Co-sponsor changes stance on bill to repeal Common Core

A co-sponsor of legislation to repeal Tennessee’s Common Core standards said Thursday the measure probably will change after discussions with teachers and other educators who say the higher benchmarks in English and math are helping students.

Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Dolores Gresham and Senate Government Operations Committee Chairman Mike Bell, both Republicans, filed the proposal in November. Bell did not immediately return a call seeking comment on Thursday.

But Gresham told The Associated Press that she’s now OK with the current standards after talking with teachers and other educators who have convinced her that “children are really learning.”

“I have talked to teachers who have told me in so many words, at last, we are no longer dumbing down our children,” she said. “That kind of encouragement is very important when other people are not so enthusiastic.”

The standards spell out what students should know and when. They have been adopted by most states and are intended to provide students with the critical thinking, problem solving and writing skills needed for college and the workforce.

However, there has been continued political pressure about the standards. Tea party groups have derided Common Core as government overreach, while some teachers’ groups have complained that the standards rely too heavily on student test scores. The scores are, in turn, used to evaluate teacher performance.

Jim Wrye, assistant executive director of the Tennessee Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union, said most teachers don’t have a problem with the standards; they just want to make sure they’re prepared to teach them.

Last month, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam announced several proposals for Tennessee teachers that include adjusting the way they’re evaluated and providing them with more information and feedback on state assessments.

“More rigor is something that Tennessee has been doing for a while and has the support of teachers,” Wrye said. “What we have found also is that the change in standards have allowed teachers to go much further in depth, in subjects and in concepts in later grades.”

As currently proposed, Gresham’s bill would set up a Tennessee Standards Commission, which would recommend to the State Board of Education new standards to be used in the state’s K-12 public schools.

The Somerville Republican said it’s still early to tell exactly how the legislation will turn out because she hasn’t talked to the sponsors of at least one other proposal that’s similar to hers, and there could be more bills filed before the Feb. 12 deadline for this year’s session.

Gresham said there also are comments to consider from a public review process the governor created for Common Core.

“The last I heard they had like 56,000 hits on it,” she said. “If you got 56,000 hits on something, that’s important.”

David Mansouri, executive vice president of the State Collaborative on Reforming Education, a leading education reform group, said a recent report it issued on the state of education in Tennessee suggests letting the governor’s review process run its course.

“Governor Haslam and the State Board of Education have created a public review process for Tennessee’s state standards, and the report recommends that policymakers refrain from passing legislation changing the standards while that review is underway,” Mansouri said.