Common Core reform, something I and my colleagues in the Minority Conference have been fighting for, was one of the most important and divisive issues during this year’s legislative session. The state Education Department (SED) and Commissioner John King’s implementation of the Common Core Standards during this past year have been nothing short of a disaster and caused much confusion for students, parents, and educators. The recent decision by Commissioner King to release half of the English and Mathematics test questions, as opposed to the traditional 25 percent, for grades three through eight as well as the “instructional reports” early is a step in the right direction and comes as a relief for educators who have been struggling to properly prepare students for the Common Core assessments.

Although this decision by the SED will ultimately benefit students and teachers, we cannot and should not rest until a more comprehensive reform of Common Core is achieved. Wednesday’s news proves that consistent pressure and attention to the issue produces results; hopefully, the ball will keep rolling in the right direction. Commissioner King finally realized that we cannot ask teachers and students to succeed on exams when they have no knowledge of the material. The SED needs to realize that they work for us, not the other way around. We cannot stop fighting for Common Core reform. Each small victory, such as the release of this testing data, matters.

I have been out front on this issue since the beginning and will continue to press for more substantial reforms. My Assembly Minority Colleagues, particularly Ed Ra and Al Graf, and I fought hard to bring Common Core reform legislation, Assembly Bill 8844-A, to the Assembly floor for a vote this past session. Unfortunately, the Assembly Majority twice blocked the bill. The Assembly Minority Conference has been pushing for testing transparency since our Common Core reform bill was introduced in February. Commissioner King and the SED have done the right thing by releasing this data, but it is only a small step and not enough. I will continue to fight until Common Core has been re-evaluated and no longer infringes on the educational opportunities of New York’s children.