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State Representative Jim Buchy
The State
Budget Accomplishes Major Goals in Education
As school begins again across the state, I can say with confidence that
the state legislature has taken a positive step with House Bill 64.
With its passage in June, the state operating budget in Ohio achieved
some major goals in Ohio’s pathway to eliminating the Common Core
standards and improving education for Ohio’s students.
The state budget included a one year extension of safe harbor for
Ohio’s students and teachers, as well as the elimination of PARCC
testing in Ohio. This provision keeps the focus on learning in our
classrooms, and does not tie students and teachers unfairly to
assessments.
Students will now be preparing for the new A.I.R. test, produced by the
same company responsible for the Ohio Achievement Test and the Ohio
Graduation Test, used prior to the implementation of Common Core. The
new A.I.R. assessments will be far less time consuming than the PARCC,
but will utilize some of the innovations in testing that saw positive
results in PARCC, such as an increased usage of technology. For the
2015-16 school year, individual districts will decide how much testing
is done using technology. The budget also reduces the number of testing
hours and lessens the multiple testing windows to a single testing
period. These changes will help reduce the burden of testing on
teachers and students.
Parents in the 84th House District have explained to me their concerns
with Common Core as it seems to represent an intrusion of the federal
government into our local schools. We must continue working to change
this. While an improvement, the use of the A.I.R. test does not resolve
our concerns about Common Core because this test will still be
measuring student mastery of these standards. However, Ohio educators
from around the state are working with the Ohio Department of Education
to create a test that will be unique to the needs of Ohio’s students.
The only way to rid Ohio of Common Core is to phase in state standards
that are stronger and better than the Common Core standards. Our
office has a website devoted to helping Ohioans monitor the progress of
our pathway. It is accessible at tinyurl.com/ourpathway.
I’m proud to see our state legislature taking steps to extend safe
harbor for students and teachers, as well as eliminating the PARCC
assessments. I will continue working to improve our schools by working
to cap testing with House Bill 74, which is currently receiving
consideration in the Ohio Senate, ensuring that handwriting is taught
in our schools, and other initiatives. Once we have accomplished these
goals, the stage will be set for a bill that establishes a clear
transition to Ohio’s own academic content standards, keeping the
education of Ohio’s students in the hands of Ohioans.
Please give me your opinion on this topic and others in the news this
month by completing an online survey at tinyurl.com/buchyseptember2015
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