Duval County

Common Core to be replaced in local schools

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — According to the Florida Department of Education website, the goal of B.E.S.T. is to correct some of the concerns that parents and teachers had around Common Core. Like, getting rid of “crazy math” and allowing students to use different strategies to get to that correct answer.

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It also would not deduct points for the method used, as long as that answer is correct.

The Department of Education says under the new standards Florida will become the first state to require civics education in all grades and short standardized tests.

It will get rid of confusing math and will offer to pay every high school juniors an opportunity to take the SAT or ACT until at least 2022

New education standards

• Civics education requirements

• Reduced standardized tests

• No more confusing math

• SAT/ACT requirement

Duval County Public Schools said:

The B.E.S.T. standards were just adopted by the state, so we have not yet had a chance to develop a crosswalk between the Florida Standards and the new B.E.S.T. standards. The new standards will be rolled out over a period of time, with English Language Arts standards being introduced at the classroom level in the 2021-2022 school year and mathematics in the 2022-2023 school year.

Additionally, in 2022-2023, the state will be eliminating some of the assessments required of students such as the 9th grade Florida State Assessment (FSA) and the Geometry End of Course Exam. The state has also proposed replacing some of the state testing with college entrance exams, such as the ACT or SAT; however, the details of that plan have not yet been developed.

As for how Duval County Public Schools will implement the new curriculum, prior to any district implementation the state has to go through a textbook adoption process. The state adoption for English Language Arts will begin this spring, and districts will go through the local adoption process in the 2020-2021 school year, with implementation in the 2021-2022 school year.

The state will be adopting new textbooks for mathematics in the 2020-2021 school year, with districts adopting math books in 2021-2022 for an implementation in 2022-2023.