TAB Likes Common Core Standards Better Than Those of SBOE:

New school math standards not as good as could be, business group says

Posted on May 31, 2012 | By Gary Scharrer

The state’s new math standards are not as good as the national Common Core standards that Texas opted out of, says Texas Association of Business president and CEO Bill Hammond.

“We need to do better. This is about serving the kids,” Hammond said. “We wanted a rigorous, comprehensive document, and we got close in some cases. But we didn’t hit a a home run.”

Bill Hammond

State Board of Education members tried to improve the standards at the last minute, he said.

“The problem is in the way the current system of writing and approving the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards is set up,” Hammond said. “The current system doesn’t allow for the strongest standards to be written; it doesn’t allow for enough experts to be involved in the process and doesn’t allow for enough review of changes that are made through amendments to ensure that those changes strengthen standards.”

The process of developing new curriculum standards in Texas is not working, Hammond said.

Because of the shortcomings of the process, the Texas Association of Business is releasing a short report containing recommendations to make the process better. If adopted by the Legislature, these changes would increase expert participation, ensure the public has more information about the process, allow for more review time of any changes made and would ensure both the rigor and clarity of all future TEKS standards, no matter the subject.

“The business community is very concerned that our public school system isn’t producing enough career and college ready graduates,” said Hammond. “We must put in place the strongest standards in order to ensure that our students are prepared for the workforce, and our employers have qualified candidates to choose from. Without improvement in Texas, jobs will leave and go to states that have stronger education systems capable of producing the career and college ready graduates they need.”

  To read more go here:   http://blog.chron.com/texaspolitics/2012/05/new-school-math-standards-not-as-good-as-could-be-business-group-says/