Guest Post: Ann Marie Banfield
Dear Editor:
At the last Bedford School Board Meeting, the Board was presented information on the adoption of National Standards.
The New Hampshire Department of Education recently voted to approve the adoption of Common Core Standards in Math and English. During the testimony before the NH DOE, several people testified that the New Hampshire State Standards were not adequate. The Fordham Foundation agreed and gave NH math standards a "D".
Under Governor Lynch, the NH DOE set the bar incredibly low. While other states moved to improve their standards to an "A" level, our DOE was content to leave the bar low.
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In an attempt to alleviate this problem, the Obama Administration decided it was a good idea to nationalize standards in this country. Instead of doing the tough work of improving the standards in our state, the Governor shifted power to the National level. What was the prize? Federal dollars of course. Although, New Hampshire has yet to be awarded any of that money.
The National Standards do appear to be a slight improvement when compared to what we had in place. Unfortunately they do not reach the level of excellence you would find in states like California and Massachusetts. In other words, there are still significant deficiencies found in the National Standards.
Instead of offering the Nation the highest quality standards for our students, they offered New Hampshire a modest improvement. But what does that mean for New Hampshire? What do we give up when we hand over more control to the National Level? What strings will be attached?
These are just some of the questions many are asking. Unfortunately, as Chip McGee presented this information to the Board, a few Board members remained silent and didn’t question or raise concerns. A few important questions were asked about the new assessments that will follow, but overall, many concerns were never brought up.
This would have been an ideal time to offer thoughtful questions on how National Standards impacts the school. Will this diminish the Board’s authority? Who governs the Standards? What happens if they become politicized? One of the most controversial czars in the Obama Admn. is on record for stating his intention to inject his political agenda in to the Common Standards. (source: http://blog.coreknowledge.org/2010/02/19/a-social-agenda-trojan-horse/)
U.S. Secretary Arne Duncan visited New Hampshire a few weeks ago. I was able to ask him a few question regarding the take over in education. Secretary Duncan confirmed that states like Mass. and CA were indeed lowering their standards by adopting the National Standards.
One thing is clear, money talks when it comes to education. States will lower standards and some states will settle for modest improvements. Unfortunately no one seems to want to discuss this subject in depth and question why we as a nation, refuse to set the bar high for our students.
Sincerely,
Ann Marie Banfield
