Arizona Board Of Education Replaces Common Core State Standards
The Arizona State Board of Education on Monday approved English Language Arts and mathematics classroom standards to replace 2010’s Common Core. This supersedes a decision an advisory committee made last week to delay a recommendation of the new standards.
The board’s decision comes after a year and a half of revising and re-writing the standards to accommodate thousands of public comments from educators and parents.
The new standards give direction on when and what should be taught from kindergarten to high-school graduation. Cursive-writing lessons will be extended through fifth grade, rather than just K-3, after much public comment.
That's one change among the revisions made to about half of the original Common Core standards. Others include strengthening how time and money is taught to younger students. For State Superintendent Diane Douglas, this was a win for local control.
“This is a huge step forward to the state of Arizona if for no other reason than we now control our fate, the federal government in standards no longer tells us what to do,” she said.
Arizona legislators voted in 2015 to reverse the adoption of Common Core standards.
Though the new standards are officially adopted, Douglas says parents can still provide feedback on the Education Department’s website because there could be changes in the future.
