TOPSHAM

About a dozen members of the public attending a meeting on Common Core State Standards conducted by School Administrative District 75 Thursday night tried to understand what the standards mean for their children.

Dan Chuhta, assistant superintendent for SAD 75 schools, said the meeting was scheduled some school board members raised concerns about Common Core. Board member Dorothy Gardiner in particular has vocalized her concerns about the standards and requested an opportunity to learn more and hear concerns.

Chuhta led the meeting at Williams-Cone School with the help of some SAD 75 teachers, who talked about how they are teaching with the standards in English Language Arts and mathematics.

The Common Core State Standards were adopted in 2011 as part of the Maine Learning Results, which the state has had since 1997. The Common Core standards are for English Languages Arts and mathematics, and don’t cover science and social studies.

“Standards say what students should know, should understand and what they should be able to do,” Chuhta said. “Because the standards are developed for all grade levels, they also help us build a pathway, so they have some sequence to them.”

The standards start in Kindergarten and become more developmentally appropriate as students progress, he said. Common Core standards were developed to ensure that when students met the standards, they were able to show they have the knowledge to be successful after high school.

Chuhta emphasized the standards don’t tell teachers how to teach, but rather what to teach. The teacher has the flexibility to teach students what the standards say they should know. Standards make clear for the teacher and the parent, and increasingly, the student what the next step is and help give feedback.

Courtney Belolan, a literacy leader and coach at the middle and high schools, said there is a myth that the Common Core standards don’t have enough emphasis on fiction and literature. She works with teachers from all content areas. The standards are broken into informational, literary and, in writing, argument. In an English class, the focus is still very much on the literary standards, Belolan said, “and part of what we’re working to do is to help other content teachers take on some of the lifting of the informational standards as well.”

It’s about everyone working towards the standards together and not just the English teacher, she said.

Peggy Brown, the math teacher leader at Mt. Ararat Middle School, has taught in SAD 75 since 1989. She paid close attention to what was in the standards when she began teaching with Common Core.

“Nothing was missing,” Brown said. “Some things were condensed. There was greater focus and there was a better sequence of things. So there may be things that used to be in fourth grade that are in third grade now, or vice versa, but we’re not leaving things out, so you can still get a good math education with the Common Core.”

Members of the public attending asked several questions though an anonymous system, including how failing to meet Common Core standards impact students as well as how students meeting grade standards early are effected.

Chuhta said this question “is a lot about the proficiencybased work” the district is developing. The district knows it has students who are struggling learners needing support and those who are accelerated learners. Currently, the school has a system with grades that group kids by age.

While not sure the district would use the one-room school house model without any grades, Chuhta said, “what we may try do is work in some flexibility where a student who is meeting standards earlier than peers can advance. Maybe go deeper with the concepts or go on to the next concepts.”

For struggling students, he said, “we already have in place special services if that’s necessary,” for students identified as needing an individualized education plan. The district has also improved its Response to Intervention system that monitors student progress and identifies where they are struggling and finding ways to help.

Heather Archer, a mother of two students at Woodside Elementary, calls the Common Core standards too complicated for math content. She pulled out an example she found online of a math problem done using Common Core standards for adding 26 and 17 and held up that math problem along side the same math problem done the way she was taught.

“This is the Common Core way and it is so convoluted,” Archer said. “This doesn’t make sense… My daughter who is seven and just learning math,” understands the problem done the traditional way of adding double digits when you carry the one. Holding the Common Core math problem example, she said, “What am I going to do with this?”

Chuhta said everyone in the room probably did the math as Archer did, carry the one and add that column, which is procedural. Students are asked to go beyond procedure to understand and apply mathematics in the world.

“What this is attempting to do is helping to show what the math is that is going on behind it,” Chuhta said. “How we add isn’t necessarily part of Common Core.”

Chuhta said the Common Core State Standards can be found at corestandards.org. The meeting was filmed and can soon be found though the district website under school board meeting recordings.

A meeting on why SAD 75 is transitioning to proficiency based learning is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, June 8, in the Mt. Ararat High School Commons.