NHC school board member part of statewide Common Core review

RALEIGH, NC (AP/WECT) - During the first meeting of a commission that will review Common Core in North Carolina, New Hanover County School Board Member Tammy Covil stressed the importance of involving teachers in the process.

"They know what works and what doesn't," said Covil, one of 11 people appointed to the commission. "So, why we're not consulting them, I think, is a missed opportunity."

Covil said classroom teachers didn't play a large enough role in the adoption of the controversial set of national math and English standards, which started showing up in classrooms two years ago.

During the meeting in Raleigh Tuesday, the other members of the Academic Standards Review Commission agreed on reaching out to educators and even students to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of Common Core.

The General Assembly passed a law earlier this year creating the commission, which will forward recommendations to the State Board of Education and lawmakers next year.

Critics believe Common Core amounts to a federal takeover of education. Covil said she wants to make sure North Carolina controls its own standards.

"The further away that process gets from the classroom, the less efficient and the less effective it becomes, and so I want to make sure that we are focusing on the classroom outward," she said.

Copyright 2014 WECT. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.