The National Council for State Legislatures has teamed up with Education Week to track legislative activity related to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). They found that in the past year and a half, 22 legislatures have introduced a total of 50 bills seeking to change the way educational standards are developed, reviewed, and adopted. Many of the bills died in committee, but others advanced through one or both chambers. Ten states have enacted laws that restrict state board adoption of curriculum standards.
In the majority of states (over 40, including Connecticut), elected or appointed state boards of education have sole authority over academic standards. In other states, it lies with the state superintendent or education commissioner, or is shared among a variety of entities (e.g., state board, commissioner, department of education, legislature).
The recently introduced bills sought broader legislative input into standards decisions, transfers of state boards’ power over standards to legislatures or panels with legislative input, and new processes for adopting academic standards, among other things. Education Week has a detailed breakdown of laws passed and bills pending in Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.
