A spirited crowd applauded and cheered as the Cobb County School Board voted down a request by the district to purchase $7.5 million in math resources for next school year.
The board was considering buying more than 73,000 math materials, which included teaching booklets, hardback books and online resources for students in kindergarten through 12th grades, to be bought with SPLOST III funds. This purchase fell in line with the state’s adoption of the Core Curriculum Standards in 2010.
The agenda items were listed as two separate items — one for elementary and middle school students and the second for high school students — and the board spent about two hours discussing them.
Board members who voted against buying the materials were Kathleen Angelucci, Tim Stultz, Randy Scamihorn and Brad Wheeler.
Angelucci questioned the purchases because of their association with Common Core Standards, a curriculum that has been adopted by 45 states nationally.
She argued that many states are looking at getting rid of these standards for a number of reasons, and Georgia legislators were looking at doing the same with the introduction of House Bill 167, which was withdrawn this past session.
“I have on good authority that it will be introduced,” she told her colleagues.
Angelucci and many others in the audience who addressed the board during public comments asking the them not to approve the materials, also said they were concerned about the federal government curtailing how states educate their children.
Scott Sweeney, who voted in favor of the purchases along with David Banks and David Morgan, agreed that he had “serious, serious concerns” about the intrusion of federal government but was also worried about the district “hanging its hat” on Georgia politicians withdrawing the curriculum next year.
Aside from many comments made by individual board members, they also had an opportunity to ask Cobb Schools Chief Academic Officer Amy Krause a number of questions about the purchase.
Scamihorn asked if Common Core changed the way teachers taught math. Krause answered by saying it tweaks their lesson plans and content while making the subject more rigorous for students and potentially improving student achievement.
He also asked if Common Core was “dumbing down” Cobb’s curriculum.
She simply replied “no.”
Sweeney and Banks also asked Krause what would happen if Common Core hadn’t been adopted by the state and if these materials were what Cobb Schools would still want to use in the classrooms.
Krause responded with a “yes.”
This specific response is what led Banks to his decision favoring the purchase.
“In my opinion, regardless of Common Core, by not providing up-to-date textbooks, it puts our students at a disadvantage for the next year and possibly the next two to three years,” he said. “We haven’t really accomplished anything for the students.”
He also argued that Common Core is “nothing new” and reminded the public that it was adopted by the state three years ago and that teachers began implementing the curriculum at the beginning of this school year.
There was also some back and forth among board members as to whether this item could come back up for another vote.
Angelucci stated that according to board policy, if the majority of the board votes for or against something, that is their vote and it shouldn’t be revisited.
But Scamihorn said he would like to study the potential purchase a little further and anticipates putting it back up for approval in the next month or two.













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Shame on Angelucci and Stultz who should know better and also on Wheeler and Scamihorn who've turned their backs on the teachers they once call colleagues.
Because of the latter's decision, math teachers have not been provided with the tools they need. They will also come out of pocket to pay for materials they feel they need.
Great move during this budget cycle.
Just how much will it cost all math class teachers to build their materials this year? Too much !!!!!
This needs to be reconsidered or it will probably cost more teaching positions.
I am so sad that my parents and students will never know what a great textbook they missed out on!
Common Core = Common; we should embrace it and say that's easy because we are doing that and much more.
The Cobb GOP Chairman diminishes his office by participating in this debate.
Richard Greuter diminishes the debate by showing it is really the T-Party that opposes it.
The T-Party needs a retirement party.
...Replacing, purchasing, upgrading or supplementing capital equipment including, but not limited to, ...BOOKS
The high school math teachers are very resourceful at creating awesome materials for their students. I applaud the efforts of all these teachers and the fantastic materials they are willing to share with other schools.
While these may not be the best textbooks for Cobb County, I have a problem with the possibility of not having any usable books for the next six years. I have frustrated parents because there are no books or other curriculum resources available to send home with their student. I do not want six more years of frustrated parents that feel helpless and unable to help their students at home.
