CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s proposed new K-12 math and English language arts standards, which the state schools superintendent says aren’t based on Common Core, contain much of the exact same language as the controversial national standards blueprint.
State Superintendent Michael Martirano told the state Board of Education and media Friday, when the board put the new standards out on 30-day public comment period, that the new educational requirements aren’t Common Core-based — unlike the current state standards that lawmakers have previously attempted to repeal. The state school board is expected to have a final vote on the standards in December, before the start of the next legislative session in January.
But at least in grades K-5, the state’s current Common Core-based standards and the proposed new standards contain much of the exact the same language, down to the same examples for what students should learn, according to a review of the elementary grade standards. The Gazette-Mail still is looking through the grades 6-12 learning requirements, which include at least one big difference from Common Core: the ability, previously OK’d by the state school board but not yet written into the standards, for schools to teach the traditional math courses of Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II, instead of the mixed-subject math courses of Math I, II and III.
Asked Monday whether it is disingenuous to say the new standards aren’t Common Core-based, Martirano said no.
“And it’s insulting that you would insinuate that…
