Schools

Curriculum Changes Underway in Brighton Schools

Common Core Standards will set the pace for student learning for years to come.

The Common Core Standards, which the State Board of Education unanimously adopted in June 2010, is a set of rigorous, college and career-ready curriculum standards for students that 46 states across the nation already adopted to bring consistency in education.

"The standards will for the first time provide states with clear and consistent educational goals and represent a logical next step in our state's efforts to embrace high learning," Mike Flanagan, state superintendent of public instruction in Michigan said.

According to the initiative, standards will require schools to develop or enhance their curriculum in mathematics, reading and writing, which Michigan districts are already doing. Beginning in 2014, the Michigan Merit Exam and MEAP will be replaced with standardized evaluations that focus on a student's reading comprehension, ability to form and write logical arguments and apply mathematical ways of thinking to real world issues.

Find out what's happening in Brightonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"The idea of common core is to combat that criticism of curriculum, that it’s a mile wide and an inch deep," said Ron Roberts, Chippewa Valley Schools superintendent. "If we can truly reduce the number of skills at any given time that we’re expecting kids to master and have kids dig deeper on that, I'm hopeful that the common core is a good change for us."

Brighton Area Schools' Superintendent Greg Gray agrees that the common core could be a good change for schools.

Find out what's happening in Brightonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"It's supposed to be common curriculum across the nation - as opposed to individual districts, counties and states," Gray said. "That will be an added benefit if we get a kid from out of the county or out of state because he or she should be in the same place as our students."


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here