I hope we can find a solution, stop drastically changing the curriculum every few years, and get back to the business of teaching are children and getting them ready for the future.
The Board voted down a more rigorousness math curriculum which intended to make Georgia's students more nationally competitive but because the federal government was involved that was considered a "bad" thing? Well done you dolts.
The Tea Party morons in this county are becoming insufferable...
http://www.stopcommoncore.com
http://www.patrioticmoms.com/1/post/2012/12/reclaim-local-control-of-education-now.html
Brilliant!
When asked how many people reviewed and made the text book recommendation, Krause stated at least 100 teachers.
The board majority turned its back on those teachers and interestingly they have no back up plan. No alternative recommendation was offered by any board member as a text book replacement.
Krause stated that though the recommended text books align with the Common Core, they would still recommend the same books if Common Core was off the table.
When a discussion surfaced about reconsideration, Angelucci stated that the board had decided... Hysterically hypocritical since she didn't exercise the same logic/restraint with the calendar.
The real issue is much deeper.
Thanks to Ms. Angelucci, Mr. Stultz, Mr. Scamihorn and Mr. Wheeler.
Since you asked so sweetly:
Assessment driven by data and the GPS
Culturally relevant pedagogy in lesson/delivery
Technology driven instruction/assessment
Family engagement opportunites beyond the school
Inclusive education with L.R.E. in mind
ESOL equity with mastery of primary language 1st
Literacy focus in ALL subject areas
Differentiation to address all learning styles
See, that wasn't difficult!
More than 100 teachers decided which text books would be best for Cobb's students.
What is your specific text book recommendation that will guide Cobb's students to higher scores on state mandated tests that coincidentally are aligned with Common Core?
Your group had enough energy to make their complaints, but apparently not enough experience or energy to suggest solutions other than delay.
Teachers need materials - if not these text books, which?
Common Core is not the answer.
As for LRE, children with IEPs must spend 80% of their day in general education, whether it is in their particular best interest or not.
Literacy focus? Reading and writing are part of all the standards adopted by Georgia, currently there are Reading, Language Arts and Math standards. Georgia is still using the old science and social studies standards. Students being able to give a written explanation for how they determined the correct function and application in a math problem carries more weight than if they correctly solved the problem.
There are no lessons with Common Core, it is simply standards. Teachers are free to use whatever lesson they like to deliver the content of the standard. Your argument about culturally relevant pedagogy doesn't apply to Common Core since it is standards, not lessons.
And your argument for technology driven instruction is another old one. Cobb County has included the use of technology as part of teacher assessments for several years. You many not like it but technology is here to stay.
Differentiation? Students have performance activities based upon their individual abilities, not a cookie cutter activity for the entire class. Reading is based upon current level, which hopefully is ever increasing, and math stations are leveled for ability. It is up to individual teachers to differentiate, if you aren't seeing it within your child's classroom it is a teacher issue, not a standard issue.
Family engagement? Again, no connection to standards. The only possible complaint I can see about family engagement is the method of presenting information has changed from the time parents were in school. At the elementary level the students are no longer given a multiplication table and told to memorize it or only shown the algorithm to solve a math fact, in fact, the algorithm is no longer taught. Instead children are shown methods to solve number sentences and real live word problems using varied strategies. Strategies they are then able to apply to higher order thinking problems. Students are also able to develop their higher order thinking, something that wasn't taught in school when many parents were attending.
The biggest difference between Common Core and the old Georgia State Standards is children are taught to think for themselves. They don't just regurgitate facts that are quickly forgotten. They make connections between historical events, delve deeper in books to look for connections, word meaning is more important than word spelling, knowing why 2 2=4 is more important than being able to solve.
I do understand that children being taught to think for themselves and question is scary for some people, because those children grow to become adults who think for themselves and question instead of accepting everything they are told.