The board of education has approved a plan to overhaul the education system in the face of the state’s growing student population.
The plan, called the Board of Governors Initiative on School Quality and Success, proposes sweeping reforms that would help the state reach its goal of having 30 percent of its students proficient in reading and math by 2021.
The new plan calls for the elimination of the current state-mandated Common Core State Standards.
Instead, it calls for an independent assessment of all students to determine whether they are ready to graduate.
The board also proposes that a national testing consortium would monitor students and their test scores to ensure they’re on track to graduate on time and at a level that meets their state-imposed graduation goals.
The plan comes after a rocky first year in which the state struggled to keep up with enrollment and high teacher attrition, leading to questions about whether the state could meet its graduation goals for 2020.
The proposal was endorsed by the state legislature in May.
The board’s new plan includes the following:A comprehensive assessment of the education workforce and graduatesA national test consortium that will provide data on all studentsA national curriculum plan that will focus on students’ strengths and weaknessesA national student-evaluation program that would include assessments for both English and mathA pilot program to help students with disabilities attend school and get a degreeThe board said in a statement that the plan would help ensure that students graduate on schedule, with a higher percentage of students meeting the graduation goal by 2021 than they are today.
The state already has a goal of 25 percent proficiency in reading.
State lawmakers approved the plan in December, just months after the state announced it was ending Common Core in July.
The new plan was first introduced in the spring.
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