Above: Mandated standards like Common Core are meant to improve measuring and success in educating students. For the School Committee, their objection isn’t the principal, it’s the lack of funding for execution. (Image from www.corestandards.com)
Last night, the Southborough School Committee had its first meeting of the new year. One recurring topic was initiatives and mandates driving much of the administration’s efforts.
Superintendent Christine Johnson spoke about administrators work over the summer to continue to aligning their curriculum with required standards.
One example was a committee already gearing up for new science standards expected to be released in 2017. The K-12 science committee, well represented by teachers, worked on this issue for the second summer.
Johnson said, “Our concern is making sure we’re hold true to the things that we treasured in our schools, because we have the ability to enrich any standard.”
She explained one challenge is “teachers do hold fast to projects and kinds of experiments they’ve had in their building.” But standards alignment sometimes requires changing the grade in which something is taught.
The School Committee has been a critic of the burden caused by mandates. Their focus is lack of funding for the schools’ extra workload.
It’s an issue that the committee has pointed to when school budgets are criticized. And it’s one that the committee advocated the State House address.
Committee member Paul Desmond updated the others on State House bills they had been advocating. He lamented that two “died” in Joint Committee on Education. But he informed them that the study group on unfunded mandates was still in play.
Desmond said it is with House Weighs and Means. But he told members that he’d been advised it needs adjusting to survive.
Representative Carolyn Dykema was concerned about what some legislators see as potential crossover with another bill. That wider reaching bill looks at the entire budget formula for the Education Foundation.
The committee agreed to ask Dykema to pursue amending the bill. It should specify that it relates to school administrative costs for testing, assessing, training and reporting required by new mandates. (Thus, different from underfunded mandates requiring school provide special education, etc.)
One example of these unfunded mandates is the school’s required transition to Common Core teaching practices. An update on Common Core will be on the agenda for the October 8th School Committee meeting.
