The North Carolina legislature adopted Common Core standards for math and English in 2010 with little discussion. More than three years later, legislators have finally formed a committee to take a closer look at the controversial standards.
Today the N&O printed an oped by Civitas Education analyst Bob Luebke discussing the new committee.
What will the committee review? Enabling legislation says the committee “shall comprehensively study both current and suggested curriculum standards in K-12 education in the state.” The committee will specifically focus “on the question of cost and benefits of any existing or proposed curriculum standards and whether these standards will directly and positively affect educational outcomes in the state.”
What questions need to be addressed? The committee would do well to review the letter Lt. Gov. Dan Forest sent to Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson in July. Forest has taken the lead in asking pertinent questions on how the standards were developed, on their costs and on what steps North Carolina is taking to ensure that the problems occurring in states like Kentucky and New York won’t occur here. Unfortunately, the response Forest received from 67 probing questions was nothing more than a data dump. The confusion is telling.
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