Education official offers primer on Pa.’s new ‘Common Core’ standards

Corbett administration officials are waging a cleanup campaign to try to dispel some of what they call false claims about new Common Core educational measures Pennsylvania plans to implement this fall.

The new measures will bring no mandated curricula or reading lists, and no nationally dictated tests, said Carolyn Dumaresq with the state Department of Education.

She spoke to state lawmakers Monday in an attempt to explain the new standards, which she says received the most intense public feedback on the standards in the past few months.

“Many of the issues appeared to stem from misinformation or actions taken by other states that were different from what Pennsylvania was doing in regard to standards and related issues,” she said.

The state began developing its own Common Core standards several years ago.

Gov. Tom Corbett halted their implementation in May, after the standards were hit with criticism from those who said they represented top-down education, and others who said they would require more work from schools without providing necessary resources.

The new standards include subject-specific standardized tests that will be required for graduation beginning with the Class of 2017.