High School Student Challenges School Committee On Common Core

Grace D’Antuono feels strongly that the North Kingstown School Committee should re-evaluate its support of the Common Core – the state educational standards Rhode Island (and many other states) have adopted.

She feels so strongly that she came out to a recent School Committee meeting to voice her opposition to the standards. Considering how few residents actually attend School Committee meetings, much less speak at them, D’Antuono’s speech was unusual. But it was particularly noteworthy because D’Antuono is a student at NKHS, a junior.

Her fear? That the Common Core is forcing schools to become rigid.

“We are students who have our own strenghts and weaknesses. But above all, we are individuals; individuals who each have unique talents, imaginations, ambitions and passions. All of which are things that cannot be measured in numbers because they are what makes us different,” she told the School Committee Dec. 10.

Perhaps ironically, she became energized about the Common Core while working on a project for her Democracy class.

In an email Monday, School Committee Chairwoman Kim Page disagreed.

“I think there are certain competencies that the entire country can agree that every child who passes through the United States education system should know how to read, write, compute mathematical problems, use logic skills, understand their environment and the world around us to a minimal scientific level, learn history and attain civic awareness to understand how our government works. That is core knowledge that every American should attain through our public education system,” Page said, via email.

Supt. Phil Auger said he was willing to be guided by the state Department of Education on the Common Core.