21 percent of Common Core standards changed in La.

Louisiana educators have changed 21 percent of the academic standards for math and English, according to the committee charged with the review.

Many changes are geared toward giving teachers more flexibility, making standards clearer and ensuring standards are appropriate for students' ages and grade levels.

“We have created these standards to fit the needs of our Louisiana students. We hope they empower teachers,” said Regina Sanford, chair of the Standards Review Committee, in a Monday media call.

“We feel very strongly that Louisiana classrooms will not all look the same,” Sanford continued. “We want to continue to empower our Louisiana teachers who are closest to our standards, to actually take these standards and make them their own."

'Substantive changes' possible in La. academics

The review committee, along with three subcommittees, was formed last year after state legislators agreed to develop Louisiana-specific academic standards. Since then, about 100 teachers from across the state have reviewed each of the Common Core math and English standards to determine whether it should remain, move to another grade or be removed altogether.

Anne Smith, chair of the K-2 content subcommittee, said some changes were reworded to remove any suggestions about using rote memory. Teachers added standards in kindergarten and first grade for students to recognize the name and value of coins, to better prepare them for solving money-based word problems in third grade.

The English Language Arts subcommittee wanted “to remove anything that might be interpreted as curriculum directives,” said Laurie Carlton, chair of the ELA subcommittee. For example, the committee removed part of a high school reading standard that required students to name plays by certain playwrights, but keeping the portion for students to analyze multiple interpretations of a piece of literary work.

“Another main focus was that we built standards across grade levels to ensure smooth transitions,” Carlton said. “A lot of our work came from making sure the standards were free of redundancies and free of gaps.”

The same was true for the math subcommittee, which moved some standards to different grade levels, and created language allowing teachers to use different methods for teaching content.

The proposed changes will be presented to the Standards Review Committee in New Orleans on Tuesday. If that committee approves the proposals, they would go to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for a final vote in March.