Every Student Matters

Erin Furze

Dear Parent, Families, and Community Members,

I am writing to you today in response to phone calls, emails, and news reports

addressing the topics of Common Core Standard, the Every Student Succeeds Act and our

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. There are many conflicting reports, opinions, and

information on these issues that I hope to clarify and address in this letter. Along with

explaining the issues, I will address out school’s stance on them as well.

I’ll begin with discussing Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which is a set of

college-and-career-ready standards for grades K-12 in math and reading. It focuses on

developing critical thinking, analytical, and problem-solving skills. It was developed by

state leaders, which included state governors and state commissioners. Part of the

development process included teacher feedback, scholarly research, and assistance from

standards experts. Common Core is not a curriculum, and it does not tell our teachers what

to teach. We have chosen to adopt the standards as a state and therefore will be using

them in this school. The staff has been involved in the decision and has also received

training in the standards to understand them better. We feel that the standards add rigor

and challenge into our student's curriculum. After learning what the standards are, our

administrative and teaching staff have discussed and adapted our curriculum in a way that

we feel best leads the students to meet the standards.

One of the biggest concerns that has been brought to my attention is that standards

do not focus on literature and fiction and that we will abandon these types of texts. I want
to assure that we will still read literature and fiction, as we agree that it is important for

students to learn these genres and know of prominent authors who have written these

texts. We will also be teaching our students how to read and learn from informational texts.

We feel that this is an equally important skill given that students should be able to read

historical documents, research-based writing, and textbooks. We will accomplish this goal

by not taking away time from our English language arts lessons, but by adapting our

science and history lessons for example.

The other topic that has been discussed at length is the Every Student Succeeds Act

(ESSA), which was signed by President Obama in 2010. This law was previously known as

No Child Left Behind and has been edited to address better the needs of all students in

preparing them to be career and college ready. Some of the provisions include

requirements that all students be taught to high academic standards, ensures that vital

information is shared in regards to assessment and student growth data, upholds critical

protections for disadvantaged and high-need students, and maintains the expectation of a

school's accountability. We feel that this is an important piece of legislation given that it

allows for more control at a state and local levels. We encourage folks to learn more about

this law through research, and for those that are interested we have included resources at

the bottom of this letter.

We have recently received information from Betsy DeVos outlining her stance on

CCSS and ESSA. In a letter to State Chiefs, DeVos has stated that her intentions are to

implement and enforce the ESSA. In the message, she stated the timeline for states to

submit their ESSA plans. Such plans entail how states intend to implement the law within

their public school systems. DeVos has said in an interview that the ESSA "essentially does
away with the notion of the common core." I’d like to state that this point is not entirely

correct. The law states that the federal government cannot tell states what standards to use

or not use and that this decision is to be made at a state level. Overall it appears that Betsy

DeVos hopes to give more control to state and local governments (as opposed to the federal

government) to make decisions in regards to schools. I feel that it is our duty to keep up to

date on current events and information being given by our government representatives. I

encourage all of you to watch the news, research what’s happening, and take the time to

hear both sides of the story. I have included a list of references for you to learn more about

the topics discussed in this letter if you are so inclined.

Our first and foremost goal is the students here. It is our firm belief that they come

first and that we will make sure they are safe and receive a quality education. As always,

please feel comfortable to reach out to the district superintendent or me in regards to

current events. We want to make sure to address your concerns and answer any questions

you may have.

All the best,

Erin Furze

Resources:

Common Core: http://www.corestandards.org/

Every Student Suceeds Act: https://www.ed.gov/essa?src=rn

Betsy DeVos: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-

12/2017/02/betsy_devos_to_state_chiefs_ESSA_full_speed_ahead.html