Gov. Mike Pence signed a bill Monday making Indiana the first state to withdraw from the Common Core reading and math standards after initially adopting them. The new law requires Indiana to adopt its own statewide standards for college and career readiness by July 1. The standards will be implemented when elementary and high schools begin class this fall.
“I believe our students are best served when decisions about education are made at the state and local level,” Pence said in a statement. “By signing this legislation, Indiana has taken an important step forward in developing academic standards that are written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers, and are uncommonly high.”
Indiana education officials have been working for months to rewrite math and English standards following a surge of opposition to Common Core, which 45 other states have adopted. Though Indiana originally adopted the standards under the leadership of former Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, a grassroots movement triggered in part by an 8-year-old girl’s math problem reversed Hoosier sentiment. Common Core is meant to improve math and reading among American students, but opponents say the standards are academically inferior to state-developed ones. They see them as a federal attempt to take control of education.
Indiana has a 98-page draft of state standards that borrows from Common Core but tweaks or replaces some elements. It hasn’t received universal acclaim; Sandra Stotsky, a retired professor and Common Core opponent, criticized Indiana’s draft English language standards as a “warmed-over version of Common Core’s standards.”