ORLANDO, Fla. (WFLA) —Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday that Common Core has officially been removed from Florida classrooms, but the state still has to adopt newly proposed standards.
“When I took office, I made a pledge to the citizens of Florida to overhaul our educational standards to remove all vestiges of Common Core and return to the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic,” said Governor DeSantis. “I am pleased that this historic task has been completed and we are well on our way to making Florida the best state in the nation for education. My deepest thanks to Commissioner Corcoran and Department of Education staff, Florida teachers, parents, subject matter experts and stakeholders for their participation in this transparent, in-depth and comprehensive process.”
Common Core, which was known as Florida Standards, is a set of academic standards in math, English, language arts and literacy that a student must meet or surpass at the end of each grade.
In January 2019, DeSantis issued an executive order to eliminate Common Core from Florida schools.
DeSantis said he wants to streamline standardized testing, make civics a priority in schools and increase the rate of literacy.
The commissioner is recommending that the State Board of Education formally adopt the standards on Feb. 12.
“Governor DeSantis has proven once again that he is the Education Governor,” said Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran. “Under his bold leadership, these new standards represent the highest quality knowledge-based standards in the nation. They not only incorporate civics throughout every grade, a first of their kind in the nation, ensuring that our students are well versed in the United States Constitution and the responsibilities of citizenship, they also provide educators with clear and concise standards. I am confident our students will thrive academically and be well prepared for success.”
With the B.E.S.T. Standards, which stands for Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking, students will learn financial literacy throughout high school, increased focus on writing, eliminates “confusing” math, civics instruction from K-12 and much more.
To learn more about the B.E.S.T. Standards, click here.
