CHARLESTON, W.Va. — In voice votes with no nays heard, the West Virginia Board of Education on Thursday chose to replace the state’s Common Core-based math and English/language arts standards with revised education requirements, effective next school year.
The board also approved making permanent, beginning this spring, the recent reduction in end-of-year standardized testing in two subjects that don’t have Common Core-based standards: science and social studies. All end-of-school-year social studies standardized testing will be eliminated and tested grades in science will drop from third-11th to just fourth, sixth and 10th.
The board placed the revised math and English/language arts standards out for a 30-day public comment period last month. Because the list of comments submitted during that time, as well as the changes made based on them, weren’t available long before Thursday’s meeting, it wasn’t immediately clear how extensively the standards approved differ from the version the board posted for comment last month. A brief reading of the documents on the comment period suggests the change is limited.
State Schools Superintendent Michael Martirano said alterations made since last month were largely “fine-tuning.” He said the larger changes came from the previous, special online “Academic Spotlight” review of the standards and eight town hall meetings…
