Dive Brief:
- Missouri teachers and parents charged with creating new state education standards are off to a rocky start — the group is divided over how far it should stray from the Common Core.
- While Missouri has not formally dropped the Common Core, in Gov. Jay Nixon signed a bill in July asking a group of parents and educators to create standards that would replace it.
- The goal is for the new standards to be implemented in the 2016-17 school year.
Dive Insight:
According to the Associated Press, the real divide over the creation of the new standards could be summarized by who appointed the committee members. "There was a clear divide among task force members between Common Core opponents appointed by Republican legislative leaders and supporters of the standards appointed by public education officials," wrote the Associated Press.
It may be difficult for Missouri to create anything innovative or worthwhile if so much of the task force's time is devoted to bickering over the merits of the various standards.