This article discusses the implementation of Common Core state standards in Oklahoma schools. It provides background on the development of Common Core and how it aims to standardize curriculum and testing across states. It then outlines Oklahoma's adoption of Common Core, but recent decisions to develop its own tests rather than use the PARCC consortium. The article also examines both support for Common Core among educators who see benefits in increased literacy focus, and criticism among some politicians and advocacy groups who are concerned about federal overreach and the constraints of the standards. Implementation will require significant training of teachers as they adapt lessons and strategies to meet the new guidelines.

1. Peter K. Wright | www.peterkwright.com | peterkwright2@gmail.com
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Common controversy
Oklahoma Gazette
Aug. 27, 2013
By: Peter Wright
It takes something big to get people excited
about parsing a nuanced education policy,
and that’s what the implementation of
Common Core state standards has done.
If things go as planned, Common Core could
reorganize curriculum, change old-school
teaching styles, add more weight to literacy
and redefine standardized testing. In one
year, it’s supposed to be fully implemented
in all Oklahoma schools, and the Oklahoma
State Department of Education (SDE) just
started looking for new tests.
It has been a loaded political buzzword in
the halls of the state Capitol. Toward the
end of this past legislative session, House
Speaker T.W. Shannon, R-Lawton, floated a
bill to repeal Common Core in Oklahoma,
calling it a “vehicle for federal control of our
public education system.” Two weeks later,
conservative pundit and former presidential
candidate Mike Huckabee wrote an open
letter to state lawmakers, saying criticism of
the standards from other conservatives was
“disturbing.”
Common Core has found a home where
politics intersects with academic research. It
has parts in motion on every level of
government, but where it will be felt most is
in the classroom.
Creating Common Core
Although the standards themselves —
Socratic questioning, a focus on literacy,
timed essay tests and the like — have long
been around in classrooms in one form or
another, the movement to implement them
in as many schools as possible took off only
recently. The guidelines were formalized
and published by the National Governors’
Association and the Council of Chief State
School Officers (CCSSO), two Washington,
D.C.-based nonprofits supported by state
membership fees and foundation money.
States wanted a level playing field for
comparing academic results. Common Core
was seen as a way to keep expectations the
same for students who move to different
states.
In 2010, Oklahoma lawmakers passed
legislation that committed the state to
adopting Common Core.
Under the national push for the program,
the responsibility of creating new
standardized tests, which apply only to
math and language arts, was left to states.
Day-to-day curriculum remains the purview
of local districts and teachers.
Tossing tests
Until recently, Oklahoma was slated to get
its new standardized tests from the
agonizingly named Partnership for
Assessment of Readiness for College and
Careers (PARCC), a consortium of 21 states
that were going in together on a single set of
assessments with a hefty federal grant.
Then state schools Superintendent Janet
Barresi announced July 1 that Oklahoma
instead would develop its own exams. Three
weeks later, Georgia followed suit, and other
states expressed concerns.
Barresi said her change in direction resulted
from a combination of misgivings about
cost, the amount of time required for the
PARCC exams and worries about the state’s
technical readiness. She said it was a
collective decision by her office, Gov. Mary
Fallin and legislative leaders.
The Oklahoma-bred tests will require only
half the time needed by PARCC, and as a
result, the tests will have fewer questions,
Barresi said.
Financially, however, the benefit of opting
out of the PARCC exams wasn’t as clear-cut.

