Tag: Common Core

Momentum Shifts on Bill to Repeal Common Core

When it comes to student achievement in math and reading, Alabama is near the bottom of the list. If you ask state Sen. Del Marsh, he’d blame Alabama’s poor performance on standards for teaching math and language arts in public schools.

Marsh wants to repeal the nationwide academic standards known as Common Core this legislative session. But the proposal seems to have lost some momentum. Read more.

Fast-Tracked Common Core Repeal Bill Passed by the Senate

Updated MONTGOMERY – A bill to repeal the state’s Common Core education standards cleared the Senate on Thursday, a day after being passed in committee.

Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, in previous years stood in the way of Common Core repeal efforts. But now he says removing the standards and charging the Alabama Board of Education to start over is aimed at improving Alabama’s lagging student performance.

“My position early on was that the (state) Department of Education and the board, elected by the people, should figure this out,” Marsh told Alabama Daily News this week. “That’s policy. We’re sitting here today with math scores in the eighth-grade level at 49th in the country and reading at 46th. I mean, you can’t justify that. So we’re saying after nine years with this program, it’s not working and we need to change direction.”

The bill would require the state board of educatiion to adopt new standards for the 2021-2022 school year. Originally the bill had called for the new standards to be in place for the 2020-2021 school year, and it required the state to revert to the previous standards in place during the 1990s and 2000s for the upcoming academic year. Some educators objected to changing the standards twice in two years and said making the changes would be a burdensome and costly task.

State Superintendent Eric Mackey said the bill would have a lot of unintended consequences.

Read more.