Luna explains Common Core

COEUR d'ALENE - Tom Luna was in town Thursday talking about the Idaho Core Standards, the Gem State's version of the multi-state Common Core initiative.

Luna, the state public schools chief, spoke to a packed house during the Kootenai County Reagan Republicans meeting at Fedora Pub and Grille in Coeur d'Alene, and told the group what Idaho Core Standards are and what they aren't.

"This is not a common curriculum. This is not common textbooks. This is not common lesson plans. It's standards," Luna said.

The Common Core is a states-led effort to create academic standards that are clearer and provide more rigor than existing standards, and align those standards among states that choose to adopt them.

There are now 45 states who have signed on to the effort.

In 2010, before the standards were adopted in Idaho, the State Department of Education held 20 meetings throughout the state, gathering public feedback and explaining the initiative to citizens. The Common Core was evaluated by educators and members of the business community, Luna said, who gave it their blessing.

Idaho has had academic standards for a decade, and Luna helped create those standards. He was appointed by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to the committee that worked on the existing standards.

The problem, Luna said, is that the existing standards aren't producing college and work-ready high school graduates. Idaho students are earning high school diplomas, having met the current standards, and 41 percent of those who go on to achieve higher education degrees are required to take remedial courses before they have the skills to take college courses for credit.

Luna said the goal of the new standards is to eliminate the need for remediation, so Idaho students will graduate from high school with skills that are aligned with higher education and employer expectations.

The problem isn't exclusive to Idaho.

There are three million open jobs nationwide, Luna said, positions that can't be filled because the unemployed population lacks the skills to fill them.

Right now, Luna said, Idaho's education system is compared to other states' systems based on the education dollars spent per student. The Core standards will provide an accurate mechanism for evaluating and comparing Idaho's students academically to students in other states, Luna said, and that will shed light on the relationship between dollars spent per child and academic performance.

Early on in the planning of the Common Core initiative, Luna said the state education leaders and governors decided they did not want the federal government involved in developing common education standards.

Luna told the Reagan Republicans that the federal government lacks the constitutional authority to establish academic standards across the states.

"The 10th Amendment makes it clear that unless the Constitution gives the federal government the right or the authority explicitly, then that right or authority rests with the states or the people," Luna said. "So, the federal government does not have a role or a responsibility to be involved in education."

The state does have that authority, and responsibility, under the Idaho Constitution, Luna said. It requires the Legislature to "establish and maintain a general, uniform, and thorough system of public, common free schools."

In order to have a uniform education system, the state must set standards, and it does, Luna said, citing high school graduation and teacher certification requirements as examples.

He told the group that the Common Core effort is completely voluntary for states, and that there would be no consequences if Idaho decided to walk away from it. The only consequence, he said, would be that there would be no way of accurately measuring Idaho students' performance against other states' students, he said.

Luna said there are no federal dollars tied to the effort, and there are no waivers or other agreements with the federal government regarding Common Core in Idaho.

"Many of you know me, I hope, well enough to know I would never surrender our state sovereignty to the federal government, especially when it comes to the education of children," Luna said.

Luna illustrated the increased rigor the new standards offer by sharing an example of a fourth-grade math problem.

He said that under the current standard a student would be asked to add and subtract fractions with like denominators that do not require simplification:

5/8 + 1/8 = A. 6/16, B. 6/8, C. 7/8, or D. 4/8.

The new standard will ask students to apply their knowledge of fractions as a concept, Luna said.

"We don't want students just to learn formulas that they apply, and they have no idea why they apply the formula...They have no conceptual idea of what that means in the real world," Luna said. "So there is a focus on a student showing their work using story problems and using critical thinking."

He shared a sample fourth-grade math question under the new Idaho Core Standards:

"Five friends ordered three large sandwiches.

James ate 3/4 of a sandwich.

Katya ate 1/4 of a sandwich.

Ramon ate 3/4 of a sandwich.

Sienna ate 2/4 of a sandwich.

How much sandwich is left for Oscar?"

"This is the fourth grade. Want to take a shot?" Luna asked the Reagan Republicans.

Luna said local school districts can build on the Idaho Core Standards and set higher bars for their students.

He addressed concerns some people have expressed about the collection of student data related to the Common Core and said Idaho is not required to collect any data because of the new standards.

When he fielded a few questions from the audience, Luna was asked if he thought teachers would have the courage to hold a child back who isn't achieving the standards.

Luna said he expects the standards to change the system of education in many districts from one in which advancement is based on time and age, to a mastery-based system.

"When you master it, that's when you move on," Luna said. He was asked if the federal government provided the criteria that the state's current standards are based on.

Luna said, no, the only involvement of the federal government is a requirement that states have standards. The standards are not reviewed or approved by anyone in Washington, D.C., he said.

Coeur d'Alene School District Trustee Ann Seddon told Luna that she thinks "the elephant in the room is the failure of the 10th Amendment."

"I think the thing people are concerned about is that a structure, a system will be in place for when the federal government wants to move in ... not just saying to us, 'You must,' but 'We're going to tell you what the standards are,' because you just said they already are telling us we must have standards. It's that failure of the 10th Amendment."

Luna said he agrees with Seddon, that the 10th Amendment has been "trampled on" by both Democratic and Republican administrations.

"But I think the difference here, Ann, is that this is a state-led effort," he said, adding that he believes that setting education standards is the right role for states to be in.

Additional new Idaho Core Standard sample questions can be viewed online:

http://sampleitems.smarterbalanced.org/itempreview/sbac/index.htm

English language arts

http://sampleitems.smarterbalanced.org/itempreview/sbac/ELA.htm