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Response To Important Questions Raised For Common Core Curriculum

For the past twelve and a half years, I have been proud to be an educator at Frewsburg Central School district. When I tell people that I am a teacher in our district, it is always followed by positivity and compliments. They say I am lucky to work in such a great district, and I wholeheartedly agree. My confidence in my fellow teachers, the administration, the staff, and the school board does not waver. I know that we are working together to give our students the best education possible. So when I read an editorial in the Post-Journal slandering that which I am so proud of, I knew that I needed to speak up and assure the board and the community members that our students are truly receiving an excellent education.

As is true with many articles about education, the author, Deann Nelson, begins by stating statistics which certainly show Frewsburg in the most negative light, all to prove the point that the numbers are, as stated by the author, “troubling for students moving into high school.”  First, this is a statistical fallacy, something my students learn about in eleventh grade. It is a misrepresentation of data. It is incomplete. It is incorrect. This is easily proven by the plethora of data we have. Any concerned citizen can discuss this at length with our administration. Second,  if the true concern is for the students entering high school, I can say by daily experience and my own statistical data that these concerns are unwarranted. For example, just last year during the first Common Core Regents ELA exam taken here at FCS, 61 percent of our students made Mastery Level with an 85 percent or higher. 96 percent of our students passed the exam.  Therefore, statistically speaking, our students are certainly prepared for high school ELA.

Another misconception is that the Common Core curricula has “dumbed down” ELA in grades K-12. This cannot be further from the truth. First, I would like to address the term “Common Core curricula.” I am assuming that this is in reference to the modules that were released by New York State. These modules were given to districts and its teachers as a guide to what teaching to the new Common Core standards might look like. Never was I asked to adopt these modules. As an English department, we discussed these modules at length, determining which adaptions would be best for our students if any at all. We were given autonomy in determining our own curricula. So, do we follow the scripted lessons of the modules? No, we do not. However, we do follow the Common Core standards because these are the state standards we are required to follow; standards that I believe are easier to use and better aligned to ensure student growth than the other two sets of state standards I have had to teach to in the past.

Now to address the difficulty of the exams.   In my twelve years of teaching, I have taught four different middle level exams and three different ELA Regents examinations, and the Common Core exams are by far the most difficult.  The literature students are asked to read along with the argumentative and analytical writing they are asked to complete at the end of their junior year are on level with many college exams, and I should know since I teach two of the three SUNY accredited college ELA classes we offer here at FCS.

I also want to assure you that our students are reading classic literature. Titles such as Pygmalion, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Great Gatsby are just a few of the many classic titles we teach. As we closely read through these works, students complete an extensive study in vocabulary, literary techniques, and rhetorical devices. Do we read as many books as students did twenty years ago, fifty years ago? Probably not. But the depth and the rigor in which we approach these novels is far beyond that of previous years. To make these classics even more relevant, we are pairing them with modern literature which allows the themes to be more relevant and universal to our students. It is this mixture of the old and the new that is truly giving our students a diversified education that will help them become successful citizens of the 21st century. Contrary to antiquated beliefs, multiculturalism and diversity are not negative aspects of any education.  To say that “we” have a “western heritage” forgets what century we are living in. Here at Frewsburg we have students from the Philippines, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Mexico, and Tanzania. They are part of a diverse world that has so much to offer, and keeping them from this world would be a travesty.  It would be shortsighted to not understand the value of reading about the experiences of a diverse population, and it would be educational malpractice to not prepare our students to live in a modern world.

Although I cannot speak on behalf of all the teachers, staff, and administration in the district, I cannot imagine that they would disagree.  We love our students. We do our best every day to give them an education that not only prepares them for the state tests but that also prepares them for their futures. We do not take our jobs lightly, nor do we take lightly the attacks against our district.  Please rest assured that we have our students’ best interests at heart and that we will not let any educational fad take precedence over our kids.

Lindsay Marzec is English Department chairperson in the Frewsburg Central School District.

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