On the state level, the House of Representatives passed last week House Bill 385, which would ban use of a Common Core-related test, end high school exit exams in biology and U.S. history and push the state Board of Education to adopt standardized tests published by the ACT organization. It now moves to the Senate for more debate.

Earlier in the session, the Senate Education Committee endorsed Senate Bill 2161, creating a commission to recommend changes to state academic standards as part of an effort to change or replace Mississippi’s current Common Core-based standards.

The measures continue lawmakers’ assault on Common Core, meant to provide national benchmarks while helping students learn more analytically and less by memorization.

Opponents say Common Core represents federal overreach. They also oppose the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College (PARCC) and Careers tests, because they’re designed to assess Common Core and because the federal government helped pay to develop them.

Top Republican officials including Gov. Phil Bryant, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn of Clinton have swung against the standards, even as the state Board of Education and state Superintendent Carey Wright continue defending them.

Hill said he believes the standards are leading students to be more challenged than ever, which is a good thing for Mississippi.

“There’s nothing wrong with teaching kids to think deeper and be able to write effectively,” Hill said. “Whether the state goes with it or not, I think these standards are something we can continue using here.”

Natchez native Deloris Irving, who is an active member of the Parent-Teacher Association and supporter of the standards, said she thinks Common Core has received a bad stigma from the popular opinion.

“A good bit of the information that I’m hearing and that is coming out is not accurate information, and I believe that’s part of the reason there’s misunderstandings of Common Core,” Irving said. “My No. 1 concern right now is if you pull out of Common Core what are you going to replace it with?”

Irving said the parents and community members she’s spoken with had concerns with Common Core at first, mainly because they didn’t feel they had proper information on what the standards meant for their children.

After the PTA and NASD hosted several community meetings to share information about the standards, Irving said she feels as if community members are now more versed on the standards.

“The parents are excited about giving the children a more rigorous curriculum that will best prepare them for tomorrow,” Irving said.

“I hope the conversations going forward will stay open, because when we have these conservations there is an opportunity for a better understanding of what we need to achieve the goal to have our children be college and career ready.”

Mississippi schools will administer PARCC, the Common Core aligned test, this school year on an emergency contract. The state is seeking a new testing contract, and officials have said Pearson PLC, which wrote the PARCC tests, would be allowed to bid.

Hill said district officials look forward to seeing the results of those tests, which students will take in May, later this year to see just how students have adapted to the standards.

“We won’t know exactly how we’ve been doing until we see the results of the first tests, but I think it’s going to be very good,” Hill said. “This is a good thing for our students because it’s preparing them for what’s out there.”

 

The Associated Press contributed to this article.