2017 Will Bring More Opportunity to Repeal Common Core in Iowa

It looks like there will finally be some opportunities in Iowa to pass legislation that will roll back Common Core and Smarter Balanced in my home state. Three events have taken place that are promising.

1. Republicans win the Iowa Senate and now control the Legislature.

We’ve had a split legislature that for the most part guaranteed status quo. That will not be the case for the next two sessions at least. Republicans not only won the Iowa Senate, but they won big flipping the Senate to a 29 to 19 majority (there will be a special election at the end of the month to replace State Senator Joe Seng who passed away). Not only that, but Iowa House Republicans expanded their majority in the House by two seats and have a 59 to 41 majority.

So while that doesn’t guarantee positive action it, at the very least, makes it a possibility.

2. Anti-Common Core legislators now chair the legislative education committees.

This is huge news because before any good bill was pretty much guaranteed to be assigned to a subcommittee to die. That should change in 2017.

State Representative Walt Rogers (R-Cedar Falls), who was a co-sponsor on all of the anti-Common Core legislation in the past, is now the chair of the Iowa House Education Committee. Complementing him State Senator Amy Sinclair (R-Allerton) will chair the Iowa Senate Education Committee. Sinclair also was involved in the anti-Common Core and Smarter Balanced legislation in the Senate.

This is an exciting development.

3. Iowa Governor Terry Branstad has been appointed U.S. Ambassador to China.

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, who is pro-Common Core, has been appointed U.S. Ambassador to China by President-elect Donald Trump. He is likely to be confirmed. Branstad has been a significant roadblock to legislation addressing Common Core, the Next Generation Science Standards and Smarter Balanced. In fact the only related bill to make it to his desk, a delay to Smarter Balanced that was included in an appropriations bill, he line-item vetoed.

Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds who will be his successor when he resigns has not taken a public stand for or against Common Core, the Next Generation Science Standards, or Smarter Balanced.

On education policy there is certainly some uncertainty, but she has the chance to make her mark and differentiate herself from Branstad. There is promise she will be a more conservative governor than Branstad was. Let’s hope that includes education policy.

The timeline for Branstad’s departure is uncertain. He has said he will wait to resign his seat until he confirmed so we could be well into the new legislative session before that happens. If that is the case the 2018 legislative session may provide a greater opportunity than 2017.

Will the Iowa Legislature Block Smarter Balanced?

The Iowa Legislature is on the verge of passing an education appropriations bill that doesn’t fund the Smarter Balanced Assessments, that was adopted by the Iowa State Board of Education, but doesn’t block it either. The education appropriations subcommittee last week put forward a bill that didn’t include funding. The Iowa Senate passed the bill out of their appropriations committee on a party-line vote with Democrats voting for the bill, and Republicans voting against.

The Iowa Legislature has the opportunity to block the adoption of Smarter Balanced, back in December the joint administrative rules committee voted unanimously on a session delay for the assessment expressing disappointment that the State Board of Education had adopted an assessment, and were especially concerned with the cost. If the Legislature does nothing this session then the administrative rules governing the implementation of Smarter Balanced will go into effect and every public school and state-accredited non-public school will be required to administer the test.

It is important that Iowans contact their legislators today and let them know that Iowa’s schools can’t afford this assessment, and the legislature needs to block it.

Iowa has never funded assessments for local school districts, but the cost of Smarter Balanced compared to the Iowa Assessments is a significant increase. I wrote last week at Caffeinated Thoughts:

The problem is that the current Iowa Assessments only cost school districts between $4.25-$6.25 per assessment per student. Smarter Balanced which the Iowa State Board of Education approved last fall will cost districts at minimum $22.50 per assessment per student for just the summative assessment in English language arts and math, and up to $27.30 if the school districts use the full suite of formative, interim and summative assessments.

This didn’t even include the new science assessment that will be needed with the Iowa State Board of Education approving the Next Generation Science Standards. The current estimate for that assessment is $15.00 per student per assessment.

The Iowa Assessments include English language arts, math and science.

So school districts are facing paying a minimum of 3 1/2 times more for assessments. Where is this money going to come from? When the science assessment is added schools at minimum will be paying 6 times more.

Some points for legislators to consider…

Hard costs estimates to districts based on 2013-2014 enrollment:

• SBAC summative: nearly a $5.5 million increase (500% increase)
• SBAC summative, interim, digital library: over a $6.8 million increase (nearly 700% increase)
• Next Generation Iowa Assessment: over a $3.2 million increase (300% increase)

Soft costs to each district: 

• Common Core assessments are online-only assessments. They will require significant increases in both technology (computer equipment, software and maintenance) as well as internet bandwidth in all school districts just to accommodate that many students taking these tests. These costs are unknown and were not considered by the assessment task force.
• The SBAC assessment does not include science. The additional costs for adding a science test are unknown and were not considered by the assessment task force. 
• The SBAC assessment only measures the National Common Core Standards – it will not measure any of the required additional state standards that still remain as part of the Iowa Core (approximately 10-15%), nor any standards that local districts may be allowed to add (15%)

Who controls?

