First look at Florida's proposed education standards for grades 6-12

Proposal is next step in Gov. DeSantis' effort to replace Common Core

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In the next step of Gov. Ron DeSantis' plan to eliminate Common Core from Florida public schools, state education leaders have proposed new academic standards middle and high school English and math classes.

In January, DeSantis issued an executive order to get rid of Common Core in an effort to revamp the state's education standards.

Parents can now review a draft of the new education standards line by line and give input, choosing to eliminate the standard, revise it, move the standard to a different grade level or decide if no change is needed.

Right now, only grades six to 12 are available for public comment and grades K to five will be released at a later time.

For the most part, the language in the standards has been streamlined. For example, under the current standards a language requirement is to able to "determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.” The new standards would simply state to "identify a theme of a literary text, whether stated or implied, using evidence from the text.”

Despite DeSantis' call to eliminate Common Core, out of hundreds of public reviews submitted so far for the new standards, the overwhelming number of users say no change is needed. 

The Florida Department of Education has provided data analysis from the most recent update of the state standard public reviews.

Common Core standards were first adopted by state leaders in 2010 with changes being made in 2014 to what are known as the Florida Standards.

People can comment on the new standards through Sep. 30, but will need to register first.


About the Authors:

Ashley Harding joined the Channel 4 news team in March 2013. She reports for and anchors The Morning Show.