that Florida adopted in 2010, he said.

There are 3 more meetings on the Listening Tour for the second draft. All meetings are from 5:30 to 6:30 PM with doors opening at 5 PM: