More than 760 people submitted applications to serve on Gov. Asa Hutchinson's task force that will review Common Core education standards in Arkansas.
J.R. Davis, a spokesman for the governor, said he plans to take input from Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin, who was appointed the chairman of the Governor's Council on Common Core Review. Davis said Hutchinson hopes to appoint the 16 members of the task force in early March.
Common Core is a set of math and literacy standards adopted by most of the 50 states. Each school district is responsible for developing curriculum around those standards.
Both Davis and Griffin said they have started an initial review of the applications, which contain enough applications from each subgroup that Hutchinson sought for the task-force duty: educators, superintendents, business people, parents and students. Davis said a full list of those who have applied for the task force was not available Monday.
The choice of who is appointed to the group will ultimately be up to the governor, Griffin said, but he hopes that those appointed will be open to listening.
"There is an abundance of highly qualified, very impressive applicants, and there will be no shortage of any of the categories that the governor has laid out," he said. "From the ones that I read, there was a space available on the application where they could say a few words about why they're interested ... and there were a lot of people where it was clear from what they wrote that they want to get this right, and that is very encouraging. I think the key is an openness ... a willingness to listen and let the facts steer the conversation."
A consortium of about a dozen states, including Arkansas, is developing and administering Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career, or PARCC, exams based on the Common Core standards.
The test's association with Common Core has generated opposition. There are also concerns about the test moving to a computerized format this year, because opponents say there are still glitches in the technology.
Several bills have been filed by legislators seeking to change the standards, clarify rules about information gathering on students allowed under the Common Core program, and to stop using Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career exams.
Hutchinson said earlier this month that the task force will fulfill his campaign promise to conduct a thorough executive review of the standards and decide whether any tweaks, adjustments or "more dramatic changes" need to be made.
Griffin said Monday that he and members of the governor's office staff gathered Sunday night and were able to give an initial review to about 300 of the applications. He said they planned to move quickly, but with weather shutting down state offices early Monday afternoon, he wasn't sure they'd get through the rest of the applications until today.
"We began reviewing the applications last night, my staff and the governor's staff came up last night," Griffin said. "We have a number of educators, parents, students -- both college students as well as high school students -- business people and folks that don't really fall into any of those categories, interested citizens. The governor will be making those final decisions, but I will make my opinion on those."
Metro on 02/24/2015