Petition Demands District Defer Quarterly Common Assessments

Monday night’s Montclair Board of Education meeting is the final meeting before summer break and parents and students are expected to come out in force to voice their opinions about the district's proposed two-year Strategic Plan. 

Montclair Cares About Schools, a Facebook page created to discuss the future of Montclair schools under the state's mandated Common Core State Standards, has started a petition asking the district to defer the quarterly common assessments, which are part of the draft Strategic Plan.

The petition on Change.org has 235 supporters and counting Monday morning with a goal of reaching 500.

The petition reads in part:

We understand that our district must comply with state and federal testing requirements. However, the Strategic Plan currently under consideration puts an undue emphasis on data-driven instruction above and beyond these requirements at the expense of the creativity and energy that are at the core of Montclair’s personality.

The quarterly common assessments would be developed during the summer by teams of teachers chosen from each grade level and content area, according to FAQs posted on the district’s webpage.

The testing is one way the district would demonstrate whether students are meeting new, more rigorous, curriculum goals imposed for each grade level by the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) adopted by New Jersey and more than 40 other states across the country. The common core curriculum must be implemented throughout the state by the upcoming school year. 

Montclair Schools Superintendent Penny MacCormack has been criticized for recommending testing opponents say go beyond what is required by the CCSS.

MacCormack has contended assessments will be in part performance based and not just a matter of filling out bubbles with No. 2. pencils. 

The superintendent said earlier this month, “I am here to say tonight that it’s not all about measurement, it’s not all about testing." She added, “I like teaching to prepare students for rigorous standards."

The CCSS does not dictate teachers' methods of teaching, but will require teachers to adapt their lesson plans to meet the common learning goals. 

Parents in Montclair aren't the only ones mounting a grass roots campaign against the Common Core State Standards. The standards are being questioned from Indiana to Arizona to Florida, and the movement defies political lines, according to a report in the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel. 

Montclair students are also voicing their opposition with the Facebook page Students United for Change.

"We are a group of Montclair students united against a curriculum based around testing," the Facebook page says. "We demand a voice in educational decisions that affect each of us personally."

The Montclair Board of Education will meet Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the Montclair High School Auditorium at 100 Chestnut St.