Dr. Sandra Stotsky, an advocate against common core standards, will travel to Bridgeport from Massachusetts to speak at a town hall forum regarding the topic.
BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. — Advocates against the new West Virginia common core standards plan to host a town hall forum with a notable guest speaker this Sunday.
The forum is slated for 6 p.m. at the Courtyard Marriott on 30 Shaner Drive in Bridgeport. It aims at educating the public about what common core is, how it originated and how it affects West Virginia.
Dr. Sandra Stotsky, the professor of education emerita at the University of Arkansas, will be the key speaker at the forum and will offer the public a chance to ask questions about the state standards, also branded West Virginia Next Generation Standards.
“Dr. Stotsky actually served on the validation committee, so she’ll be able to explain to people where this came from and why this is not good,” said Angie Summers, with West Virginia Against Common Core, a project of West Virginia Constitutional Advocates.
While Summers says the common core standards are not a good thing for West Virginia, Harrison County Superintendent Dr. Mark Manchin and Wendy Imperial, the assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction and technology, have different views.
“We are a supporter of the common core standards,” Manchin said. “A few of them are now reviewing it and it has become politicized, and that’s unfortunate.”
Both Manchin and Imperial say they have no plans to attend the forum.
“I think it’s become a political platform that people are using to advance their political views, and I think that the arguments are getting far removed from the true meaning of education,” Imperial said…