MA to Consider Pre-K in Common Core Standards

Today the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) recognized early education in its approval of the Common Core Standards. The motion the board unanimously approved directs Commissioner Mitchell Chester to “reconvene the Curriculum Framework Review Panels for English Language Arts and Mathematics and the panels that he convened to review the Common Core Standards, and direct them to consider specific standards and other features to strengthen and augment the Common Core Standards.” States are permitted modest leeway to customize the common standards. Among the items listed in both English and math in the motion the ESE board approved was this: “pre-k standards such as those contained in the working draft of the revised Massachusetts standards.” The panels will meet over the summer, and the board will consider the customized standards in the fall, according to an ESE news release. We will keep you posted about further developments.