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Reporting on the state of education in your community and across the country.

A Look Back on The Common Core in 2014

Bill Rice

This fall, Ohio’s school districts officially aligned to the set of math and English standards adopted by the majority of the country.But  a big portion of this year’s Common Core conversation revolved around legislation introduced to ditch the standards.Citing reasons like high-stakes standardized testing and a fear of losing local control in schools, Republican State Rep. Andy Thompson made it clear he wasn’t a fan of the Common Core.[audio href=http://audio2.ideastream.org/wcpn/2014/1222cc.mp3" title="Listen to the Radio Story"][/audio]And despite the lengthy list of supporters across the state, including Governor John Kasich, over the summer Thompson introduced a bill calling for a repeal of the standards.“Often people will say well we can’t stop now, we’re already going down the road,” said Thompson. “Well, if you’re going down the wrong road, I think you do need to stop and you need to revise course and you need to put in place something that is much more likely to succeed.”Ultimately, the legislation didn’t earn enough votes to move out of the House.One person opposing Thompson’s bill was outgoing house education chair Gerald Stebelton.The republican has been a firm supporter of the standards, and in an interview earlier this year with Ohio Public Radio he called efforts to get rid of them “misguided.”“I think it’s an overreaction to a lot of very loud and shrill, but very few, proponents of dumping the Common Core standards,” said Stebelton.But Thompson isn’t giving up the fight to repeal the standards, recently telling the Cleveland Plain Dealer he wants to see repeal proposals back on the agenda in 2015.