District addresses Common Core questions

FORT RECOVERY - School officials today posted an article on the district website providing answers to 10 frequently asked questions about Common Core and related standardized tests.

The article, viewable at www.fortrecoveryschools.org, is an effort to improve communications about the often-contentious subject of Common Core and parents' efforts to opt students out of the related tests.

"In an effort to communicate with our community about opting out, (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career) assessments, what's happening, we developed a question-and-answer document," superintendent Shelly Vaughn said at Tuesday night's regular board meeting.

The article is mostly free of opinion, Vaughn said.

The questions were compiled in part from meetings schools officials including Vaughn and board members Jose Faller and Ginny Fortkamp had in June and February with community members concerned about Common Core.

"One of the things I think that came out of that meeting was the idea that a lot of times we put the onus back on them to communicate with community members who have concerns about the standards or other issues related to the Common Core," Vaughn said

The article and other links on the website, Vaughn said, tell a story about Common Core and its impact on the district

"We probably should have done this before now, but I think it's a good thing that we're at least putting it out there," board president Faller said, noting several people felt officials weren't responding to questions. The article also contains a board resolution stating its intent to maintain local control of a curriculum that supports and reflects local community values.

From the meetings, Faller learned some residents are uncomfortable asking school administrators about Common Core.

"That was actually what prompted me to say, 'let's tell the story,' " Vaughn said. "What have we done? We haven't sat back and done nothing for two years since (the public) came to that first board meeting. We've done a lot and we've worked hard and we talked to legislators and we understand."

The public's reluctance to ask about Common Core is due to the topic's hot-button status, she said.

"And because there's so much confusion about what's true, what isn't true, what's kind of true. Sometimes I don't think people know what questions to even ask," Fortkamp said.

Principals also spoke about PARCC testing, which was created to develop standardized tests to align with Common Core's style of teaching.

Parents wishing to opt their students out of testing must do so in writing before Feb. 19, Vaughn said.

In the elementary/middle school building, 37 students have been opted out by their parents. That total includes a few kindergartners and first-graders even though PARCC assessments are not given in those grades, middle school principal Matt Triplett said.  The entire middle school will test for two hours each day on Feb. 23-27, March 3 and April 20-24.

The goal is to test without disrupting the rest of the school day, he said.

High School Principal Jeff Hobbs said four high school students have been opted out of testing. Hobbs said he tells skeptical parents PARCC is essentially the new graduation test, similar to the Ohio Graduation Test or the 12th-grade proficiency tests given in the past.

"The whole idea of the opt-out movement is to send a message to legislators that we don't agree with this," Vaughn said. "Legislators have heard that message loud and clear."

Triplett said he tries to explain the differences between Common Core standards and the curriculum teachers use to reach those standards.

"We all have the same rules, but that doesn't mean that we all have to run the same plays and, you know, you change those plays as your players change," he said about teachers' ability to adjust the curriculum.