North Country Republican Assemblyman Marc W. Butler of Newport says many key points in recommendations from the Common Core Task Force’s report released earlier this month mirror what he and other Assembly republicans have been discussing with citizens for two years.

Butler, who represents the 118th Assembly District, covering much of southern St. Lawrence County, says the recommendations address the amount and length of high-stakes testing, creating a more age- and developmentally appropriate curriculum, and making the process more transparent.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched the task force in September to make recommendations to overhaul the controversial Common Core system.

It included education officials, teachers, parents, and state representatives from across New York.

The task force recommended a total overhaul of the state education system and delaying the impact of testing on students and teachers until at least 2019.

“At its root, I believe the poor roll-out of New York’s Common Core Standards stemmed from the fact that so many stakeholders were kept out of the development process,” Butler said. “The standards were seemingly created in a vacuum, failing to take into account what kind of curriculum and testing would make age and developmental sense.

The recommendations also suggest that the development of new standards must be created with the input of parents, teachers, students and other stakeholders. This is something that my colleagues and I have been advocating since the beginning.

“Two years ago, my Republican colleagues and I held 14 public task force hearings statewide on education and Common Core. From the testimony provided at the meetings, we developed the Achieving Pupil Preparedness and Launching Excellence (APPLE) Plan. The APPLE Plan, developed by you, the stakeholders, addressed many of the concerns over testing, the development of appropriate curriculum, and fair funding, among others.”

What we are now seeing is that parts of the APPLE Plan are being enacted as law or policy within the State Education Department (SED), Butler said. Additionally, SED has been reviewing Common Core Standards and has announced that it plans to shorten testing in spring 2016, calling upon teachers to help develop tests with Questar Assessment, the new testing company replacing Pearson.

“While I am, at times, frustrated that it took this long to get the kind of evaluation we needed years ago to address our struggling schools under the new Common Core system, I am encouraged that SED and the Common Core Task Force are taking the input of parents and educators more seriously,” Butler said.

Butler says “there is still much more work to be done” and that he is looking forward to reading the task force’s final report.

“In the meantime, I will encourage my legislative colleagues on both sides of the aisle to adopt and fight for changes to ensure our children receive the best education possible,” he said.

Contact Butler at his offices at 866-1632, 518-762-6486, or by email atbutlerm@assembly.state.ny.us.