Brentwood superintendent responds to end of Common Core tests

Missouri lawmakers directed the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to end the statewide, standardized test known as Common Core, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Wednesday.

Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium provided Missouri and 17 other states with exams aligned with the Common Core.

The Post-Dispatch reports that in Missouri, 67 percent of more than 5,000 teachers responded in a survey that the state places too much emphasis on standardized tests. More than half said the tests took up more classroom instruction time than past tests.

“We have started to see year after year there are consequences to too much hype on a particular set of standardized tests,” Otto Fajen, a lobbyist for the Missouri National Education Association, told the Post-Dispatch. “We’re trying to figure out a system that will work better.”

Read the full article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Brentwood Superintendent of Schools David Faulkner responded that Brentwood schools don’t teach to standardized tests:

“The Brentwood School District’s focus has always been to teach to a set of high-quality standards that will equip our students for careers and college after graduation. We do not teach to the state’s tests although we hope that our preparation of students will be reflected positively in whichever assessment format the Legislature decides to fund.  While we recognize that the state is required to monitor student performance in schools for a variety of reasons, the most important and useful assessments are those that are meaningful to students, their parents, and their teachers.”

Maplewood Richmond Heights School District Director of Communications Brian Adkisson has said in an email to 40 South News that the district is confident in its preparation of its students for the future.