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Educators, Administrators Plan To Review Drafts Of New Standards In Oklahoma City

Mark Twain Elementary second grade teacher Elizabeth Clarke staples together work from two of her second-grade students in this 2013 photo.
Chase Cook
/
Oklahoma Watch
Mark Twain Elementary second grade teacher Elizabeth Clarke staples together work from two of her second-grade students in this 2013 photo.

For the past four months, Oklahoma educators and other stakeholders have been working on new state education standards to replace the Common Core. The Oklahoma State Department of Education published a rough draft of the new standards on their website Monday evening.

Tuesday night, for the first time, the public will have a chance to review them. At a 5:30 p.m. town hall meeting at the Cox Convention Center in downtown Oklahoma City, the Department of Education will begin collecting comments about the state's proposed academic standards.

The SDE is writing this new academic framework to replace the Common Core standards Gov. Mary Fallin repealed last year.

The new standards are only for English and math, and will define what students should know at each stage of their education-- from kindergarten through high school. By law, they are to be completed by the middle of 2016.

Oklahoma Watch’s Nate Robson reviewed the draft standards last week at the education department’s headquarters, and reports the math standards will include a strong financial literacy component:

Elementary students start by sorting and identifying coins, and as they age, are required to add, subtract and count with currency. In high school, students would be required to explain why they used a certain formula, whether in algebra or geometry. That requirement is not in PASS standards, but is a feature in Common Core. [Deputy state superintendent for academic affairs and planning Cindy] Koss said that ensures students have a deeper understanding of math. “It’s important to have fluency in math,” Koss said. “Students need to know when and how to use those formulas and practices.”

The English and language arts requirements call for a greater emphasis on writing and research papers at the elementary level.

The PASS standards do not address proper quotation and paraphrasing until seventh grade. Common Core does not mention quotations until fifth grade, and then only for quoting sections of reading passages. The English standards draft pushes proper use of quotations and paraphrasing when writing research papers starting in fourth grade. The standards also call for conducting interviews with experts and include a focus on how to safely use the Internet for research. Committee members drafting the English standards said in an email students are capable of proper paraphrasing and quotation before fifth grade, and that working on the practice at a younger age will better prepare them for middle school. The improper use of quotations and paraphrases was an issue on last year’s fifth-grade writing test.

The current draft will undergo multiple changes as comments from events like Tuesday's town hall meeting are reviewed. During the three-day EngageOK event, teachers and administrators will have an opportunity to view the standards on computers, and there will also be sessions for educators to go over them.

Brian Hardzinski is from Flower Mound, Texas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. He began his career at KGOU as a student intern, joining KGOU full time in 2009 as Operations and Public Service Announcement Director. He began regularly hosting Morning Edition in 2014, and became the station's first Digital News Editor in 2015-16. Brian’s work at KGOU has been honored by Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI), the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters, the Oklahoma Associated Press Broadcasters, and local and regional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists. Brian enjoys competing in triathlons, distance running, playing tennis, and entertaining his rambunctious Boston Terrier, Bucky.
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