CALHOUN PLUS 10 WV COUNTIES REJECT COMMON CORE MATH STANDARDS

(06/13/2015)

Eleven West Virginia counties, including Calhoun, have told state education officials they plan to revert next school year to the traditional high school math course structure that existed before the national Common Core standards. Calhoun Schools reportedly made the decision and applied for a waiver from the standards. Other school districts are reportedly looking at other options, while some could be sticking with the Common Core standards. Twenty-six districts have indicated whether they will return to a previous structure of Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II or continue with the new "integrated" math courses of Math I, II and III, according to data presented Wednesday to the West Virginia Board of Education. In what appears to be a complicated issue, schools will be required to continue teaching to the Common Core standards even if they revert to the old course structure. The counties reverting to the traditional structure are Brooke, Calhoun, Greenbrier, Hardy, Harrison, Kanawha, Mason, Morgan, Pendleton, Putnam and Ritchie. The Common Core standards were implemented statewide just this year — although some counties put them in place earlier — the most common issue is transferring students from Math I, which contains both algebra and geometry topics, to Geometry, a course that requires more previous understanding of algebra than Math I provides. In February, the state school board voted to allow districts to revert back to the traditional math courses. In a speech announcing his run for governor, state Senate President Bill Cole, R-Mercer, said he opposes the new standards, as Common Core continues to be a topic in the national GOP presidential primary. In March, following great opposition from state education officials — who said repealing the standards could disrupt West Virginia's entire K-12 system, cost more than $100 million and threaten federal funding — the Senate Education Committee removed a mandatory repeal of the standards from a bill passed by the House Education Committee. A WV Senate bill called for a "comprehensive review of the standards."

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