• The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium’s governing board is based at the University of California, and its fiscal agent is the State of Washington’s Superintendent’s office. It is funded primarily by the federal government via the U.S. Department of Education in Washington D.C. No Iowa educators or legislators participated in the writing or development of this test, nor will they be able to review, approve or make changes to it in order to align with Iowa standards.
• This assessment will remove both local control and state control. It will drive both local and state standards, and ultimately curriculum, to align with what is important to the federal government and other states, rather than what is important to Iowans. 
• It will only test those portions of Iowa Core that are the same as Common Core; no additional Iowa local or state standards will be tested.
• Iowa teachers will be held accountable to test results from an assessment Iowans did not create, based on standards Iowa legislators and elected school boards did not approve.

Then the fact that this assessment is neither validated and reliable.

Iowa can do better for students, for parents and for Iowa’s taxpayers.

Stop Common Core Progress Update

We are drawing close to the end of the state legislative sessions.  I thought it would be a good time to highlight the progress that has been made in fighting the Common Core.  If you look back just a few months ago you can see how far our movement has come.  Some significant progress was made in just the last five months.

1. The Republican National Committee passed a resolution rejecting the Common Core State Standards.
2. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) then called on the federal defunding of the Common Core State Standards, the assessments and the federal review board for the assessments.  He had eight other Senators join him.
3. Indiana passed a Common Core Pause bill which brings more transparency for the Common Core implementation in the Hoosier State.  The Indiana State Board of Education is required to hold three public hearings and have a fiscal impact study done before they can continue to implement the Common Core.  Our hope is this will lead to a repeal bill as the facts, not just the propaganda, becomes known.
4. The Utah GOP passed their own resolution condemning the Common Core State Standards.
5. The Georgia GOP Resolutions Committee passed their anti-Common Core resolution 11-3 despite major lobbying being done on behalf of Governor Nathan Deal.  The Georgia GOP Convention were not able to take up any resolutions as the convention ran late and they lost their quorum.  This follows four district conventions passing their own anti-Common Core resolutions.  Governor Deal recently ordered 60 days of public comment on the Common Core in response to pressure he has been under.
6. Alabama pulled out of the SBAC and PARCC assessment consortiums.  They were only the second state to do so.  Utah did last year.
7. Michigan is on the verge of defunding the Common Core State Standards.
8. Kansas could still defund the Common Core State Standards this year.
9. Oklahoma after seeing their initial bill get derailed had their Speaker of the House do a 180 and is now working to repeal the Common Core in their state.
10. Iowa put Common Core Assessments on hold and now requires a task force to be formed to study different assessments (not just tie themselves to SBAC) and do a fiscal impact study before the State Legislature will vote on an assessment.  The time frame for assessments were pushed back to the 2016-17 school year.  This is a turn around as the original language in Iowa’s education reform bill gave the State Board of Education the authority to mandate Smarter Balanced Assessments.  So a conference committee stripped that language and inserted the pause.  Also opposition is forming within the State Legislature so look for repeal and defunding bills to be forthcoming next session (their session ended yesterday).
11. Louisiana Senate is currently working on an anti-Common Core resolution.
12. Wisconsin just had a hearing on the Common Core Wednesday, and it sounds like it likely that pause legislation will be introduced in that state.
13. North Carolina Senate introduced in their budget language that requires the State Board of Education have the legislature approve any expenditures related to the Common Core and their assessments.   This language is backed up in their Excellent Public Schools Act of 2013.
14. Legislation has been introduced in Congress by Congresswoman Martha Roby (R-AL) entitled “Defending State Authority Over Education Act.”  This would “prohibit the federal government from offering grants or policy waivers contingent on a state’s use of certain curricula or assessment policies.”
15. Pennsylvania is experiencing push-back that led Governor Tom Corbett to sign an executive order delaying the Common Core implementation. (Still need legislative action so this is permanent).
16. Ohio is having a budget battle over the Common Core State Standards, after the Ohio House stripped funding for PARCC from their budget.
17. States that have had legislation introduced this year that would either pause or repeal the Common Core State Standards: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and South Dakota.  States that are still active are mentioned above.  States that had bills die in committee (or in Missouri’s case was halted due to political games prior to a floor vote) we expect will see efforts again next session.
18. We have seen an explosion of anti-Common Core state-based groups over the last several months.

It is clear that we have momentum in what seemed a year ago to be an impossible uphill battle.

Originally posted at American Principles Project.

Iowa Legislature to Consider Testing Preschoolers

Because we don’t do enough standardized testing.  The Des Moines Register reports that the 35-member early childhood task force recommends that all 4-year-olds enrolled in preschool be required to take the same test so they can keep better track of their progress.

A 35-member early childhood task force on Thursday chose a test now used by 80 percent of school districts that provide a preschool program: the GOLD online assessment system.

The system, which provides access to local and state data, will help teachers tailor instruction for individuals and allow families to view the assessments, according to the group’s final recommendation.

This new *must-have* test will only cost the state just shy of $400,000.  What isn’t mentioned in this article or the report  is whether this will be applied to private preschools, as well as, programs like Head Start.