Board members say Common Core isn’t rigorous enough for their high expectations. “We don’t want to be a mediocre district”

◼ Wisconsin school district moving away from Common Core State Standards

The board voted unanimously Tuesday to begin developing its own Germantown Model of Standards for Academic Achievement in January. Germantown is now the first district in the state to formally move away from Common Core, but school board members in other districts could follow.

“We don’t want to be a mediocre district,” school board vice president Sarah Larson told Wisconsin Reporter. “We want to be a premiere district in Wisconsin.”

The district is already one of the highest performing districts in the state. US News & World Report ranked Germantown High School sixth in Wisconsin and in the top 5 percent of high schools nationally. District Administrator Jeff Holmes said sticking to the Common Core would take the district down a road of mediocrity....

No other school board to this point has gone as far as Germantown, but some of that may be due to the assessments and teacher evaluations tied to Common Core — agreements Wisconsin made with the federal government to get a No Child Left Behind waiver.

“The whole thing gets a little bit messy,” Rossmiller said. “The question, ‘Exactly what does all of this entail if you try to unravel Common Core?’ is probably what’s preventing more if it.”

But Holmes sees Germantown’s move as leading the way for other districts who aren’t satisfied with more of the same in education.