New Standards to replace Common Core in SC

The South Carolina Board of Education recently voted to replace the Common Core Standards now being used in math and English. The board adopted new standards, which teachers will start using this fall. Oconee County Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Thorsland says he is glad to have resolution to the matter. “It wasn’t so much Common Core getting voted down as it was South Carolina approving its own standards. Our state Department of Education and the Education Oversight Committee worked together to come up with its own version of standards and we’re excited about that because the main thing for us is that it gives our teachers now a roadmap of where we need to go. It just clarifies exactly what we need to be teaching in our classrooms, so we are glad to have resolution to the matter more than anything.” The differences between Common Core and the new state standards is students will go back to learning cursive in grades 2 and 3. Moreover, they will be expected to know their multiplication tables in grade 4.