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Local Presentation Gives ‘Cons’ Of Common Core

By ANNALYN JAMES

Moapa Valley Progress

Common Core opposition activitist John Eppolito gives a presentation to a local audience at the Old Logandale School. PHOTO BY ANNALYN JAMES/Moapa Valley Progress.

About 50 local residents gathered on Thursday evening at the Old Logandale School to hear a presentation about the adoption of the Common Core Standards in Nevada’s education system.

The evening was not meant to be a balanced view showing both sides about the controversial set of standards that have already been adopted by 45 states including the Silver State. John Eppolito, a retired teacher from Incline Village in northern Nevada who gave most of the presentation, was up-front with the audience about his own position.

“To be clear, my position is strongly against Common Core,” Eppolito said. “My presentation is just going to point out what I see as the real problems with it. If you want to see the other side, there are plenty of sources online to look at.”

Common Core is a nation-wide education initiative, sponsored by the National Governor’s Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). It seeks to establish K-12 educational standards that are consistent across the states.

Common Core has become controversial in many states in recent years. Advocates say that the initiative will bring more consistency and equity to public education nation-wide and will better prepare students to enter college programs or the workforce. But opponents are concerned about the lack of transparency and local public involvement in the development of the standards and their ongoing implementation.

Thursday’s presentation was the last in a series that Eppolito was giving in the southern Nevada region. Eppolito was invited to give the presentation by an ad-hoc local group called the Moapa Valley Common Core Task Force. The group was formed by the Moapa Valley Community Education Advisory Board (MVCEAB) to investigate the issues surrounding Common Core and educate the community about them. It’s members consist of concerned parents and other interested community members as well as local education advocates.

During the presentation, Eppolito stated that Common Core is the most extensive change to education in the United States to happen in a generation. He said that the very name of “Common Core State Standards” is misleading as these standards are federal and not state standards.

“They were developed in an attempt to make a one-size-fits-all education,” Eppolito said. “But what we really get is a one-size-fits-none!”

Eppolito spoke about how the standards in Math, English and Science set the bar low and put students in the U.S. substantially behind other high achieving countries. In addition, Eppolito quoted early childhood development psychologists who said that the K-3 standards are inappropriate for that age group.

Eppolito also spoke about the huge cost to implement the Common Core. He said that initiative will cost Nevada alone between $151 and $175 million.

Eppolito said that the most insidious part of the Common Core is an intrusive collection, storage and sharing of personal student data. The program requires local schools and districts to share detailed data about students with federal agencies and also to the private testing companies, Eppolito said.

Eppolito finally made a plea for community members to be involved and become educated about the Common Core initiative. He advised the audience to attend local school board meetings, and political and social functions and learn about the issues and voice concerns.

During a question/answer session following the presentation, Logandale resident Kim Mills stated that Nevada had long needed a set of rigorous academic standards.

“If we are successful in stopping Common Core, what standards would educators use instead?” she asked. “We don’t really want to work backwards because at least these are a set of standards and the previous way just was not working.”

Eppolito insisted that the first priority was to do away with Common Core. Then Nevada could look to states like Massachusetts and Texas for standards. Both of these states have leading educational programs that are not determined by the Common Core, he said.

Logandale resident and MVCEAB member David McMurray also felt there should be a clear positive objective, rather than only coming out against the Common Core.

“It is much more effective to fight for something than just fighting against something,” he said.

“We are fighting for something,” said another audience member. “We are fighting for our children. Why did we have to swallow whole this Common Core thing when it was established by individuals who are not even educators? These standards hurt the low performing kids.”

Several local teachers were in attendance at the meeting. Many of them spoke in favor of the actual Common Core standards and that they bring an improvement upon the previous model.

“The rigor has increased with CC,” said Vanessa Solis, a second grade teacher at Grant Bowler Elementary School. “I feel like it is better than what we had before!”

In an interview following the meeting, another Bowler teacher who asked to not be identified pointed out that there might be more important issues to fight for. She commented that she didn’t see anything particularly wrong with the Common Core. But she expressed a wish that someone would tackle the issue of smaller class size.

“I have 36 students in my class this year,” she said.

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2 thoughts on “Local Presentation Gives ‘Cons’ Of Common Core”

  1. I also agree CC is not necessarily the answer. We also need to look at our local elementary school and its scores which are not up to par and find a solution to this problem. This is the age where their foundation is set for future skills and learning. We should be having a community meeting about the test scores locally and how they can be improved! Unaccepatable!

  2. I also agree CC is not necessarily the answer. We also need to look at our local elementary school and its scores which are not up to par and find a solution to this problem. This is the age where their foundation is set for future skills and learning. We should be having a community meeting about the test scores locally and how they can be improved! Unaccepatable!

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