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By switching to a locally produced test, the
base price of the contract could actually be
higher.
It’s the extra fees in PARCC that made it too
expensive, according to Barresi. “A rough
estimate is that we’re going to be saving $2
million a year,” she said.
Oklahoma offers “formative exams,”
voluntary tests that teachers can use to
mark progress. The state also allows retakes
of its end-of-instruction exams to students
who fail the first round as part of its testing
contract. Neither of those are part of the
basic PARCC package.
Barresi’s concerns about technology are
linked with finances. PARCC’s tests are
being developed for the Internet. Any
districts that chose to continue using paper
exams would have had that option for a year
before incurring extra fees.
And Oklahoma needs those paper tests. In
February, Barresi’s office found that only 28
percent of school districts statewide were
technologically prepared for PARCC.
There are two main logistical problems with
online testing on the state level, she said.
Connectivity is spotty, especially for rural
districts that lack the fiber-optic
connections with enough bandwidth. And
many schools don’t have enough computers.
The ratio required by PARCC is one device
to every two students.
New stakes
Contract shuffling aside, Barresi said field
tests will still take place next year, and the
new assessments will still be given in the
2014-15 school year. Oklahoma is still a
member of PARCC, and educators from the
state will remain involved, as they have the
past couple of years.
The new tests will use the same cut levels,
proficiency guidelines and accommodations
for special circumstances such as PARCC,
and they will still be written using Common
Core as a guide.
“All of the work they (Oklahoma educators)
did on PARCC, all of the technical work is
going to be carried over,” Barresi said.
The new tests will differ greatly from the
current fill-in-the-bubble exams. Questions
will have more parts, and many will require
written answers, according to Sara
Snodgrass, director of elementary math
standards for SDE.
Instead of asking test-takers to find the
average of a random set of numbers, for
example, the new test might ask them to
find the most fuel-efficient car in a group
and show their work.
“It’s more, ‘Here’s the data,’ or, ‘Here’s a
task and a problem. Now let’s think
critically and solve this,’” Snodgrass said.
On the language arts tests, students will be
asked to grasp main ideas and synthesize
information into essays, said Josh Flores,
SDE director of language arts.
The focus will shift to include more
nonfiction articles, instruction manuals and
real-world writing.
“Students are taking in multiple forms of
information. They’re not just text-based,” he
said.
Teaching teachers
The real crux of Common Core is in the
classroom.
Districts across the state are in the middle of
a massive push to examine curriculum and
retrain teachers.
The state Education Department held a
conference for curriculum development
earlier this year, and representatives have
visited schools across the state.

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But ultimately, it’s on the districts to put the
new policy into action.
Oklahoma City Public Schools developed its
implementation plan about two years ago,
said Wilbur House, the district’s executive
director of curriculum development.
In June, 60 OKCPS teachers from different
subjects met to create guides on what to
teach and when to teach it. There are
ongoing training sessions, and the district is
providing teachers with examples of
Common Core student work.
“We feel that the Common Core state
standards movement is a very positive
movement because it focuses on literacy,”
House said.
Teaching literacy is also one of the focal
points of training in Norman Public Schools.
Shirley Simmons, assistant superintendent
of educational services, said district teachers
and curriculum directors have been
providing input to PARCC for a while, but
now they have to reach every teacher.
“We’re really trying to focus on what best
practices need to be in place in every
classroom,” Simmons said.
There’s a standard procedure for
introducing new standards, Norman
Superintendent Joe Siano said. It starts with
district leadership setting goals. Then
principals have to engage in what those
standards are about. Finally, teacher leaders
must get trained before forming advisory
groups that reach out to the staff.
“You can have a good implementation or a
fast implementation — but you don’t get
both,” Siano said.
Either way, it takes time and money. Siano
said he feels under-resourced when it comes
to technology and professional
development. Extra dollars spent on any
new reform diverts money from other needs
when the state doesn’t provide it.
“For any major reform to be successful, you
have to give the resources to make it
successful,” he said.
Still, training is pushing ahead in Norman,
and so far, the teachers who have been
engaged with the new materials seem to like
it.
Core critics
Change is also controversial.
State Rep. Gus Blackwell, R-Laverne, has
introduced several anti- Common Core bills,
including one in this year’s legislative
session.
He voted for the measure approving
Common Core in 2010, but since then, he
has become a vocal legislative opponent.
Blackwell said the bill won passage in the
House because Republican leaders urged
their representatives to vote for it as a way
to win a federal education grant.
Now, Blackwell views the standards as
threatening to place Oklahoma education in
the hands of a federal bureaucracy, and he’s
worried about how much it could cost the
state.
“People are realizing what this nationwide
socialization of education entails, and states
are rebelling against it,” he said.
Jenni White has advocated against the
standards for about three years through her
grassroots group, Restore Oklahoma Public
Education. She opposes the standards in
part because they were written and
published by national, private groups.
A former middle school science teacher,
White said Common Core guidelines are too
narrow.

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When she was a teacher, she liked being
able to teach a little about a lot of subjects.
Now she fears educators won’t introduce as
many concepts in the classroom.
“This will lobotomize education in America.
You cannot build a life for yourself on two
subjects,” she said.
Teachers are being threatened by an
undeveloped testing system, White said.
With the additional weight of performance
assessments partly based on test scores,
some might be afraid to even try teaching
anything aside from the framework outlined
by Common Core.
With so much in play and the final
countdown underway, for many, it seems as
if the Common Core discussion has just
started.