JACKSON, Miss.–Mississippi lawmakers adopted the goals and values of Common Core some time back. Since that time, the education standards of the program have been embraced by the federal government and that has caused some of those lawmakers to take a second look.
You may not know what Common Core is. This is text from the website www.corestandards.org :
The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers.
The website goes on to say that standards from other countries have, in some cases, been applied to the U.S. in setting up the Common Core standards in English and especially Math.
The problem, according to State Sen. Angela Hill, is that some of those standards do not even meet Mississippi’s current requirements, so, effectively, the bar is lowered by adopting Common Core as the standard.
“From being a teacher in the State of Mississippi and knowing the frameworks that we teach and speaking to other teachers, I don’t see the superiority in the standards of Common Core,” she said.
She said part of the solution will come in the form of legislation in 2014.
“I intend to file the same bill as Illinois. It will say that we’ll not roll out Common Core any further in Mississippi until a curriculum comparison between Common Core standards and Mississippi K-12 standards is done and until we do a cost analysis as to how much it’s gonna cost the State of Mississippi and individual school districts to implement this program.”
LINK: STOP Common Core in Miss. Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/StopCommonCoreInMississippi
LINK: Fact and Fiction on Common Core in Mississippi: http://www.harrison.k12.ms.us/Portals/0/Images/Documents/CCSS%20Fiction_Facts.pdf
Mississippi adopted Common Core in 2010, but the implementation is set for the 2014-2015 school year.
