Wisconsin’s Common Core Is On The Line In April’s Election

In the race for State School Superintendent, the candidates come down differently on the future of Wisconsin’s Common Core standards.

Common Core lays out what students should know at a given grade level. Part of the idea is to prepare students for the next grade no matter where they go to school. It’s also designed to get kids prepared for standardized tests.

Candidate John Humphries wants to scrap the existing Common Core and gradually start over. He said Common Core had “good intentions” but that it was poorly implemented. He has a two-year plan to get input from parents, teachers, administrators and national experts, and replace the Common Core with what he calls “Wisconsin Learning Standards.”

“We won’t take away local control,” Humphries told reporters Thursday in Green Bay.

Humphries said the current Forward exam should be replaced for 9th grade students with the international PISA, or Program for International Student Assessment test. He also wants to limit standardized testing to three hours of classroom time each year. Humphries said some students can now spend up to 8 hours on tests.

But Humphries plan drew criticism from incumbent Tony Evers who called it “top down.” In a written statement, the Evers campaign said Humphries rolled out, “his latest proposal to privatize public education and bring in national experts.”

Evers said he spent Thursday working with the Council of Chief of State School Officers on “how to increase educational equity and close achievement gaps by working at the local level.”

The third candidate, Lowell Holtz said he would “immediately” eliminate Common Core. He also wants to immediately drop out of the Forward exam, even if it would mean paying to get the state out of its contract with the developer of the test.

“Originally, Common Core was marketed across America as a Corvette, and what we received was a manure spreader,” said Holtz. “Governors, legislators, educators and citizens all across the country were misled through high pressure marketing of the Common Core standards. We were promised one thing and given another.”

Humphries said ideally the new standards would be flexible and that, “every school district can select their own standards and their own curriculum, of course, but by taking two years to create better standards we’ll give school districts time to meet these new standards.”

If elected, Humphries said he would begin the reexamination early in 2018.

“We’ll use the Common Core as a reference point but make sure that we get Wisconsin educators and national experts to help us make the best decisions for our students,” he said.

The election for State School Superintendent is in April. A primary will take place Tuesday, Feb. 21.

Editor’s Note: This story previously stated Humphries wanted to replace the Forward exam all together. It has been updated to reflect he only wants to replace the exam for 9th grade students. It was last updated at 10:50 a.m. on Feb. 3.