Today, the Arizona State Board of Education will consider a request by Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas to remove Common Core as the basis for language arts (ELA) and mathematics standards. In a letter requesting the agenda item, Douglas reminded the Board of their authority to “add, delete or modify these standards.”
The State Board of Education meets at 9:00 a.m. today, in Room 122 of the Education Building, located at 1535 W. Jefferson, in Phoenix.
Douglas ran and won the 2014 race for Superintendent of Public Instruction on an anti-Common Core platform. She promised voters that she would fight to replace the federally crafted Common Core standards. As a result, she has become a target for the various chambers of commerce across the state, and Governor Doug Ducey. Although Ducey claimed that he opposed the standards during his 2014 campaign, he has worked to protect them.
Miller made her agenda request on October 20 in a letter to State Board of Education (SBE) Chair Greg Miller. In it, Douglas offered a suggestion for a motion to be made at the meeting. She wrote:
“It is hereby moved the actions of the State Board of Education (SBE) on June 28, 2010 to adopt Common Core, now referred to to as the Arizona College and Career Ready Standards, as the standards for language arts and mathematics be reversed and all links to Common Core be severed. Current language arts and mathematics standards will replace in place subject to modification by the SBE which will have the power to add, delete or modify these standards.”
“The net effect is to sever the tie between Arizona and the Common Core Standards created by the Council of State School Officer (CCSSO) and the state. It will return Arizona to developing its own standards for approval by the SBE,” continued Douglas. “Standards currently in effect will not be changed, including those provided through Common Core. CCSSO has indicated that they do not intend to update Common Core nor provide a Common Core 2. Those standards will become increasingly out-of-date and with five years of experience can be significantly approved.”
The agenda item reads:
Arizona Revised Statues (A.R.S.) §15-203 requires that the Board define college and career readiness. A.R.S. §§15-701 and 15-701.01 specifically authorize and mandate that the Board adopt academic standards and minimum competency requirements for grades K-12. The Board adopts academic standards addressing what a student is ultimately expected to learn (i.e., multiplication, grammar, understand simple words and expressions in a foreign language). Arizona retains authority to approve and modify academic standards; there is no federal law requiring the adoption of specific standards.
The State Board of Education’s Standards Development Committee will be holding a meeting to seek public input on Arizona’s Mathematics and English Language Arts Standards in Tucson on October 29th.
In April, the State Board of Education established the Arizona Academic Standards Development Committee to oversee the development of Arizona Mathematics Standards and Arizona English Language Arts Standards.
For more information on Arizona’s K-12 Mathematics and English Language Arts Standards, visit: https://k12standards.az.gov/
The State Board is accepting public comments on the standards. To submit feedback online, visit: https://k12standards.az.gov/comment-standards