Common Core legislation advances; use of tests for teacher evaluations would be delayed

Legislation designed to solve problems created by the implementation of the Common Core curriculum standards advanced in the House and Senate Thursday. A bill to delay the use of testing on Common Core standards in teacher evaluations until 2016-2017 passed the Senate with only one dissenting vote, while the House version received a favorable report from the Ways and Means Committee, sending it to the House floor.

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Lawmakers target controversial new Common Core curriculum and testing

A flurry of bills trying to slow down or stop the implementation of the new Common Core educational curriculum in Maryland are about to hit the legislative dockets. On Thursday, five Republican senators introduced two bills related to testing and teacher evaluation based on testing. Democrats have filed bipartisan measures to halt current MSA tests not aligned with Common Core.

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Common Core generates bill to drop old tests in Md. public schools

Emergency legislation to stop Maryland from administering a federally mandated student assessment test was introduced Thursday in the House of Delegates with strong bipartisan sponsorship.

The Maryland Student Assessment test (MSA) is slated to be phased out after this year, when it will be administered once more this spring. But the test is considered outdated because it doesn’t test for what students are learning in classrooms this year under the state’s new Common Core education curriculum.

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Teacher pension shift would cost counties $500 million over next four years

In the Senate’s proposed budget plan, some of the costs of teacher retirement would be shifted to county school boards over the next four years, not to the county governments next year, as Gov. Martin O’Malley had proposed. But the approved proposal would ultimately force counties to give their school boards $500 million more over the next four years.

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