Missouri officially scrapped the Common Core Standards this week after the State Board of Education approved a new set of reading, math, science and social studies standards for schools to operate under.

The new standards were approved unanimously, just two years after the state voted to depart from the Common Core altogether.

While an aligned curriculum must be developed by schools next school year, new assessments will not be rolled out until Spring 2018 as the state works to develop them.

The process to replace Common Core in the state began after widespread backlash against the Common Core and a general lack of local control over education. The new standards were ultimately designed with the input of over 3,600 lawmakers, educators and academic researchers, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said.

But as is the case with most states that have voted to replace the Common Core thus far, critics argue that the new standards mirror the old ones too closely.

"Anne Gassel, a leader of the Missouri Coalition Against Common Core…believes…[t]he English standards still are similar to Common Core...and the final product is too different from what work groups had recommended that the board adopt,” said the article.

Still, the new standards do have plenty of changes that depart from the Common Core. For one, the new standards require cursive writing in elementary school once again, something the Common Core standards do not. The standards also bring traditional math back into high schools; Common Core math has been universally met with criticism for being confusing and poorly implemented.

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Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

4/20/2016