By Gary Lloyd
MONTGOMERY — The Alabama State Department of Education is asking for public input specifically related to the Alabama College- and Career-Ready Standards in an effort to maintain the highest level of rigor and challenge for the state’s K-12 public school students.
Beginning Oct. 6 through the week of Dec. 15, the public can go to the Standards Review Homepage and offer feedback on each standard for English/Language Arts and Mathematics by grade. Each week, standards for each grade are available for review and comment, beginning with kindergarten.
State Superintendent of Education Tommy Bice said the goal of the review is to engage the general public, parents, educators, business and industry, and civic leaders in a general review of the standards, and to increase the depth of understanding of the standards.
“The review of the Alabama College- and Career-Ready Standards will help raise awareness of what the standards actually require students to learn and provide the Alabama State Department of Education with invaluable input on how the standards can be improved,” Bice said. “Upon completion of the review, we will take the feedback we receive and strengthen the standards where needed as we work to continually ensure that all students graduate with the knowledge and skills they need for college and career.”
The standards in the application are arranged by subject and grade level. To respond to standards, participants must enter all required demographic information. Review participants can select “Agree” if they are satisfied with the standard as written or “Disagree” if they would like to see a standard modified. If “Disagree” is selected, participants will be able to provide suggestions for rewriting or changing the standard.
Participants will be able to review up to 20 standards per form; however, they will have the option of submitting an additional form if they want to review more standards.
At the conclusion of the public review, the feedback generated will go to the state Mathematics and English/Language Arts Course of Study teams. The only comments that will be considered for action will be those of academic substance that are tied to a specific standard. The COS teams may then provide recommendations to the Alabama State Board of Education.
The review week for first grade will be Oct. 13, second grade Oct. 20, third grade Oct. 27, fourth grade Nov. 3, fifth grade Nov. 10, sixth grade Nov. 17, seventh grade Nov. 24 and eighth grade Dec. 1. The ninth and 10th grade reviews are the week of Dec. 8, and the 11th and 12th grade reviews are the week of Dec. 15.
For more information, visit www.alsde.edu.
Contact Gary Lloyd at news@trussvilletribune.com and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.