The Common Core educational standards have to go, along with high-stakes testing and state and national collections of student data, said people attending a tense meeting Tuesday night in West Seneca East High School.The Common Core is increasingly the target of attacks from teachers, parents, and administrators. Last night's meeting featured several West Seneca teachers and administrators who are also parents of kids in the school district.
Earlier in the day, legislative leaders including Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver called for a moratorium and asked the Board of Regents to stop the roll-out for at least two years during its meeting next week. Governor Andrew Cuomo says the standards haven't been installed very well.
West Seneca Superintendent Mark Crawford read all of the statements to an appreciative audience. District librarian Rosalia Carraba says her son is protected from a lot of this.
"We refused the test because we came to the realization that we held in our control the most valuable part of both APPR and the Common Core, my son's data. New York State has no test score for my child and they won't have one this year either," said Carraba.
John Slopka says it's all part of an attack on American traditions, especially collecting an increasing amount of information on students and their families.
"They're going to go beyond. They're going to tell your children what they're going to do when they grow up," said Slopka. "Their basic civil liberties are being taken away, their freedoms and their rights."
Several speakers say they won't allow their kids to take the state tests. West Seneca administrators say that is allowed by the state for two years. But administrators and teachers say there are complications because some tests are required for graduation as opposed to the tests measuring competency
