By The Staff | The Save Jersey Blog
No more than mere weeks away from an anticipated presidential campaign launch, Governor Chris Christie’s long retreat from Common Core just reached the next level Thursday afternoon during remarks on New Jersey academic standards at the Burlington County College’s Geraldine Clinton Little Theatre in Pemberton.
“It’s now been five years since Common Core was adopted,” the Governor declared in prepared remarks. “And the truth is that it’s simply not working. It has brought only confusion and frustration to our parents. And has brought distance between our teachers and the communities where they work. Instead of solving problems in our classrooms, it is creating new ones. And when we aren’t getting the job done for our children, we need to do something different.”
The Governor did, however, DOE Commissioner Hespe to assemble a group of parents, teachers and educators to reevaluate the situation to come up with new state-centric standards, and he renewed his support for the controversial Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exams. “We must continue to review and improve that test based on results, not fear or speculation,” Christie declared. “I will not permit New Jersey to risk losing vital federal education funds because some would prefer to let the perfect get in the way of the good.”
Again, all of this was predictable. Starting in July 2014, the Governor created a commission to review K-12 student assessments; later, in November, he expressed “real concerns about Common Core and how it’s being rolled out and that’s why I put a commission together to study it. I’m not an educational expert,” sentiments that he’s repeated in 2015…
The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) responded by calling for a reevaluation of PARCC, too, something it has demanded for months. “If the governor is genuinely interested in new standards, the state must abandon the PARCC fiasco, which is taking a terrible toll on the quality of instruction and student learning in New Jersey,” NJEA President Wendell Steinhauer said in a statement. “It is completely illogical to use this deeply flawed test if the administration is going to abandon the standards that are driving it.”
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If he goes through with it then thank God.. Gut it..
Duh! What else can I say?
He believes NJ should keep the very expensive PARCC computer based testing which is closely linked to Common Core and despised by many? Follow the MONEY!
It is worth noting here that NJ Senate president, Steve Sweeney has repeatdly refused to listen to citizen complaints about Common Core. He’s a corrupt and self annointed king who doesn’t care about the will of the people.
Let’s shake up the legislature and put them on notice that they work for us. Join the movement to recall NJ State Senate President Sweeney.
http://www.recallsweeney.com/2015/04/14/two-more-reasons-to-recall-sweeney/
Common core was only adopted by the Governor. The legislature never had the opportunity to vote on it.
If you want to stall making a real commitment and push the can down the road simply form a commission.
Good Start, however, unless the PARCC test and anything by Pearson or the Gates Foundation is thrown out, it will only have been rebranded.This has happened in Indiana and South Carolina after they “got rid of it”. Even Mike Huckabee is on record as saying “just rebrand it” I have also been told that Hespe sits on the Pearson board. The curriculum is rotten to the core in so many ways and the PARCC aligns with it. The struggle is far from over. Too much money is involved and the UN global agenda. This is not going to be easy, and if Christie is really being sincere ,it is yet to be determined. PARCC is common core’s gate keeper, if it stays, common core stays. It is designed to make sure teachers are teaching what they want, not what the teachers want.
How is he not a flip-flopper? Or are you going to tell me how that’s OK for some politicians but not others. Sort of like how Ted Cruz is in love with federal aid when TX is the affected state.