State education officials heard from experts Monday on developing standards to replace Common Core.
Lawmakers ditched Common Core last year. Now a steering committee is beginning the process of developing replacement standards. The committee heard from educators who have been through the process elsewhere.
Sandra Stotsky helped Massachusetts develop some of the nation’s strongest K–12 standards. She said it will take more than reshuffling Common Core.
"If you start with Common Core as the basis for your revision, you will end up with something that looks like Common Core, because it's very difficult to reorganize something that's already in place," Stotsky said.
Stotsky was recently in West Virginia for the same reason. That state is on the verge of an oil and gas boom, and Stotsky said they need standards that will prepare high school students for those jobs.
"Or will they simply be semi-educated truck drivers?" she said. "Nothing wrong with being a truck driver, but shouldn't there be some of them who are also engineers and project managers?"
Stotsky recommended separate math and English language arts committees made up of highly qualified teachers customize for Oklahoma lauded state standards developed before Common Core’s adoption.
University of Minnesota mathematics professor Larry Gray said simply plugging in another state’s standards won’t be enough.
"You can steal, you know, some Michelin three-star chef's recipe, and it's not going to give you three stars," Gray said.
Members will spend another day hammering out a process for developing standards they will recommend to the board of education.
