It was certainly a big topic in the last election. Common Core had everybody up in arms. Well, we had an elections and there were changes made to the state's Board of Elementary and Secondary Education aka the BESE Board. Have the changes requested by the electorate actually started to manifest in a different policy for education? The short answer is yes. The longer answer is there are still many other changes to consider.

Even before voters went to the polls last fall there were changes the BESE Board announced. One of those changes was to create a think tank of educators, administrators, and other education professionals to review the current policy and create a better policy where needed. Based on recommendations from  this group the BESE Board approved the Louisiana State Student Standards in English and math. This will replace Common Core curriculum in those areas of study.

The improvements were very substantial. When you look at the number of problems that people pointed out and the way that all of those issues were addressed were incredibly substantial.

The words of Jim Garvey, BESE Board President, as reported by the Louisiana Radio Network. 

Garvey says that after several committees, subcommittees, and countless peer reviews this new policy and curriculum should better suit the needs of Louisiana students. The new policy was vetted by a task force of some 100 educators, parents, and business people through out the state.  Essentially what this recommendation will allow is for a teacher to teach his or her class the best way he or she sees fit to get the lesson across.

If they think that they know a better way to teach kindergarten their ABC’s or a better way to count to 10, that’s up to them. We are going to give them some suggestions and then let them run with the ball.

There are still a couple of hurdles that this new policy will have to go through before it becomes the law of the land. The policy will need to be reviewed by the Governor and the Legislature. This might take a while since they are a little busy at the moment trying to figure out how to actually keep schools open across the state.

 

More From 96.5 KVKI