(MPRN-Lansing) The public comment period is winding down for proposed new state science and social studies standards. The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) will hold three public meetings on the standards this week.
MDE has already held several other meetings across the state on the standards.
“We’ve gotten tremendous conversation and tremendous help from the public and from educators around the state on ways that we can improve what we have now,”
said MDE spokesperson Martin Ackley. Ackley says they hope to avoid the controversy that followed the adoption of Common Core standards for math and English language arts. He says lawmakers and members of the public felt they were left out of the process of adopting those standards.
“In that conversation with legislators, we agreed from this point on we would keep them fully involved in the process. And so that’s what we’ve been doing,” he said. “A big part of the confusion is that people in the public think that these are actual curricula. And they are not. These are basic standards and the curricula are developed at the local school district levels.”
The State Board of Education hopes to hold a vote on the proposed standards before the end of the year.