Months after coming to Tucson to hear community concerns about K-12 education, Arizona schools chief Diane Douglas made good on her promise to return and follow up with action.
Douglas addressed about 60 people Wednesday at Canyon del Oro High School. Those unable to make it on Wednesday have another opportunity to hear Douglas and ask questions from 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19, at Catalina High School, 3645 E. Pima St.
Of those who took the mic Wednesday to address Douglas, not a single one disagreed with her stance on teacher pay, but her continued effort to dismantle Common Core standards did not sit well with some in the crowd.
Last month, at Douglasβ urging, the State Board of Education voted to cut ties with the Common Core standards. While nothing has changed since the vote, the standards can now be revised with the boardβs approval.
Kendra Ritchey, an Amphitheater mother who has taught on the East Coast, said there may be a few standards that could be tweaked, but she has seen positive growth in her children under Common Core, after teachers, administration and school districts put in countless hours to implement it well.
βI feel like whatβs happened is weβve distracted from the true issue in Arizona, which is not Common Core standards,β Ritchey said. βThe true issue is, how are we going to fund so we can make any standard work, because there is not enough money to do it when you have 32 children in the classroom.β
Douglas, however, does not believe the Common Core standards or approval are adequate. β(The standards) have never been tested. ... We know that they are not college-ready standards β the people who created them have said they are community college-ready standards,β Douglas said, adding they do not include subjects such as calculus and trig.
Douglas added it is not her intent to force educators and children to continuously adjust to new standards. She would like the standards to be reviewed annually for any adjustments.
On other topics:
Teacher retention: Douglas said educators must be compensated adequately and though she favors local control, she is calling on the state to require schools to spend the money owed to them on teacher salary, class size or a combination of the two.
Standardized testing: Douglas wants to reduce AzMERIT-style testing that shows where students are at the end of the year; break the test up into pieces administered throughout the year with real-time results; and possibly compile an end-of-year score.
Opting out of standardized testing: Arizona prohibits parents from opting their children out of state testing, but Douglas vows to fight to create that parental right with legislative help. βI believe parental rights come from God, not from the government,β she said.
School quality: The Arizona letter grade system should be redesigned to take into account more than high-stakes testing, she said.
