300 California Groups Sign Statement Supporting Common Core

Common Core in California is getting a boost from over 300 California businesses, nonprofits, and children’s groups that released a statement approving of the Common Core State Standards.

The statement was circulated by Children Now, a non-profit advocacy group, and sent to California Governor Jerry Brown and state legislators.

Some of the groups signing the statement include some of the state’s chambers of commerce, various county and urban district superintendents, the California State PTA, the California Society for Biomedical Research, the Vacaville Police Activities League, and at least six chapters of the United Way.

The statement reads in part:

While we recognize the hard work that needs to be done by teachers, district leaders, and state policymakers to make Common Core implementation successful, we believe that the investments and hard work will pay off for our students in the long run in preparing them for college and career.

Debra Brown, Children Now’s associate director of education policy, said that the intent of the statement was to show that Common Core “has deep and broad support.” She added that the statement was catalyzed by the fear that the Common Core practice, or field, test that was used by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium might have some major flaws.

Brown stated, “We were approaching the field test with trepidation” and that the supporters of Common Core were worried about “knee-jerk reactions” if the test went badly; however, according to Brown, the test ran well. Yet the supporters of Common Core still felt the need to issue a statement because “the underlying message of our support statement still applies and demonstrates how committed we as a state are” to implement Common Core.

Brown said some districts have been “more aggressive than others” in starting Common Core. Supporters of Common Core, including Children Now, are pressuring Gov. Jerry Brown to take more money out of the state budget for teacher training, materials, and technology; Brown allotted $1.25 billion in the current budget for Common Core.

Californians United Against Common Core sent a letter to the California Department of Education in February decrying Common Core and accusing the process that imposed it on the state of being deceptive. To contact them, see here.