The Missouri State Board of Education held a public hearing Monday to review changes to the Missouri learning standards.
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The Tucson event is from 6 to 7 p.m., October 27, at Pima Community College’s downtown campus, 1255 N. Stone Ave., building CC Room 180.
Though the State Board of Education voted to sever ties with the Common Core, the current standards will remain in place but they can be modified.
“We recognize Common Core as high-quality standards”, Heffernan said.
In the spring the state unveiled the new computerized tests that replaced the long-tenured FCAT – Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Since this year’s testing was a new series, those exams had to be validated over the summer before scores could be released.
“I’m just really getting tired of this conversation which really has no effect on what we are trying to do without children, or on our educators or on our parents”, he said.
Arizona’s governor has called for a year-long review of all the state’s standards, emphasizing a decrease in blanket solutions to education.
“We’ll never come to a flawless agreement on exactly what the standards should be”, said Peter Herschend, a member of the state board.
“Our curriculum and alignment of standards has been ongoing for years”, said Pine Forest School principal Michael Heffernan said.
She goes on to write that the developers of the common core, specifically the Council of Chief State School Officers, don’t intend to provide an update to the standards, and that therefore they’ll become out-of-date and will need improvement.
“This will send a clear message to the citizens of Arizona and the nation that Arizonans are smart enough, engaged enough, and collaborative enough to control the education of our own children, ” said Douglas.
Those concerns have trickled down in other states, especially in Florida, which now uses a Common Core-aligned set of standards to teach its students. “That’s the major change you’re seeing and that’s what people are going to be commenting on”.
“Now we will have to start something else when we’re just starting to get good at the old method”, he said.
Legal Women Voters of Missouri Education Chair Martha Ott said her organization takes the position that they believe in national standards for grades K-12.
Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven also said a few of the recommended standards are not “significantly different”, but said the goal is to make only needed changes.
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The Arizona Board of Education will be collecting public comments through November 20.
