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Switch to new school standards moves ahead
by Tim Pugmire, Minnesota Public Radio
June 18, 2003

Teachers and school administrators packed a room at the Edina Community Center to learn about new K-12 standards. (MPR Photo/Tim Pugmire)

State officials have begun developing the next set of new academic standards for Minnesota public schools, even before the first set has hit classrooms. Education Commissioner Cheri Pierson Yecke announced on Wednesday that her department is now accepting applications from people who want help write the standards in science and social studies. She also tried to head off the controversies she's expecting in those subjects.

Edina, Minn. — The Minnesota Department of Education wrapped up a series of regional meetings to explain the new math and language arts standards schools must begin implementing this fall. Teachers and school administrators from throughout the Twin Cities metro area packed a room at the Edina Community Center to hear one of the final presentations.

Lisa Burns, a teacher and reading coordinator at Anthony Middle School Minneapolis, says she has a lot of work ahead.

"We were just sitting and talking about how are we going to make this happen," Burns said. "Because some of these things are pretty dramatic. It depends on what your district has done, but for us it will be quite the change. And so we're -- I don't want to say uptight about it -- but it's going to be pretty nerve-wracking for us."

Legislators approved the academic standards this spring as they abolished the previous graduation requirements known as the Profile of Learning. The old system placed the emphasis on students demonstrating what they'd learned. The new standards spell out specific facts and skills students must know. Jerry Kjergaard, superintendent of the Waconia school district, welcomes the change.

	Cheri Pierson Yecke

"I don't think it throws out everything we've done," Kjergaard said. "And to be honest with you, I kind of like the clarification that's contained within them. There were so many gray areas within the Profile of Learning that nobody really knew what you were supposed to do."

Education Commissioner Cheri Pierson Yecke selected teachers, parents and business leaders to help write the reading and math standards. She's now taking applications from others who want to draft the next standards in science and social studies. Schools would begin implementing those standards during the 2004-05 school year. Yecke is anticipating a debate in the science discussion over creationism and evolution. Creationism is based on the belief that God created the world in a single act. Evolution holds that all life developed from single-cell organisms. The commissioner says creationism will not be addressed in the state standards.

"It seems very obvious that we cannot mandate that from the state level," Yecke said. "Legally we cannot do that, and so it's just best to say at this point in time, you know, it's off the table. And what we'll do is try to consider what the legal decisions have been in terms of the local level and let the people at the local districts deal with it."

State science standards are required under the federal No Child Left Behind act and would be linked to annual testing. The social studies standards will include history, geography, economics, citizenship and government. There will not be state tests for social studies.

Yecke says she wants children exposed to more history and geography at a young age. She wants to get away from the so-called expanding horizons curriculum. That approach teaches young children about their immediate surroundings rather than the larger world. Yecke says the sophistication of children today requires a broader approach.

"Kids turn on TV and they see the war in Iraq," Yecke said. "The kid sitting next to them might be from Somalia or Guatemala. So, I think we should not limit their social studies education to their neighborhood or their community."

People interested in writing the new standards can request an application by telephone from the Minnesota Department of Education, or they can apply on the department's website. The deadline is July 3. Committee members will be selected two weeks later.

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