Chappaqua Talk Covers Common Core, Race to the Top

While there have been many headlines in the media about the Common Core curriculum and Race to the Top, including those with angst, Chappaqua schools Superintendent Lyn McKay sought to reassure folks at a recent meeting.

The meeting, which is called a Knowledge Café, was held Wednesday at Robert E. Bell Middle School and was meant to give an overview of what has been termed the "accountability movement" where more testing over the decades and top-down oversight has been the trend.

McKay is not concerned with the Common Core in and of itself, noting that Chappaqua's instruction overlaps with it. However, she discussed suggested material being offered for it through the state's Engage NY website, and after reading examples she described the style reviewed as scripted and not allow a teacher to differentiate. McKay then followed up with a contrast of Chappaqua's local curriculum, which can be differentiated, with a teacher on hand who gave a lesson example.

Forty-five states, including New York, are participating in the Common Core, McKay explained.

District officials also spent time tracing the history of the accountability movement, starting with the 1983 reported called "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform." Eric Byrne, Chappaqua's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, felt that report was for recommendations but noted it had a big impact and has been cited as part of the reform movement.

By the early 1990s there were initiatives meant to boost student achievement, such as the America 2000 report from 1990 and the Improving America's School Act of 1994. In New York State during that time, however, it was noted that local school districts were able to get waivers from Regents exams if they replaced them with local performance assessments that were rigorous. This system was nixed later in the decade under a newer commissioner, while federal legislation pushed for at least one assessment per ban of grades, which corresponded to elementary, middle and high school.

The next significant overhaul, it was noted, came in 2002 with the No Child Left Behind Act. That law, which had bipartisan support, mandated testing annually for grades 3-8, making test results public and for parents to be given to choice to pull children out of low-performing schools.

The next big legislation that followed was Race to the Top, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2009. New York applied for and got funding for the program, with some of its funds in turn given to school districts.

Byrne outlined how Race to the Top is the cause of multiple big issues that Chappaqua faces now, including a change to the evaluation of teachers and principals - assessment performance is part of it, and a data system for tracking information considered relevant to student successful. Student material to be collected, according to Byrne, includes behavioral information, economic information and social issues.

School districts received Race to the Top funding but it was noted that the aid was given out based on socioeconomic level. Chappaqua, however, did not receive any. McKay noted that other districts have given back their money.

Students cannot opt out of the tests, Byrne explained, and noted that school districts can be penalized if they do not have a certain level of participation. 

Towards the end of the discussion, McKay suggested that people could get involved through advocacy. One thing that would help Chappaqua, she explained, would be to get a waiver so the district does not have to do assessment of students every year. She also brought up a regional superintendents group, called the Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendents, which is pushing for a moratorium on the assessment system being implemented in connection to the Common Core. In a letter, the group seeks a moratorium so that an independent study is done on student data usage, guaranteed protection of data and not having sold on an open market, and of the ability of school districts to fund recent reforms.

Chappaqua school board member Victoria Tipp, who is part of the Westchester Putnam School Boards Association, expressed a similar sentiment as McKay when she was at the meeting.

Towards the end of the meeting, the superintendent also supported the ethos of Tony Wagner, an academic expert whose focus is "play, passion, purpose." The TED Talk video of Wagner, part of which was shown at the gathering, is at this link.