Last Thursday, Governor Ron DeSantis announced an executive order asking the new Florida Department of Education commissioner, Richard Corcoran, to eliminate Common Core standards in schools across the state. Common Core is a set of standards that sets goals for what K-12 students should learn in math and language arts by the end of each grade level. These standards are also what drives teacher and school district evaluations. The Governor has asked for a year-long evaluation to create new curriculum standards for all school districts. Florida standards and assessments were last changed in 2014.

“I commend Governor DeSantis for reassessing curriculum standards in our state,” said Todd Bowden, superintendent of Sarasota County Schools. “It’s healthy to review these standards on an on-going basis to determine what subject areas are most important for our students to learn. As our society changes, so should the standards that we work toward. I also call for the Governor to review assessments which are based on these standards—not only the testing of our students, but how their outcomes affect teacher evaluations as well. With performance pay mandated by the state on student assessments, I am hopeful teachers will play a key role in developing the new standards and how assessments are utilized.”

Sarasota County Schools