A working group of state Regents on Feb. 10 recommended multiple changes in the implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards statewide in a report presented by Chancellor Merryl Tisch and State Education Commissioner John King. The recommendations included giving high school students five more years to meet the new standards and banning the use of standardized tests in kindergarten through 2nd grade to evaluate teachers.

The recommendations fell short of calling for a moratorium on any high-stakes consequences attached to the Common Core tests, a proposal that has gained increasing traction across the state in the wake of the flawed rollout of the new standards. Legislative leaders in Albany on Feb. 4 called for a “minimum” two-year delay on using the standards to judge students or teachers. 

The working group’s recommendations were adopted by the full Board of Regents on Feb. 11 with one exception: After Gov. Andrew Cuomo criticized the Regents working group for what he saw as backsliding on evaluations, they tabled a recommendation to let teachers rated ineffective present evidence that their district failed to provide appropriate Common Core  curriculum or professional development.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew pointed out that teachers already have that right by statute. More important, he said, was the Regents’ failure to remedy the problem of curriculum.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew released the following statement on Feb. 10 in response to the working group's recommendations:

The Regents’ recommendations do not solve the real problem with the Common Core rollout — the lack of curriculum. The Regents should be offering several detailed programs that any school district in the state could use for free.