Missouri House secures compromise legislation that will allow Common Core standards to remain intact until 2016

JEFFERSON CITY – Common Core standards will remain intact while a commission studies the impact of the standards on student performance in Missouri.  The Missouri House reached a compromise today on legislation that originally sought to ban Common Core standards in Missouri.  Instead, House Bill 1490 was amended to appoint a commission to study the standards and make a recommendation in 2016 on whether to continue with the national standards or implement Missouri’s own set of standards.  That’s good news for the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which supports raising the bar for Missouri students.
 
“We have had a long-standing position demanding more rigorous standards for elementary and secondary education,” said Missouri Chamber President / CEO Daniel P. Mehan. “We believe the state should have an agreed-upon set of standards for fundamental coursework for students at every grade level, while preserving local control of curriculum and instructional choices by which educators can achieve these standards.  This was our position before “Common Core” became a buzz word.  Regardless of what you call it, Missouri students benefit by being held to higher standards.”
 
Studies show our children are lagging behind students around the world. Among 65 countries, U.S. students are 21st in literacy, 24th in science and 31st in math.
 
In an effort to reverse that trend, Missouri and 44 other states have adopted the Common Core standards for mathematics and English language studies, which were released in 2010. The standards have already been implemented in over 80 percent of Missouri school districts. The standards were created as part of a project by the National Governors Association in partnership with the Council of Chief State School Officers.
 
“As the debate has unfolded this legislative session, we have seen that few are opposed to demanding higher standards from our students,” Mehan said.  “The controversy has built around how to get there.  We are optimistic that this compromise is a reasonable path.”
 
The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry (www.mochamber.com) was founded in 1923 and is the largest business organization in Missouri, representing almost 3,000 employers, providing more than 425,000 jobs for Missourians.