More comments from the panelists to the Idaho core standards forum:

Stephanie Zimmerman: Common core standards were “not the best available. We should have done better.” She said, “The standards were already written by the time the teachers were brought in,” and said teachers were involved later only as “window dressing.”

Dorothy Moon: “Were teachers involved in creation of the standards? No. Corporate giants were involved in the creation of the standards, initially.”

Steve LaBau: “Teachers were involved in the creation of the standards. … As far as the implementation of the common core, teachers are absolutely the essential piece in implementing that.”

Tom Luna: “They’re not more rigorous than what any other country expects of their students, and I’m convinced that Idaho students are capable. … They’re meeting our standards, and then three months later they’re having to take remedial courses when they’re going on to college. That tells us that our standards are not high enough.” He added, “Idaho’s teachers, and teachers in general have been involved in this from Day 1.”

Bruce Cook: “They’re not really set up well, the common core standards, to help a child that’s struggling to remediate … other than putting a kid up a grade or two or down a grade or two, and that does not bode well for kids socially.” In other countries, he said, “They have their kids in school nine hours a day. … Kids come to school on Saturday. … But our system is not set up the same.”

Stephanie Rice: As a teacher, she said, “We take a very large role. Basically we have these standards as guidelines. Our learning in the classroom should be purposeful. … We want to make sure that all of our learning opportunities are aligned to those skills that kids will need to use later on in life.”