TN State Board of Education seeks input on standards

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee State Board of Education wants your feedback on the Volunteer State's newly revised K-12 math and English language arts standards.

The board launched a new website in late October — https://apps.tn.gov/tcas/ — to give the public their first opportunity to offer input on standards that were recently improved by Tennessee educators after previous public input. The standards will be available for online feedback through mid-November, according to a state board news release.

"We are excited to share the recently revised math and ELA standards and launch the second round of public review," said Sara Heyburn, executive director of the Tennessee State Board of Education. "The first round was incredibly successful and we hope as many Tennesseans as possible, especially teachers and parents, will now log in online again to review each specific standard by grade level, provide comments and make suggestions for any changes."

The revised standards were developed by "expert educator advisory teams" during the summer, and "set grade-specific goals that exemplify what students" should know and be able to do by the end of a certain grade or course, according to the release.

Once the data is collected from the public, it will be aggregated and sent to the Standards Recommendation Committee, which is appointed by the governor, the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives. The SRC will then review the standards and public feedback from October through December before making a recommendation in January to the State Board on what any new revisions should look like, according to the release.

The next revision of standards will be implemented in the 2017-18 school year.

Reach government and education reporter Alexander Harris at 931-245-0742, or on Twitter at @ACHarris_Leaf.