Hauppauge Board of Ed Supports Suffolk-Wide Letter in Common Core Concerns

The Hauppauge Board of Education is standing with a group of Suffolk superintendents who have written a letter outlining concerns with the Common Core curriculum and recent education mandates.

The Suffolk County School Superintendents Association, an organization that represents 69 school districts, is sending a letter to the state education department that says it is concerned with the rush to implement the Common Core among other issues.

It critiques the implementation of the initiatives but also offers solutions.  The letter calls upon the state to slow down the implementation of new exams, reduce over testing and eliminate the duplication of testing. The letter also asks that teacher evaluations, know as APPR be handled differently including placing a three-year moratorium on tying APPR scores to high stakes testing.

“The letter contains generalized thinking of all of us, said district superintendent Patricia Sullivan-Kriss.  “Maybe some specific things some we wouldn’t agree to but conveys the sense of what we believe and we think our community believes.”

School districts have become very outspoken with the state in regards to recent mandates. Several Long Island districts have enacted resolutions against high stakes testing and have been strong critics and island wide meetings with state education commissioner John King, where the meetings have often become emotional and boisterous.

According to Sullivan-Kriss, the letter will be sent, “en masse” with more than 60 other districts that have signed on in support of the changes outlined, in early January.