The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is moving forward with fully implementing new standards in Missouri’s K-12 schools for teaching math, English and language arts.
Spokeswoman Sarah Potter says the new standards are based on those crafted by the Common Core State Standards initiative.
“The standards say what students should know and be able to do by the end of each grade level to be on track for success in college and career,” Potter said.
More than 360 public schools in Missouri are taking part in a pilot program to test out a new assessment system based on Common Core for students in grades 3 through 11. Potter says Missouri adopted the new standards back in 2010.
“We’ve been slowly implementing (them)," Potter said. "The school districts have been changing over curriculum, rewriting curriculum, and adapting to these new standards, and we’re gonna start testing for them officially in the 2014-2015 school year.”
The assessment system is being developed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.
Meanwhile, there’s a turf war between DESE and the legislature over who has the authority to implement curriculum standards. Legislation in the Missouri House would block the use of Common Core State Standards outright, and there's a Missouri Senate bill that would require a public hearing in each of the state’s Congressional districts before those standards could be fully implemented.
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