CCRS Letter (Dr. Rudolph) - Do Your Homework

Former Assistant Superintendent, Dr. Celia Rudolph, speaks out.  She hits on everything misinformed opponents need to hear.   I've used the "kick in the gut" euphemism several times myself.  That's exactly what these last few months have felt like.  Thanks, Dr. Rudolph, for submitting your letter to our blog.  Melissa 

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Dear Mr./Mrs. Legislator, 

Thank you for serving our state.  It is my hope that you will read this email in its entirety. 

I am a 29-year veteran employee of Alabama's public schools.   I've worked in school systems in north Alabama as well as in south Alabama, and in Pennsylvania. Because of this experience, I feel I have a good perspective of not only the discrepancies that exist in funding and expectations in our state, but also what other states are doing, and about their perception of Alabama's public schools. I recently retired as the Assistant Superintendent of the high-achieving system in  Muscle Shoals City,  and now serve as Chair of the Teacher Education Program at Huntingdon College in Montgomery where we are preparing outstanding teachers for Alabama's children.  In short, I have devoted my life's work to Alabama's school children and I still believe in a free and appropriate education for all. 

The Alabama College and Career Ready Standards (CCRS) are the last chance for Alabama's public school children to achieve to their highest potential.  Please do not deny our children the most rigorous standards we've seen yet in Alabama.  These standards are NOT Obama-led standards; they are not driven by Bill Gates.  Please do your homework. These standards are a grassroots efforts by a consortium of states who got together to improve public education in America by having mutual expectations for students across states. I have been studying these standards since before Alabama ever even considered adopting them as our Course of Study standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics.   We have always had Courses of Study for our content areas in Alabama, and have always aligned our standards with national organizations such as NCTM for mathematics (National Council for Teachers of Mathematics), and NCSS for social studies (National Council for Social Studies), and NASPE  for PE (National Standards for Physical Education), and I could go on and on for music, art, reading, the sciences, etc.  Therefore, I can not understand why, now, this is a big issue. The bottom line is that Alabama's school children - black, white, purple, rich, and poor - deserve the absolute highest quality education and the highest quality standards as a framework for their curriculum. The current courses of study (with the CCRS embedded) provide these standards. Moreover, Courses of Study in Alabama have always been a framework for curriculum; teachers may add what they wish.  Ask any teacher.

These standards are not political; there should be nothing political about teaching a student to “apply the properties of integer exponents to generate equivalent numerical expressions”(Grade 8 Mathematics), nor to “distinguish among the subcategories of poetry, such as ballads, lyric poems, epics, haiku, and limericks, based on their characteristics”(8th Grade English Language Arts). If you do not know exactly what the CCRS standards say, and you are basing your opinion on hearsay, I encourage you to scrutinize yourself the CCRS online at ALEX, the Alabama Learning Exchange (http://alex.state.al.us/index.php), and click on Courses of Study. Please see for yourself that these standards are rigorous standards, requiring students to think critically with descriptors such as "analyze", "solve", "apply", and "compare".  Not just rote memorization. There are no suggestions of books, no requirement of literature, and no hint of left-wing life-style. If there were, I would vehemently oppose them; moreover, if you have previously believed these things, you are grossly misinformed. 

If the CCRS are not implemented statewide in Alabama, then it is my opinion that we will, at best, have a haphazard approach to preparing our children for college or a career.  Eliminating the CCRS standards will have a huge impact upon the ability to attract desirable industry (due to the lack of rigor and expectation of excellence) in our state as well as give our sister southern states a “talking point” they will readily use against us in recruiting industry. 

The recent decisions of the House and Senate have been a “kick in the gut” for me – and for all of us who have given our lives to improving public education in Alabama. The very fabric of our society is made up of workers who are products of public schools, and it is quite disheartening to see such a lack of trust in building up this piece of our government. I might add that I’ve voted Republican the great majority of the time, and am disappointed that the party to which I mainly align has been blinded by lies about the CCRS.

I would welcome a conversation with you about this matter.

Sincerely,
Dr. Celia Rudolph
crudolph@huntingdon.edu