The standards reflect what students should know in each grade without specifying curriculum or textbooks.
“We’ve been changing our curriculum to reflect the new common core standards, and we have gone out and purchased new materials in math and reading, in particular … that reflects the new common core standards and the expectations associated with that,” Estrop said.
To do that, it’s used federal Race to the Top grant money passed down to districts through the state.
“And now to say, ‘Well, we Ohio have decided not to go there’ would obviously put us in a situation where it would appear we would have wasted a lot of money trying to get prepared for the common core,” he said.
And he hasn’t heard what standards might replace the common core, if legislators vote to block it.
“(Thursday) there was a big splash saying we’ve got to move public schools in Ohio to a higher level,” Estrop said, referring to district report card grades released by the state, and the mandated move in 2014-15 to the common core.
“So if we’re not going to move there, where are we going to move, or are we going to continue to test the current Ohio state standards, which, based upon what I know, have lower expectations,” he added. “You can’t have this argument both ways. You can’t say we need to push the schools up to higher standards, and then keep the (testing) standards that we have.”
Estrop is a supporter of Ohio’s move to the common core, even as he’s questioned the way it’s been implemented thus far.
“But if now the destination is changing, we will have wasted a lot of money — and we’re not alone in doing that — (and) we need to know now what the new destination is,” he said.
The legislators have said they want to reverse the move to common core curriculum because they believe Ohio standards should be higher.
“I just would ask where were these legislators when Ohio approved the common core? Because if they’re now going to say the destination has to be higher, then what is the destination?” Estrop asked.
He hoped any legislative change would be made as fast as possible so districts can figure out where they need to head with their curriculum.
“If I slow down and don’t move toward common core, and ultimately that’s where we continue to head, I put our children more at risk by not having what they need to do as well as they can on the new tests in the common core,” he said.
Southeastern Local Schools spent spent more than $30,000 this year on a new 5-year kindergarten through fourth-grade math curriculum that’s geared toward the common core, for example.
Superintendent David Shea said the expense was worth it, no matter which way state legislators decide to go with standards.
“I know the MyMath books we got, a lot of teachers really like those books. They liked the way they related to the kids, and the activities, and things of that nature,” he said.
And some current curriculum in his district could be reworked to meet common core standards.
“I check with my teachers and (ask) are the materials they’re using, can they be used toward a common core, do they match?” Shea said. “Like my language arts teachers, they felt that their materials could be directed toward the common core to some degree, and they wanted this year to work on them and re-evaluate the following year.”
Shea said he won’t get worked up about the potential pull back from common core, or continuing to prepare for the common core, because it’s law and he has no choice but to follow it.
“It’s like anything. You have to go by the legality,” Shea said.
And Graham Local Schools in Champaign County has also been working toward toward teaching to meet the core curriculum.
“We are still working on the assumption that common core is here to stay. If something changes definitively, we’ll adjust,” Superintendent Norm Glismann said.
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