Many Educators Say It’s Too Early to Give Up on Common Core

The State Senate Education Committee has drafted a bill to review academic standards and completely end Common Core in Mississippi.

Shelia Cauley is a 4th grade teacher at Pass Road Elementary School. She, along with many other local teachers, say the state’s move to do away with Common Core is not a wise one. Cauley says, "If you go on a diet for a week or two and then you say it doesn’t work, that’s not really true measure of the diet, you know what I’m saying? So you can’t after two years determine if it’s helping our children or not."

The Gulfport School District has been teaching Common Core standards since 2010, two years before everyone else. Cauley says while there were growing pains through the initial transition period, she’s seen students and teachers alike evolve immensely in the past four years. Cauley also says, "They have to stop, they have to think, they have to process, they have to explain it to a peer, and just the response has been wonderful. The students are just latching on. They’re absorbing what we’re teaching."

Since 2012, Mississippi has spent more than $12 million on Common Core. Coast educators believe it’s financially irresponsible to jump ship before seeing what all that money spent could accomplish. Wayne Rodolfich, Superintendent of the Pascagoula School District, says "These standards are set standards that have been accepted and are part of the fabric of the College Board, the SAT, and the ACT. So we need to be responsible with taxpayers’ money."

More importantly than the financials, school officials are concerned about how repealing Common Core will affect the students in the classroom. Cauley closes, "It’s very confusing for students and teachers alike. Everyone needs consistency, students, teachers, everybody."

The Senate Education Committee still needs to present the bill repealing Common Core to the entire State Senate before it’s voted on.