Indiana Superintendent-Elect Glenda Ritz on Common Core Standards and Testing

Below is a post written by Glenda Ritz before her election in November. She outlines her position on Common Core Standards and related tests. Her position strengthens our legislation on January 16, 2013 to opt Indiana out of the Common Core Initiative. Please show her the people of Indiana support her platform of local control and high standards. Here statement is below:

I am Glenda Ritz, and as a candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction, here’s where I stand on the issue of Common Core Standards:

Common Core Standards must be re-evaluated.
Indiana had exceptional standards before Common Core. The Indiana Department of Education, and its Board, must re-evaluate Common Core Standards to determine what parts of Common Core we will accept or reject and determine which of our current Indiana standards should be retained to create the best K-12 standards for our children.

We must end our relationship with PARCC.
Dr. Bennett and Governor Daniels signed a contract that obligates Hoosier taxpayers to a consortium of twenty-three states, known as the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC. PARCC will determine the high-stakes student assessments for the Common Core and impact the accountability and performance of our educators, schools and our communities. Our students must not be forced into a regimented curriculum and assessment system that PARCC determines.

A return to local control of our schools.
Hoosiers, not a consortium of twenty-three states or the Federal government, must determine the vision for our students’ learning opportunities so that they are better able to compete in the global marketplace.

Hoosiers deserve better transparency and accountability.
As Superintendent of Public Instruction, I will ensure transparency and accountability of the office and of the Indiana State Board of Education. For, If these bodies of leadership had been transparent and accountable, Hoosiers would not be engaged in contracts with companies that have been paid with nearly $50 million in tax dollars for testing. Nor would we be facing numerous government takeovers of Indiana’s schools.

There is a lot of work ahead of us to slow, and hopefully halt, Dr. Bennett’s and the government’s progress in implementing the Common Core Standards and assessments. We must act, and we must act on November 6th. Our children deserve better.