Politics

States Move to Reduce Time Spent on Common Core-Based Exam

Published

9 years ago

May 22, 2015

People protesting the Common Core education standards demonstrate near the hotel where the meeting of Tennessee’s Education Summit is taking place on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo)

KRISTEN WYATT, Associated Press

DENVER (AP) — Students in 11 states and the District of Columbia will spend less time next year taking tests based on the Common Core standards, a decision made in response to widespread opposition to testing requirements.

The decision to reduce testing time by about 90 minutes was made by the states and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for Colleges and Career, or PARCC.

The PARCC tests are administered to students in grades three to eight and once in high school. As a result of the decision, the math and English exams will only be given once a year, instead of twice.

The 11 states involved are Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio and Rhode Island.

“We’ve listened to the voices of all stakeholders — educators, parents, and students — and are using the lessons learned,” New Mexico Education Secretary Hanna Skandera said in a statement.

The PARCC tests took effect this year and sparked a round of intense opposition from teachers, parents and students who said testing requirements take away from classroom instruction and put undue pressure on kids. Parents in pockets of the country opted their children out of test taking in PARCC states and elsewhere.

Julia Sass Rubin, the mother of a seventh-grader in New Jersey and a founder of Save Our Schools New Jersey, a group that is critical of the test, said the reduced time is a good first step. She was among thousands of New Jersey parents who boycotted the tests.

“It shows that the parents were sufficiently communicative,” she said. “It’s very good that they’re listening.”

But she said cutting the test back to once a year does not address all the lost instructional time and overarching concerns about “narrowing of the curriculum and teaching to the test.”

Mike Wetzel, spokesman for the Colorado Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union, welcomed the decision. “But as a country, we still over-test and we want to see some significant changes in Washington next year,” he said.

Wetzel was referring to the congressional debate to overhaul the No Child Left Behind education law, which has annual testing requirements.

Colorado is among the states that didn’t wait for PARCC to reduce exam time. On the same day the PARCC reduction was made, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed into law a reduction in testing before third grade and later in high school. Similar testing reductions have been passed in many states affiliated with the Common Core standards, which spell out what skills students should be able to master at each grade level.

“There needs to be some sort of evaluation and testing, but we need to allow local districts to use what works for them,” said Colorado state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, a rancher who made headlines earlier this year for taking a PARCC test and failing it. Sonnenberg got the answers right, but didn’t show his work.

“There’s a lot of problems with these tests and it’s good they’re reducing them, but we have more to look at,” Sonnenberg said.

PARCC is one of two exams developed by groups of states and tied to the Common Core standards. The other is Smarter Balanced.

___

Associated Press Writer Geoff Mulvihill contributed to this report from Haddonfield, New Jersey.

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Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

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April 26, 2024

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MAYOR BREED ANNOUNCES $53 MILLION FEDERAL GRANT FOR SAN FRANCISCO’S HOMELESS PROGRAMS

San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed today announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded the city a $53.7 million grant to support efforts to renew and expand critical services and housing for people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco.

Published

6 days ago

April 20, 2024

Oakland Post

Mayor London Breed

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications, mayorspressoffice@sfgov.org

***PRESS RELEASE***

MAYOR BREED ANNOUNCES $53 MILLION FEDERAL GRANT FOR SAN FRANCISCO’S HOMELESS PROGRAMS

HUD’s Continuum of Care grant will support the City’s range of critical services and programs, including permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, and improved access to housing for survivors of domestic violence

San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed today announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded the city a $53.7 million grant to support efforts to renew and expand critical services and housing for people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco.

HUD’s Continuum of Care (CoC) program is designed to support local programs with the goal of ending homelessness for individuals, families, and Transitional Age Youth.

This funding supports the city’s ongoing efforts that have helped more than 15,000 people exit homelessness since 2018 through City programs including direct housing placements and relocation assistance. During that time San Francisco has also increased housing slots by 50%. San Francisco has the most permanent supportive housing of any county in the Bay Area, and the second most slots per capita than any city in the country.

“In San Francisco, we have worked aggressively to increase housing, shelter, and services for people experiencing homelessness, and we are building on these efforts every day,” said Mayor London Breed. “Every day our encampment outreach workers are going out to bring people indoors and our City workers are connecting people to housing and shelter. This support from the federal government is critical and will allow us to serve people in need and address encampments in our neighborhoods.”

The funding towards supporting the renewal projects in San Francisco include financial support for a mix of permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, and transitional housing projects. In addition, the CoC award will support Coordinated Entry projects to centralize the City’s various efforts to address homelessness. This includes $2.1 million in funding for the Coordinated Entry system to improve access to housing for youth and survivors of domestic violence.

“This is a good day for San Francisco,” said Shireen McSpadden, executive director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. “HUD’s Continuum of Care funding provides vital resources to a diversity of programs and projects that have helped people to stabilize in our community. This funding is a testament to our work and the work of our nonprofit partners.”

The 2024 Continuum of Care Renewal Awards Include:

$42.2 million for 29 renewal PSH projects that serve chronically homeless, veterans, and youth
$318,000 for one new PSH project, which will provide 98 affordable homes for low-income seniors in the Richmond District
$445,00 for one Transitional Housing (TH) project serving youth
$6.4 million dedicated to four Rapid Rehousing (RRH) projects that serve families, youth, and survivors of domestic violence
$750,00 for two Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) projects
$2.1 million for three Coordinated Entry projects that serve families, youth, chronically homeless, and survivors of domestic violence

In addition, the 2023 CoC Planning Grant, now increased to $1,500,000 from $1,250,000, was also approved. Planning grants are submitted non-competitively and may be used to carry out the duties of operating a CoC, such as system evaluation and planning, monitoring, project and system performance improvement, providing trainings, partner collaborations, and conducting the PIT Count.

“We are very appreciative of HUD’s support in fulfilling our funding request for these critically important projects for San Francisco that help so many people trying to exit homelessness,” said Del Seymour, co-chair of the Local Homeless Coordinating Board. “This funding will make a real difference to people seeking services and support in their journey out of homelessness.”

In comparison to last year’s competition, this represents a $770,000 increase in funding, due to a new PSH project that was funded, an increase in some unit type Fair Market Rents (FMRs) and the larger CoC Planning Grant. In a year where more projects had to compete nationally against other communities, this represents a significant increase.

Nationally, HUD awarded nearly $3.16 billion for over 7,000 local homeless housing and service programs including new projects and renewals across the United States.