Common Core symposium is Wednesday

A symposium on Common Core State Standards will be held Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Fallon Convention Center, 100 Campus Way.

Common Core has been a controverisal issue in Fallon over the last several months with opposition growing from parents who are pressing for answers and possible change to the standards.

The symposium will review the pros and cons of Common Core, standardized testing and data collection. Nevada Department of Education representatives Steve Canavero and Judy Osgood will speak on behalf of Common Core, while professors James Milgram and Sandra Stotsky, nationally recognized opponents of Common Core, will dispute the standards.

Dr. Sandra Sheldon, Churchill County School District superintendent, said the symposium is not hosted by the school district but it is a collaboration between the district and residents Jim Falk and Bob Clifford who both oppose the standards.

“The district follows the guidelines and teaches the Nevada Academic Content Standards, that is what we refer to it as,” Sheldon said. “This is what we were given and it is what we follow. This is not the first time we’ve addressed the standards. We address any questions parents have whenever they ask about it.”

Falk, a strong advocate against the standards, said he hopes the symposium opens people’s eyes to the disservice the standards are doing to students.

“It’s important to get facts out about Common Core,” Falk said. “I feel that Milgram and Stotsky are two of the most qualified people to relay the downfalls of the standards since they worked on them from the beginning. They did not feel the standards were up to par and when the standards came to be reviewed they refused to sign off on them.”

Falk said Common Core skipped all testing stages and went straight into the school districts with the help of “bribery” from the people who backed the standards. He said Nevada received a lot of money to get the standards into the districts immediately, and that there is a large growing of opposition from teachers and parents across the country.

Sheldon said the district will place automated calls to parents to inform them about the symposium.

A Common Core discussions will also be held at the Nevada State Legislature building on Tuesday, 6-8 p.m., at 401 S. Carson St., room 1214 in Carson City and hosted by Assemblyman Philip “PK” O’Neill.

Another Common Core discussion will take place in Reno on Wednesday at Kings Buffet, 3650 Kietzke Lane, from 12-1:30 p.m. hosted by Carole Fineberg.