News Brief
Board of Education Has a Lot on Its Plate With Wave of New Reforms
Rapid City Journal (SD) (05/21/13) Gesick, Jennifer Naylor; Mercer, BobThe South Dakota Board of Education met to discuss a range of new reforms that include new curriculum standards, a new standardized test, school accountability models, and new methods for teacher and principal evaluations. The new Common Core State Standards being adopted by South Dakota schools contain new goals for math and language arts. South Dakota Education Secretary Melody Schopp said, "It's not enough just to graduate kids. We want them to move on and be successful in life." New school rating and data assessment systems will deliver better accountability, she added. The South Dakota State Test of Educational Progress will be replaced by the Smarter Balanced Assessment in the 2014-15 school year, and the new evaluation will measure growth of students from one year to the next. Schopp also noted that struggling schools will have more tools available to help turn them around. The State Education Department also outlined new goals for students: ensuring all students read at proficient or advanced levels upon entering fourth grade; all students are proficient or advanced in math when they enter grade 9; and the achievement gap between Native American and white students is eliminated. "We're refining our practices. It's not new, we're taking work we've always done and making it a little different, more transparent and better. And we're raising the bar for students to be career, college and life ready," Schopp said.
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