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Hundreds Go To Brighton Forum On The Common Core

Randy Gorbman
/
WXXI News

Hundreds of people packed a local forum on the new Common Core standards on Thursday. It was held at Brighton High School, and State Education Commissioner John King has said he wants to get good feedback about the common core, and he certainly got an earful in the more than two hour session.

He eventually had to leave the meeting to attend a similar forum in Syracuse. There were teachers, parents and students at the Brighton meeting, and often, a number of people in the crowd would stand up to support someone who was making comments critical of the common core.

Most of the dozens of people speaking at the forum were critical of the new standards, including Vickie Robertson, a Rochester parent. She says it's not the standards themselves that are the problem, but the way they are being carried out.

"I don't think common core is evil, but the implementation has been, it's been horrid, and I'd really like you to stand up and say, I accept responsibility for this terrible implementation of Common Core and APPR." (which is a teacher evaluation system).  

King says he welcomes the feedback, but says the new standards are critical. He notes that recent nationwide testing shows that New York State is not seeing much improvement in its numbers..

"It also confirms what we already know which is that too many of our students are not prepared for college and career success, the same thing we see in our community colleges where a majority of our entering students in community college are required to take remedial courses."

More forums around the state are scheduled, including one in Rochester on December 3rd hosted by WXXI.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.