SENATE MEMORIAL 61

51st legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2014

INTRODUCED BY

Howie C. Morales

A MEMORIAL

RECOGNIZING THE NEED TO STUDY THE COST, BENEFITS, DISADVANTAGES AND EFFICACY OF NEW MEXICO'S PARTICIPATION IN THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS AND THE PARTNERSHIP FOR ASSESSMENT OF READINESS FOR COLLEGE AND CAREERS.

     WHEREAS, in 2009, the governor and secretary of public education signed a memorandum of agreement with the national governors association and the council of chief state school officers, along with other states, to develop common standards in language arts and mathematics for kindergarten through grade twelve; and

     WHEREAS, the process to transition to the common core state standards began in 2011 when the public education department formed a planning committee and framework development team to provide recommendations and draft an implementation plan; and

     WHEREAS, the resulting plan called for implementation of the common core state standards first in kindergarten through grade three during the 2012-2013 school year and in grades four through twelve during the 2013-2014 school year; and

     WHEREAS, the implementation of the common core state standards and the associated testing structure has become the overwhelming focus of student learning in schools at the expense of essential learning opportunities in science, history, art, music and other important subjects; and

     WHEREAS, many educational experts report that the new common core state standards robustly alter what students are expected to learn and expected to be able to do; and

     WHEREAS, the common core state standards are not designed for and do not provide better access to learning for a diverse population of students, including those living in poverty and those with limited English proficiency; and

     WHEREAS, the new standards require a major retooling of classroom methodologies and pedagogy; and

     WHEREAS, the voluminous common core state standards, with the included appendices, comprise hundreds of pages of new information that New Mexico teachers are now required to know and implement in their classrooms; and

     WHEREAS, an astonishing amount of professional development is required in order for the standards to be successfully implemented; and

     WHEREAS, several organizations have conducted analyses of the cost to implement the common core state standards, which range from three billion dollars ($3,000,000,000) to sixteen billion dollars ($16,000,000,000); and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico is a member of the partnership for the assessment of readiness for college and careers assessment, which is funded by a federal race to the top grant; and

     WHEREAS, the partnership's assessment is scheduled to replace the New Mexico standards-based assessment in the 2014-2015 school year; and

     WHEREAS, the partnership's assessment is computer-based, requiring New Mexico schools to acquire additional technology infrastructure in order to administer the examination; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico is being forced to spend millions of dollars in order to outfit schools with technology that meets the partnership's specifications; and

     WHEREAS, even with the technology investments made by New Mexico, it is unclear whether all public schools will be ready to administer the assessment and what level of additional funding will be required for those public schools that do not meet the partnership for the assessment of readiness for college and careers assessment specifications; and

     WHEREAS, the partnership's testing has been shown in other states such as New York and Kentucky to be misaligned, full of errors and not indicative of the abilities of students or the effectiveness of teachers; and

     WHEREAS, the results of the partnership for the assessment of readiness for college and careers assessment examination, end-of-course examinations, discovery exams, measures of academic progress, or MAP tests, dynamic indicators of basic early literacy skills, or DIBELS measures, and other state-adopted testing do not take into account or control for poverty or diversity and are, therefore, invalid measures of student achievement and teacher evaluation; and

     WHEREAS, the numerous concerns with the common core state standards have caused many to withdraw support for the standards, including the six hundred thousand educators represented by the New York state teacher's union; and

     WHEREAS, other states have withdrawn from the common core state standards, citing that the effort to nationalize and centralize education through the standards results in the severe loss of state control of education; and

     WHEREAS, officials in Florida, Indiana and South Carolina have also voiced discontent with the cost of implementing the common core state standards, with Florida ultimately rescinding its membership in the partnership for the assessment of readiness for college and careers assessment; and

     WHEREAS, the burden on New Mexico teachers and the high cost of implementation merit an examination of the use of and participation in common core state standards in New Mexico;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the legislative education study committee be requested to examine the cost, benefits, disadvantages and efficacy of New Mexico's participation in the common core state standards and the partnership for the assessment of readiness for college and careers assessment and report its findings to the legislature no later than November 1, 2014; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the director of the legislative education study committee, the governor and the secretary of public education.

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