The Ohio Department of Education is asking the public to weigh in on state standards for school pupils. The heart of the state criteria was adopted five years ago as part of the Common Core standards used by many states. But now that teachers have had a few years to work through them, the Department is open to some revisions.
First of all, the Common Core isn’t something handed down by the federal government. The Common Core standards took hundreds of people in Ohio and other states working years to nail down what students need to know and at what grade level to teach it.
In the Spring, Ohio asked the public to look over its English and Math standards. Now the state Department of Ed wants input on Science, Financial Literacy, and Social Studies.
It’s not simple. Ohio standards for K-12 science alone runs 344 pages.
They even made a How-To video.
Any suggested changes go to committees of teachers and education professionals. They’ll work on them for over a year before final revisions are approved by the state board of education. A specific curriculum to teach the standards is decided by each local school district.
