Department of Education Proposes Tweaks to Common Core

The Common Core State Standards have been causing controversy over the last few months, with many parents, teachers and members of the public calling for changes to the national education benchmarks. It appears the Florida Department of Education is listening, because the department is nowproposing making dozens of changes to the standards, including several changes in both math and English language arts standards.

I appreciate all of the feedback from teachers, parents, administrators and people across the state on Floridas English language arts and mathematics standards, said Commissioner of Education Pam Stewart.

With your input, we have strengthened our standards to ensure they are the best and highest standards, so that all Florida students graduate from high school prepared for success in college, career and in life.

The full list of proposed changes, which can be viewed on the department's website, dropped after the department took comments about the standards from public hearings and its website.

Some proposed changes includeadding cursive in elementary school and using "accurately conversational, general academic, anddomain specific words and phrases as found in grade appropriatetexts."

A significant number of changes were suggested for Common Core's math standards, including 52 new calculus standards. One proposed change would require students in first grade to identify money concepts, like the value of coins and computing the value of combination of coins. Under the original Common Core standards, this concept would not be taught until second grade.

The proposed list of changes also features sections where parent and teacher input is clearly listed in the white columns of the department's documents. Gov. Rick Scott ordered the department to hold three public hearings to gather input on the standards. The department also collected19,000 public comments on its website.

According to Education Week, Florida appears to be the first state to make changes to the standards after "deep review."

Florida's schools are already working on transitioning to the standards, which are set to be fully implemented by the 2014-2015 academic year. The department is currently working on choosing a new assessment test to replace the FCAT, though a specific test has not yet been chosen.