Kansas legislators have concluded their 2013 session, which in one glaring respect is a shame. IT WOULD be better for Kansas legislators — as well as those in other states — to permit educators, who have spent a lifetime learning how to teach, take the lead in designing programs of learning.
School superintendents from across the state gathered in Topeka today to voice support for Common Core education standards during a meeting of the Kansas State Board of Education.
It would do many representatives and senators good to hear what the educators have to say.
The superintendents’ visit is two-pronged: In addition to supporting Common Core, they came to town to say the education board, not the Legislature, should deal with curriculum. Its members have the expertise; most legislators don’t.
Simply put, Common Core is a federally supported education program that includes national K-12 standards and federally funded standardized tests aligned with those standards.
Need for compatibility in today’s world is difficult to minimize. We live in a global society and if our children are to compete and succeed they must be well-versed academically, with what they learn not left to the whims of local pundits.
Being in touch with what is being taught nationwide, and able to move from school to school as so many children do today because of occupational mobility, is essential.
Common Core is not “this radical new program,” as some of those who oppose its implementation rail. It puts children, soon to be adults making decisions for all of us, in position to deal with a world that has seen significant change in the past half century. Technology, manipulation of oil markets and the emergence of such countries as China and India as economic giants have seen to that.
While they are at it, it might be good for many who populate the Legislature to immerse themselves in lessons in mathematics and economics. They don’t seem to have been able to intertwine the common core principles of each the past couple of sessions.
— Bob Johnson
Common Core correct course
