A majority of Tennessee school superintendents want to see a review of the state’s Common Core academic standards fully unfold before lawmakers try to force more change this legislative session.
The Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents is sending a letter signed by 114 state superintendents and school district directors to all members of the General Assembly, asking them not to change the standards this legislative session.
Warren County Director of Schools Bobby Cox is among the educational leaders to sign the letter.
“The letter we signed is not so much about supporting Common Core as it is not having any change in the standards during the 2015-16 school year,” said Cox. “We support staying the course until the governor’s review has taken place and not having any more change.”
Gov. Bill Haslam is in the process of reviewing the state's standards, which were adopted in 2010. A website established to receive comments has gotten nearly 82,000.
Haslam says the Southern Regional Education Board, an independent, organization, will collect the information from the website this spring and it will be analyzed by six advisory teams composed of Tennessee educators.
 Those advisory teams will then make recommendations to two expert committees of educators, which will then propose changes to the Tennessee Board of Education.
However, some state lawmakers are ready to act now. Some Common Core opponents want to repeal the current standards and replace them with new ones. Several lawmakers have proposed bills that seek to do that.
Cox said the letter isn’t so much an endorsement of Common Core as it is a desire to stop the never-ending change swirling around education.
The letter states, “It would be a huge blow to the morale of educators if the General Assembly passes legislation that puts Tennessee on a path to change standards once again or that alters the timeline for the new assessment.”
Cox said the Warren County School System will remain dedicated to teaching the state standards, whatever those may be.
“I think the bottom line is we support higher standards for our kids,” said Cox. “I feel like if the state decides to change its standards, we’re going to change. If we’re teaching one thing and being tested on another, we can all see how that’s going to turn out. We want our kids to do well, we want our teachers to do well, and we want our schools to do well so we should teach our kids what they’re going to be tested on.”
While the term Common Core has become somewhat inflammatory, there was widespread agreement in 2009 when the bipartisan National Governors Association crafted standards aimed at improving schools and student competitiveness across the nation. Those Common Core standards were adopted by Tennessee in 2010, one of 44 states to do so.
But some groups are now calling the new set of standards a federal intrusion and want state to develop its own methodology.
Haslam said in his State of the State address on Monday he wants to see standards that “allow our students to compete with anyone in the world.”