Friday, January 29, 2010

Kentucky First in line for National Standards

This from the Commish in his weekly KDE-mail:
On February 10th, the Kentucky Board of Education will meet to formally adopt the common core standards in English/language arts as part of revisions to the regulation titled 704 KAR 3:303, Required program of studies, and then on the evening of February 10th, an historic joint meeting of the Kentucky Board of Education, Council on Postsecondary Education and the Education Professional Standards Board will occur to adopt a resolution requiring their respective agencies to “integrate the final standards into their work and processes to ensure that all Kentucky students experience a successful and productive future”.

The adoption and implementation of the new standards meets a major requirement of Senate Bill 1 as well as highlights the leadership role Kentucky has played in adopting the common core standards.

Kentucky will be the first state to adopt the standards and our Kentucky teachers will begin to work on translating the standards into classroom and student-friendly language.

The joint meeting will occur at 5:30 p.m., local time, on February 10, at the Kentucky Community and Technical College System offices in Versailles. It will be webcasted and you will be able to access it on KDE’s website through the home page on that date. Tune in and watch history in the making!

5 comments:

Richard Innes said...

I'm confused.

I just checked today, and the Core Standards final release is going to be further delayed, maybe to Mid-March or even April.

How are KDE, CPE and EPSB going to approve them in February?

Richard Day said...

Richard: Pushed back again?
I haven't kept track, but isn't this the third delay?

You ask an excellent question.

Richard Day said...

Dick: For what it's worth, I just came across an Ed Week story that still says mid February.

Richard Innes said...

Richard,

I guess we'll find out for sure in about a week, but I got my information from one of the public contact people at CCSSO.

There is plenty of traffic on education blogs that the Common Core Standards have gotten a lot of feedback and criticism.

Richard Day said...

I've seen the pushback too, but is it surprising?

This is the challenge of large scale reform. It files in the face of a lot of local folks who want to make their own determinations about curriculum and assessment. It also concerns purists who don't want anything between the teacher and the student.

Both groups have a point, and I think it's starting to dawn on folks how the feds can push local schools by simply dangling enough money.

Does anyone else find it curious that some of the same folks who decry federal spending, rely on it so that they don't have to raise money at the state level?