‘Live With Kelly and Michael’ Top Teacher Quits Over Common Core

Stacie Starr, a veteran Elyria, Ohio, teacher who was chosen as the winner of the "Live With Kelly and Michael 2014 Top teacher Search" announced her retirement Monday, citing pressures on students and teachers under the mandated Common Core standards.

Starr spoke to a stunned audience at the local public library and fought back tears as she announced her retirement at the end of the current school year. “I can’t do it anymore, not in this ‘drill ‘em and kill ‘em’ atmosphere,” she said. “I don’t think anyone understands that in this environment if your child cannot quickly grasp material, study like a robot and pass all of these tests, they will not survive.

“I have faith in my students, but my students are reading at sometimes a fourth- and fifth-grade reading level,” said Starr, who teaches high school freshmen. “Each and every day, I have to look in my students’ eyes and tell them I can’t help them because the state has decided they have to prove what they know.”

She concluded by saying it’s hard for teachers because “the rules keep changing.”