Legislators who represent St. Lawrence County in Albany seem pleased that New York State’s Common Core Task Force has recommended changes to education policy such as reducing the emphasis on testing and making curricula more flexible.

But some members are asking why state leaders didn’t act years ago when the Assembly minority Republicans put forward their plan.

Assemblyman Marc Butler, R-Newport, representing east- and south-central parts of the county’s 118th Assembly District including St. Lawrence County towns from Norfolk and Madrid south to Colton, Clifton and Fine, says he is pleased the task force took “many of the proposals my Assembly Republican Conference and I proposed a few years ago.”

Butler said the conference “listened to the concerns of educators and parents and had our own concerns about the pressures of high-stakes testing, developmentally-inappropriate curriculum, and the flawed teacher evaluation system. It’s time for the governor and the State Education Department to act. The recommendations should be adopted to ensure our children’s education is not negatively impacted any further by the flawed Common Core policies in place in New York.”

Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush, R, Black River, representing southwestern St. Lawrence County, said the recommendations “are certainly a step in the right direction, but they are far from groundbreaking ideas. My colleagues and I in the Assembly Minority Conference have been pushing for these education reforms for years. We stood with parents, teachers, and students when the governor and the Assembly Majority shamelessly ignored their concerns.

“I’m happy steps are finally in place to make sure our children don’t have to endure the anxiety and confusion that comes with Common Core’s stressful, high-stakes testing. I hope that this served as an important lesson to Gov. Cuomo and the Assembly Majority: Our children should always come before politics,” Blankenbush said.

Sen. Patty Ritchie, R-Heuvelton, who represents the western half of St. Lawrence County including Ogdensburg, Canton and Gouverneur, said the report “represents a step in the right direction when it comes to addressing the issues related to the state’s flawed roll-out of the Common Core educational standards.

“I applaud the Common Core Task Force’s recommendation of developing new standards that improve age appropriateness, reduce the emphasis placed on testing and increase flexibility so curriculum can better meet the needs of New York educators and students,” Ritchie said.

“In addition, I am pleased to see the Task Force recommend increased educator and teacher involvement as new standards are developed. These are the people who know our students and their abilities best, and by making them more engaged in the process, we can increase transparency and ensure all students are given the best shot at achieving success.”

Ritchie’s statement continues:

“These recommendations echo the sentiments expressed to me by hundreds of local educators, parents and students—that the state’s new educational standards focused too much on testing; causing anxiety not only for students, but also for educators who felt they were losing valuable classroom time to ‘teaching to the test.’ By reducing over-testing and improving transparency when it comes to test questions and scores, we can make sure that tests serve as teaching tools that measure student achievement in an appropriate way. In addition, I applaud the Task Force’s recommendation of postponing the date in which Common Core aligned test scores affect teacher evaluations. Placing such a significant emphasis on test scores when the new standards were initially rolled out, without giving teachers the time they needed to adjust, was simply unfair, and I am pleased to see this addressed in the Task Force’s report.”