Jackson resident picked to help develop new education standards

The work groups created by House Bill 1490 to develop new standards for Missouri students include at one person from the Cape Girardeau area.

The bill includes creating panels of educators and parents to write new performance goals to replace Common Core standards, which encompass the knowledge and skills all students should master by the end of each grade level, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

One of those parent representatives is Brad Noel, a water utility foreman for the city of Jackson and a father of two. He was chosen for the kindergarten through fifth grade math work group.

"The detail portion of it comes in with the curriculums, so that's something that should be left up to the local school districts to decide," Noel said.

A staunch opponent of Common Core, Noel got a call out of the blue from the Speaker of the House's office to see whether he'd consider applying to be part of the work group. The groups are supposed to have 16 people, but Noel's has 11 or 12. Their first meetings were Sept. 22 and 23.

Part of House Bill 1490 requires three public hearings, the first of which is set for Oct. 27.

At first, the meetings were contentious. Most people on the panels were Common Core supporters, when Noel and others were expecting a 50-50 mix.

Plus, Noel said, as with any group of people from different walks of life, everyone has his or her own opinions and theories, but any disagreements were resolved.

The group has a rough draft of fifth-grade math standards and is working from kindergarten up. Some things have been moved where they are considered more appropriate for students to learn.

Common Core, Noel said, took some aspects of subjects and moved them to lower grades.

The standards will have no bearing on how courses are taught, but the tests administered at the end of the year are aligned to the standards, which determines correct answers to questions, he said.

"To this point, that test is aligned to the Common Core standards, [so] if you don't teach it the way the test wants them to answer it, they won't get the correct answer," Noel said. "... So it's in a roundabout default way that the standards do dictate how you have to teach it."

He said his group has made great strides during its meetings, and overall, he's glad to be part of one of the work groups. But he's not sure they'll make a difference.

"I hope that we can because [in] the wording in House Bill 1490, there is no guarantee that the work that these work groups do will be accepted by the state school board," he said. "It is left up to their discretion whether they want to accept the standards that we present to them, or reject them, so there is some question there" about whether the group is working for nothing."

But they're not giving up.

"The only thing we can do is put the best set of standards out there that we can put out there. The rest is up to the state board," Noel said.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639