Stine's Flip Flop on Common Core

Governor Ernie Fletcher

In 2004, Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher’s (R-Lexington) education agenda featured the idea of getting high schoolers ready for college and the workplace, including year-end assessments and better curriculum alignment across all core content areas. Fletcher’s plan was developed based on research conducted through the state's participation in the American Diploma Project, a joint effort of three Washington-based education reform groups: Achieve Inc., the Education Trust, and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation – which are not coincidentally, also the groups behind the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).[1]

 

When Fletcher’s Education Secretary Virginia Fox met with the National Governor’s Association in February 2005, she reported that Kentucky already had a pre- K-16 council working to forge stronger ties between high schools and higher education. "We've been working very hard on the issue of alignment," added Ms. Fox. "That's a track we're on, and we'll continue aggressively - and, in fact, probably accelerate."[2]

David Williams

Accelerate they did. In 2009, the Kentucky legislature passed Senate Bill 1 which was sponsored by a host of Republicans including former Senate President David Williams (R-Burkesville) along with Sens. Katie Stine (R-Southgate) and Damon Thayer (R-Georgetown) who have recently had second thoughts. SB1 directed the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) and the Council of Postsecondary Education (CPE) to plan and imple­ment a comprehensive process for re­vising the core standards so they are fewer in number, more focused and in-depth, evidenced-based, incorpo­rate international benchmarks where possible, and are common from high school to postsecondary introduc­tory courses.

That’s what Common Core did, and it didn’t forget about junior and senior year in the process. After requiring fewer standards, Stine and Thayer seem to want to put more back in.

Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday had been on the job less than a week, in August 2009, when he sat before the Interim Joint Committee on Education to talk about the implementation of Senate Bill 1. Listening were many of the key crafters of the bill including Stine. 

Damon Thayer

“Kentucky has long been known for national leadership in education reform,” said Holliday. “Your insight and preparation in Senate Bill 1 will lead us into the next generation of education reform.” He made it clear that he was ready and able to follow their game plan.

A key provision of the bill seeks to ensure high school graduates are prepared for college or jobs eliminating the need for zero-credit developmental classes in the process. Holliday and CPE President Bob King confirmed to the SB1 sponsors that they understood the legislators’ desire for a Kentucky high school diploma to truly indicate the student has completed work which is synchronized with the course requirements needed for college success.

KDE staff handed out detailed time lines for implementing the deadlines imposed by the bill – which was to be fully implemented by 2011. College Readiness Workgroups had already been established to review the common core standards. After reviewing the time lines Stine encouraged Holliday and King saying, “It’s a tall task but it looks like you’re well on your way.”[3]

KDE’s Michael Miller explained to the legislators that 49 states and/or territories would be reviewing the national common core standards and that even though adoption of the standards is voluntary, states choosing to partici­pate must adopt all of the standards as they are released, and then may add some of their own standards. The legislature knew the process when they approved it. Additionally, Stine said she was ex­tremely interested in the progress being made on Senate Bill 1 and inquired about the possibility of Kentucky winning a Race to the Top grant.[4] 

At that time she was apparently unconcerned by the Obama administration’s encouragement of CCSS and wanted those federal dollars for Kentucky – especially since the legislature did not fund SB1.

Katie Stine

My research, however failed to reveal any instance where Stine questioned the approach or spoke of concerns with Common Core State Standards prior to April 2013 when the Republican National Committee decided to oppose CCSS, apparently because it was endorsed by President Obama. Since then, some previous supporters have been dreaming up ways to explain away their flip flop on Common Core.

In her recent H-L Op-Ed, Stine claims that CCSS would fail to meet the needs of all students including those most advanced, and that somehow, CCSS hampers a student’s ability to “take those upper-level high school courses that are essential prerequisites to college studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).”

Commissioner Holliday refuted Stine’s claims telling KSN&C: 

Kentucky Core Academic Standards (KCAS) do not result in the omission of science and mathematics courses in high school, including higher level mathematics and science courses. In fact, the standards are a vast improvement over the previous outdated standards and are designed to better prepare students to enter postsecondary education and be successful in college-level courses.  

Some have argued that the new standards eliminate the teaching of subjects like chemistry or physics in high school. That is not true. Five of the 16 topics in the high school standards contain physical science topics that could be taught in either a chemistry or physics class. The five chemistry and physics topics are: Structures and Properties of Matter; Chemical Reactions; Energy; Forces and Interactions; and Waves and Electromagnetic Radiation. Additionally, the standards represent the minimum content students are required to master. Every school and district has the freedom to supplement the standards, to create curricula appropriate for their students and to add topics as they see fit. Further, the number of students enrolled in physics and chemistry courses has increased significantly in recent years. Since 2010, Kentucky school districts have enrolled almost 372,000 students in chemistry and physics classes. Not only have the number of students enrolled increased, but we see more and more districts expanding course options in physics and chemistry, even in districts with small student populations.   

As I noted during my recent testimony before the Senate Education Committee, physics and chemistry courses are being taught in Kentucky high schools. Due to enrollment and financial constraints, however, some schools alternate the years in which these courses are offered. The issue is not related to standards, but rather enrollment, finances and the availability of certified teachers in those content areas. The Kentucky Board of Education and I are strong supporters of students having access to rigorous, quality science and mathematics instruction and have been working diligently to expand such offerings through a host of partnerships and initiatives, including supporting the work of AdvanceKentucky to increase Advanced Placement courses statewide and expanding opportunities for dual credit and online learning. 

Your average Kentuckian might be forgiven for being duped by the outlandish claims made by extreme critics. But a fully-briefed state senator who prompted the effort to begin with? Not so much.

It reminds me of Bob Sexton’s response, in 1994, when a grandmother called a radio show to proclaim on good authority that Kentucky was training kids to become communists, witches, and homosexuals. “My caller was repeating flagrant distortions as if they were gospel,” Sexton wrote. The caller was not unique, just extreme. As Sexton understood, “This fight today could become a tragic diversion from the real business of school reform…because it comes from mixing ignorance and deceit.”[5] 

As H-L’s editorial board correctly suggests, the duplicitous actions of some legislative leaders has tended to undermine the ability of government to function at its most basic level. Every issue becomes suspect as a bad-faith negotiation. The ability to debate, compromise, and govern effectively is lost when wasteful knee-jerk reactions to partisan politics undercut that essential trust.

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[1] Kentucky Seeks to Improve College Readiness Education Week - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 Author: Vaishali Honawar

[2] High Schools in Limelight for Summit - Governors Are Prepared to Talk About Change Education Week - Wednesday, February 23, 2005  Author: Lynn Olson and Alan Richard

[3] Daily Independent, The (Ashland, KY) - Monday, August 10, 2009 Author: Ronnie Ellis

[4] 2009 Interim record – August http://www.lrc.ky.gov/legislat/pastint.htm

[5] Common aspirations at core of reform - The Debate over reform The Kentucky Post - Thursday, January 20, 1994 Author: Robert F. Sexton