A Victory for Standards and the Process

Yesterday, word leaked out that the SDE has withdrawn the administrative rules changes that would have eliminated PASS and taken the legislature out of the approval process for new standards. Since academic standards are tantamount to administrative rules, this would set them apart from all other approvals.

I’m probably more pleased on behalf of the process than PASS itself. I’m all for checks and balances and whatnot.

We should remember, though, that students – for at least another year – are testing over PASS. Revoking the existing standards would make the testing process even more amorphous than it was this year. Doing so without legislative oversight would be even worse.

The SDE, seeing the handwriting on the wall with HJR 1059, which was unanimously approved in committee, knew that they weren’t going to win this one. They did the reasonable thing and walked away.

This is an outcome that educators across the state, who have long labored on committees with the SDE to develop and implement standards, should celebrate. This likely keeps teachers in the process for future standards revisions. With the state poised to adopt/update the science curriculum later this year, getting this right was crucial.