The Arkansas Department of Education is asking for input from the general public on the state's math and English/language arts standards, and for teacher participation in revising those standards.
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State Education Commissioner Johnny Key on Tuesday announced the multiple steps the department is taking -- surveys, an informational website and live-streamed meetings -- to be transparent with the public in revising the standards on which classroom instruction is based.
Proposed revisions to the standards, now known as the Common Core State Standards, will go to the Arkansas Board of Education for approval in 2016 for use beginning with the 2016-17 school year. At the recommendation of Gov. Asa Hutchinson, the name of the standards will also be changed.
"In Arkansas, we have a solid set of standards that serve as a road map for what children should learn and when they should learn it," Key said in a seven-minute video shown at the announcement news conference, adding that the standards need to be improved on an ongoing basis.
The updated standards in math, literacy and science, as well as an increased emphasis on instruction in computer science technology, will multiply the avenues available to students to attain high-paying jobs, Key said.
"Arkansas is at a point where we are ready to take off to the next level," he said. "I've described it as the next stage of a booster rocket, where what we have done before has gotten us to this point. Our next stage is going to take us into a higher level of orbit."
The Arkansas Board of Education adopted the Common Core State Standards in 2010. The standards were developed by national committees of subject-area experts at the urging of the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association. The common sets of standards in math and English/language arts were available to the states to use, which a majority did.
Subsequently, some educators and parents in Arkansas and nationally complained that parents were left out of the development of the standards and that the standards or the curriculum used to teach them, particularly in math, were not appropriate for the targeted grade level. There were also complaints about the amount of time the state's testing program -- which was based on the new standards -- took away from classroom instruction.
In response to criticisms, Hutchinson fulfilled a campaign promise by appointing a 16-member task force of educators, business people and parents to review the standards and recommend changes.
That council, under the leadership of Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin, recommended this summer that the testing program be changed immediately, which has been done.
The council further recommended that the Arkansas Education Department review and revise the standards, using the processes described in state law and in agency rules. The council recommended keeping the current standards in place until that work is completed.
The lieutenant governor and the council also urged that the information about the standards and revisions be communicated well to educators, policymakers, parents and the public.
Key on Tuesday expressed thanks for the input of the governor, the council and the public.
"We want to honor that input and the work that has been done and the recommendations that have been provided to us, by having a very transparent process," Key said.
The Education Department has established a dedicated website on the standards-review process. The site includes the recommendations of the council and timelines for the review process by the Education Department. It will include frequently asked questions and provide information on the live-streaming of committee meetings.
"It is a one-stop shop for all the information that folks might need as we work through this process," Key said of the site, which will regularly updated.
Debbie Jones, the state's assistant commissioner for learning services, said Arkansas Code Annotated 6-15-403 gives the state Education Board the authority to establish academic standards and a process to use.
State rules, she said, require that committees of Arkansas public school teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade develop proposed standards with advice from representatives of higher education and workforce education.
The two 75-member committees -- one for math and one for English/language arts -- must review academic content standards from across the nation. The work of the committees will be reviewed by the outside experts in the fields, the state Education Department and the general public, Jones said.
The Education Department has budgeted $90,000 for revising the standards in each of the two subject areas, Jones said.
That will be supplemented, Key said, with financial assistance from the office of the lieutenant governor, who offered to help with the cost of live-streaming each meeting of the committees and their subcommittees, and other efforts to make the process highly visible to the public.
Stacy Smith, the Education Department's director of curriculum and instruction, said the two committees of educators are now being formed.
The Education Department has already received applications from teachers and others who want to be on the committees and has reached out to education related organizations across the state for more applicants.
Thursday is the deadline for interested educators to send in applications to Key and his staff. The meetings of the committees will begin in October and go through early next year.
Among the committees' tasks will be reviewing education standards across the nation, as well as the results of ongoing surveys of Arkansas teachers and the public that are on the department's website. There is a survey on the general implementation of the standards, as well as separate surveys on math standards and on English/language arts standards.
"The more specific feedback we get on individual standards, the more help that will be to us and to our teams as we work through this process," Key said.
In response to questions, Key said a new name will be found for the revised standards that replace the Common Core State Standards.
Hutchinson last month directed the state agency to examine any copyright issues with the Common Core State Standards and said that, "to avoid any issues, I would recommend the ADE proceed with a new name for the standards, if need be."
Developers of the Common Core State Standards have said individual states can add to the common set of standards by as much as 15 percent and continue to use the Common Core name.
The governor's council had recommended that Arkansas maintain "complete and unfettered control over our educational standards."
Asked if the revised standards, once approved by the state Education Board, will permit comparisons of student achievement among states, Jones said she expects that those comparisons will be possible.
"We will still have a solid set of college- and career-ready standards," she said. "Many other states have gone through this process. We are going to devote the time that is necessary to have quality, rigorous standards. I expect you will see a lot of alignment" among the states.
Key said he does not expect a mismatch between what the new standards will require and what students will be tested on. He said ACT Inc, has based the development of the Aspire tests that Arkansas students will take in grades three through 10 on college- and career-ready standards.
If Arkansas has rigorous college- and career-ready standards, then there should not be a problem, Key said, but added that the alignment of standards and the testing program is a matter that the standards review committees will consider.
The surveys on the standards, the timeline for making the revisions, the Governor's Council recommendations, the state law on standards revisions and a seven-minute video describing the purpose of the math and English/language arts standards that was played at the Tuesday news conference are linked to the agency's home page on its website: www.arkansased.gov.
Viewers can go directly to the standards Web page by using the following: arkansased.gov/divisions/learning-services/curriculum-and-instruction/state-standards-review-for-mathematics-and-english-language-arts.
The public can also submit feedback via email at standardsreview@arkansas.gov.
The video was produced by the CJRW public relations and advertising firm with funding from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.
Metro on 09/09/2015