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.
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:
“The state has eliminated funding for smarter balanced testing. MRH has always written its own curriculum based on a thorough review of state and national standards. Our approach allows us to have rigorous and appropriate standards based on local expectations that meet or exceed state standards. We feel confident that our approach to curriculum challenges our students and positions them for their future aspirations of learning. MRH is prepared for existing MAP and EOC testing, and we will continue to prepare students to meet the highest standards of achievement so that no matter the test, MRH students will achieve.”
Brentwood Superintendent of Schools David Faulkner responded that Brentwood schools don’t teach to standardized tests.