BERNE — Timothy Mundell, the new superintendent at Berne-Knox-Westerlo, hopes that recommendations in the Common Core Task Force report released last week will allow the rural school district to pursue some exciting new initiatives.

He points out that, not only is he new to BKW this year, but the elementary and high school principals are also new, as is the assistant principal.

“We’ve been listening to people and trying to fix things we find,” he said. “We’re talking about inspirational ideas.”

One of the things he heard in his listening tour of the district was enthusiasm from “lots of kids and parents in 4-H” and “excitement over the state fair.”

He went on, “We need to tap that energy....We’re an agricultural community,” said Mundell, stressing the wisdom of “looking in your backyard” to find the best path to the future.

There are plans now at BKW to revive the long-defunct Future Farmers of America program and to “develop STEM programs” related to agriculture, he said, referring to science, technology, engineering, and math.

Mundell has been in contact with Marion Terenzio, president of the State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill. She assumed the helm at Cobleskill in July just as Mundell did at BKW.

They’ve talked about a partnership between Cobleskill and BKW that would give BKW students practical experience and preparation for college, he said.

Mundell also noted another link between the interesting geology in the Helderbergs and a strong Earth Science program.

“These recommendations will give us some flexibility,” Mundell said of the task force report. He said he’d like to “give kids real experiences.”

He sees the school as the center of the community, not just for learning but for social activity as well. “We’ve got good folks and businesses in the community,” he said.

Mundell, who had held school administrative posts downstate before coming to BKW, said of school leaders like himself, “We are in the middle of things, trying to implement things that change daily.”

Referring to the Every Student Succeeds Act that President Barack Obama signed into law on Dec. 10, Mundell said, “That’s what we did in the early 2000s.” The new law returns powers to states and local districts, and keeps the government from imposing standards like the Common Core.

Obama said at the signing that his Race to the Top initiative, meant to give states more flexibility, wasn’t enough. Mundell noted that BKW got “very little money” in Race to the Top funds.

“Giving us flexibility at the local level is good,” Mundell said of the new initiatives. “Having say in our curriculum is good. Reducing the amount of testing is good.”

He noted, though, “Testing is important to understand where students are, if you get it in an immediate fashion.” Results from some state tests had lagged so badly that students had passed on to a new grade before the results were available.

Mundell referenced the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a congressionally mandated project administered by the National Center for Educational Statistics, which produces the Nation’s Report Card on student learning.

“Nations that lead NAEP, like Japan, cover fewer topics in more depth,” said Mundell. In those successful countries, he said, “Education is more collaborative” and the students are working on “more authentic” projects.

Mundell said a comprehensive way of evaluating programs and delivering services is needed.

“For half a decade, we fell into testing to determine good and bad teachers and schools,” said Mundell, stating it is not productive to start with the premise “you’re finding the bad, not the good.”

Common Core

Commenting on the Common Core Standards, he said, “On lots of levels, here at BKW and across the state, there’s an overwhelming feeling on the part of teachers and administrators that the whole roll-out was backwards: They put the cart before the horse with testing coming before curriculum was developed.”

At Berne-Knox-Westerlo last spring, as the state administered tests in English and math to students in third through eighth grades, 38 percent opted out of the English tests and 44 percent out of the math — among the higher percentages in Albany County.

Noting that he arrived at BKW after the school year was over, Mundell commented on the high rate, “My sense was it was parents listening to students at the dinner table. There were high stress levels.”

On Long Island, where he had worked before, there were opt-out rates as high as 60 percent, Mundell said. “A scattergun map would show pockets in rural areas and large pockets in well-to-do suburbs,” he said, citing high numbers in the Rochester area.

“I heard from parents in Long Island and Westchester who perceived of the Common Core as a one-size-fits-all approach. Then you test and tie those results to teacher performance. Parents perceive it’s one-size-fits-all instruction...It’s test prep. They didn’t want to be locked into test-prep curriculum.”

The Common Core Standards were rolled out in 2010 with the philosophy that it would prepare kids for college and careers, Mundell noted. “Common Core was supposed to be the tool.” The standards, he said, involve “a lot of rigor in terms of thinking skills embedded.” With math, for example, the approach is designed to teach thinking skills rather than rote memorization.

“This becomes political,” he said of the opt-out movement forcing change. Coupling teacher evaluation with test results “became strengthened during last year’s budget process,” he said, growing from 20 percent to 50 percent of the weight of evaluation.

“That came out of a budget process, not a legislative process,” concluded Mundell. “Now we’re left with a law nobody knows how to implement.”