STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — It’s official: New York state’s Common Core is out the door.
Members of the state Board of Regents voted Monday in Albany to replace the controversial Common Core learning standards with a new set of standards to be known as the “Next Generation Learning Standards.”
The vote caps a two-year revision process. State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia, who first revealed that a Common Core shakeup was in the works during a meeting with the Advance editorial board in March 2016, presented the revised standards to members of the Board of Regents prior to the vote.
“For two years we have been working and getting feedback,” Elia said. “So we’re very excited to bring this to you now.”
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The revisions build on a draft set of standards released last September and include practices to improve reading and writing, along with shifting some math concepts to different grade levels to make them more age-appropriate.
The standards spell out the knowledge and skills students should be able to demonstrate at each grade level. Up until the revisions, the Common Core standards had been applied in classrooms.
New York received much criticism for rushing to approve the original Common Core curriculum in 2010 and for including the material on state exams without classroom lessons and preparation. That led to a movement by parents to boycott the state tests, and ultimately, a call to completely re-evaluate the system.
The “Next Generation” name was selected from a list of 10 suggestions, including “Empire State Learning Standards,” which was the top choice among several of the state’s education advocacy coalitions.
The new standards will not be in full use in classrooms until 2020, and students will not be tested on them until 2021.