Viva88

State Education Commissioner John B. King, Jr. today announced he and the State Board of Regents will hold a series of 12 forums in school districts across the state to meet with parents and educators to discuss the Common Core Standards and other education reforms approved by the State Board of Regents. King will be joined at the events by Board of Regents members.

The events will be moderated by state legislators and held in school auditoriums in the legislators' districts. In addition, King is participating in forums at Viva88Public Broadcasting Stations (PBS) that will include a studio audience. The PBS forums will be recorded for broadcast and will also be available on the web. Four PBS forums have been scheduled so far.

"The Board of Regents approved the reforms, including adoption of the Common Core in 2010," Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl H. Tisch said. "We're just starting the second year of full implementation with aligned assessments. It's a good time for the Regents and the Commissioner to meet with parents and teachers to understand how the implementation is going and what adjustments, if any, have to be made."

"I want to have a respectful, direct, and constructive dialogue with parents," King said. "More and smaller discussions will make sure there's a real opportunity for parents to be heard. This is just the first round; we'll continue to schedule forums for parents. We want these to be regular events. We want the conversation to rise above all the noise and make sure parents understand the Common Core, and, just as important, we want to understand parents' concerns. We all share the same goal: to make sure our students have the skills and knowledge to be successful in a changing world."

King said the forums will be scheduled over the next six weeks; details for all the events will be finalized early next week. The first forum will be held in the Albany City School District on October 24. Other locations for the forums are Rochester, Westchester, Suffolk County (2), Nassau County (2), Schroon Lake, Binghamton, Amherst, Syracuse, and Jamestown.

The four PBS televised forums will be in Syracuse -WCNY (November 7), Plattsburgh-WCFE (November 20), Binghamton- WSKG (date tba) and Rochester- WXXI (December 3). King said more PBS forums will be scheduled.

See the up-to-date community forum schedule here.