JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri Commissioner of Education Chris Nicastro said on Friday she was surprised by the political opposition to the state’s adoption to the Common Core State Standards.

In an interview with The Joplin Globe, Nicastro adoption of the standards was a “state-led” effort that was a “fairly routine upgrade” of the state’s aged educational standards.

“Frankly, I think we were all caught a little off guard,” she said. “Given the sentiment against federal overreach and anything that smacks of being directed from Washington, people are so sensitive about that topic, and that probably is something that caused them to be suspicious of the process and concerned about the collaboration.”

Nicastro was criticized at a Senate Education Committee hearing last week for a lack of transparency in how the state adopted the standards. Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, was a vocal supporter of the standards at the time in early 2009, and Nicastro joined him later that year, in sighing a memorandum of understanding with the federal government, noting that the state would adopt the updated standard. The move was a part of the state’s effort to get out of the Bush Administration’s No Child Left Behind Act and to be bumped up in line in an effort to get ahold of state education funds being made available through the Obama Administration’s Race to the Top initiative.

Nicastro said that while there was no “formal presentation” to members of the legislature on the issue, it was done in a transparent way. On multiple occasions, Missouri’s Common Core standards were on the State Board of Education’s agenda.

“We had lots of bulletins we put on our website. We used all of our typical communication efforts,” she said.

“I do believe that legislators, particularly those involved in education who were in the legislature at the time, were aware. They didn’t really get involved,” she said. “That’s not unusual, either.”

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