With the signing of Senate Bill 812 by Governor Pat McCrory on July 22, 2014, North Carolina became the 10th state to reject the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) developed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. The State Board of Education had adopted the CCSS for public schools on June 2, 2010, in K-12 mathematics and English language arts. The standards were implemented during the 2012-13 school year. The new law requires the state board to develop academic standards that meet and reflect North Carolina’s priorities for its students without consideration of the CCSS. In adopting the new standards, the state board must consult with and consider the recommendations of the newly formed Academic Standards Review Commission.
As a member of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), the developer of student tests for the CCSS, the state board was planning to purchase and use these tests to measure student achievement. But the new law requires the state board to purchase a new assessment instrument that is appropriate to measure student achievement under the revised standards. Further, the state board is prohibited from purchasing any assessments without the approval of the legislature.
The current impact of the CCSS on homeschools nationwide is revealed in the expanding state longitudinal databases for tracking all students, shifting college admissions standards, newly updated curricula, and revised standardized tests. For additional information from an HSLDA analysis of the CCSS, please click here.
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Senior Counsel Dee Black answers questions and assists members with legal issues in North Carolina. He and his wife homeschooled their children.
Courtesy HSLDA. Used with permission.
Publication date: July 30, 2014