Bill to slow Colorado’s adoption of Common Core dies in committee

The Senate education committee on Thursday night rejected a bill that would slam the brakes on the Colorado Academic Standards, including the Common Core and the testing adopted with it, after six hours of passionate pleas from both sides to do right by students.

Senate Bill 136, sponsored by Fort Collins Republican Vicki Marble, would have delayed testing for a year while an independent task force examined both the standards and a cost-analysis of implementation.

It died on a 4-3, party-line vote.

“There was nothing wrong with our academic standards,” Marble said before the parade of speakers began shortly after lunch. “Why are we trying to fix something that isn’t broken?”

Speakers raised concerns about both the standards and the danger of halting educational momentum to re-examine them.

The state board of education incorporated the Common Core, which defines standards only for math and language arts, in 2010, and rolled out the combined Colorado Academic Standards statewide this year. Testing begins in the spring.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle appeared genuinely touched by the testimony they heard, and some even grew emotional over the experience.

Sen. Mike Johnston, D-Denver, said that the testimony raised several important issues, such as concerns about technological readiness for new tests and content that some parents might find objectionable.

But he felt the bipartisan process that led to adoption of the new standards had been thoughtful.

“I don’t think the answer is to pause on this, but to continue engaging on how to apply these standards,” he said. “With more flexibility comes more diversity in what districts choose.”

Sen. Scott Renfroe, R-Greeley, said that while he may have originally supported the march toward the new standards, he now worries that they may not reach every student with what they need. He supported Marble’s bill to pause implementation.

“I would support efforts to go in a completely different direction if that was offered,” he said.

Supporters of Marble’s bill attacked the new standards on several fronts, with witnesses voicing concerns about too much testing, high costs that would take away from already financially strapped districts, preservation of local control of curriculum and fears about privacy of student data.

Sandra Stotsky, who as a member of the original validation committee for the standards refused to sign off on them, appeared once again to blast the Common Core — her second visit to Colorado from her home in Massachusetts in the last few weeks.

Her critique touched on issues from the omission of parents, teachers, legislators and school boards from the development process to standards that, for the most part, she rates as subpar.

Stotsky said she considered the new Colorado standards in language arts to be inferior to prior state standards in that content area. She added that the math standards actually “shrink the STEM pipeline instead of expanding it.”

Scott Fast, executive director of Accenture Foundation, took the opposite view — that from a business perspective the previous standards weren’t meeting demands, something the Common Core does.

“To meet growth in STEM jobs, we need all students to meet these standards,” Fast said. “Consider the impact of a delay on students and the workforce pipeline. Our businesses need people who have those skills. That’s why I believe it’s imperative that we move forward.”

Kevin Simpson: 303-954-1739, ksimpson@denverpost.com or twitter.com/ksimpsondp

Updated Feb. 14, 2014, at 10:25 a.m. This article has been revised to reflect the following correction. Because of an editing error Scott Renfroe’s political affiliation was incorrect. Renfroe is a Republican.