New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña defended the Common Core curriculum in a meeting with a group of PTA presidents earlier this week. The curriculum, she argued, was solid - instead, the implementation of the curriculum had been the major problem:
"Testing itself is not the issue," she said, when asked about the controversy over increased standardized testing. "I do think Common Core is the way to go. ... It hasn't been implemented well."
According to Capital New York, Fariña wants to create a team that will help struggling school principals get their schools up to speed with the new Common Core curriculum.
Fariña also said she wants to reduce reliance on testing, which features more prominently in the Common Core curriculum over the old status quo:
Fariña did tell the crowd she was looking for ways to reduce reliance on testing to determine grade promotion. She said she had already assembled a group internally at Tweed to discuss the issue.
