Say Goodbye to Common Core

After five years of Common Core, the Board of Regents have heard the complaints and has decided that it needs some updating. They have met, discussed, and finally agreed on a new learning path and they're now calling it the Next Generation Learning Standards.

According to the Times Union, New York education leaders met Monday and approved English and Mathematics standards for kindergarten through 12th grade after the first discussion in 2015. Apparently they're not quite replacing what we all know as Common Core but they have substantially revised it. You won't see these changes quite yet as they have to go through a review and approval process that takes about two years.

The Next Generation Learning Standards are new standards that tell what students should know and be able to do by the end of each grade. The biggest concern they heard was that work was too focused on structure and not enough on imagination and flexibility depending on each student's strengths and weaknesses. This is a big difference from the original Common Core where many were concerned over what was being implemented without talking it over with parents, teachers, or students.

Teachers will begin training in the new standards soon and will be able to start teaching them in 2020 with with testing in spring of 2021. The biggest take-away from these new standards is the new focus it will have on play and natural curiosity. Their goal is to teach students as individuals instead of lumping all students together regardless of what they already bring to the table.

The New York State Department of Education has broken down more specifically the standards expected from English and Math on their website.