Greenwich Legislative Delegation Joins Call to Put Hold on Common Core Curriculum

State Representatives Livvy Floren (R-149), Stephen Walko (R-150), and Fred Camillo (R-151) joined fellow House Republican lawmakers on Wednesday and filed a petition to force the Education committee to hold a public hearing on bills related to the Common Core curriculum and teacher evaluations.

Reps. Floren, Walko, and Camillo joined other House Republican legislators in utilizing a seldom used petitioning process, Joint Rule 11, to gather the 51 signatures needed. The petition will allow two bills relating to the Common Core curriculum and teacher evaluations to be raised that were previously denied by the Chairs of the Education committee. The delegation believes that all stakeholders should be able to have their opinions heard in a public setting.

Proposed Bill No. 5078, authored by Rep. Marilyn Giuliano (R-23), would freeze the implementation of the Common Core curriculum for further study until all stakeholders have time to examine its potential effects and reduce classroom evaluations for teachers.

Bill No. 5331, proposed by the House Republican caucus, calls for the creation of a subcommittee of classroom teachers to discuss and share their issues involving the teacher evaluation program. The bill would reduce the number of formal classroom evaluations to one per school year, reduce the amount of goals to be established by each teacher, streamline data management, and would allow for the exclusion of student scores on statewide mastery tests, including the Smarter Balanced assessment test, from being factored into a teacher’s evaluation.

The Chairs of the Education committee only agreed to have a hearing where the speakers would be selected ahead of time and the discussion controlled by time constraints. The petitioned public hearings have not been scheduled.

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