B.E.S.T. should not be copied, study says

Report: Common Core replacement ‘weak,’ in need of revisions

Florida’s replacement for Common Core, which was ditched in February to fulfill Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign promise, is “weak,” needs revisions and should not be copied by other states, according to a new study released Tuesday.

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute report said Florida’s new standards, dubbed B.E.S.T. for Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking, fall short of the Common Core standards that had been in place since 2010. Both Common Core and the replacements spell out what students should learn in language arts and math in Florida’s public schools.

Florida’s new standards deserve some praise, the review found. But they should not be implemented in the state’s classrooms until revamped. As is, they also are not a “model for the rest of the nation,” as DeSantis claimed when they were unveiled in February.

“As for other states, they should indeed look for model standards, but they won’t find them in Florida,” the report concluded.

The institute has been reviewing states’ academic standards since the late 1990s. It was not scheduled to do another review this year but opted to when Florida, considered a leader in education reform, rolled out B.E.S.T. and

other states showed interest, said Amber Northern, senior vice president for research who oversaw the review.

“I think a lot of people look to Florida to see what they’re doing,” Northern said.

The Florida Department of Education defended the state’s move away from Common Core, with a spokeswoman saying those standards had produced “stagnant results” on national tests and state leaders were right to “raise expectations” with new “bold” standards.

“Florida restored a culture of being big and bold for all Florida students,” wrote Taryn Fensky in an email. “If we are not bold, we deny our children equitable access to the lifelong opportunities that they all deserve.”

Fensky also questioned the judgment of Fordham staff, saying they are “personally, and financially, invested in keeping Common Core in states” because they have written books “analyzing and outlining how to teach and learn Common Core.”

Florida’s Republican leaders adopted Common Core standards in 2010 and then tweaked and rebranded them as Florida Standards in 2014. With encouragement from the administration of President Barack Obama administration, the standards were at one point adopted by 45 states.

They were touted as more rigorous than previous ones and as tools that would help more students leave high school ready for college or decent-paying jobs. They are meant to be in-depth, focusing less on rote memorization and more on problem-solving and reading more complex texts.

But the standards became politically controversial here and across the country, dividing some Republicans. Some conservatives argued they represented a federal intrusion into local education decisions, and others complained the elementary math lessons were confusing and schools failed to teach cursive writing.

DeSantis, a Republican, ran for office promising to get rid of them and signed an executive order to do that shortly after he took office in early 2019.

The Florida Department of Education then moved quickly to devise new standards, though surveys showed most state educators wanted Common Core to stay in place as many felt they benefited their students.

When a draft of the new standards was released in the fall, many local educators told the state they seemed like a “step backwards” from Common Core.

The institute tapped a professor from Boston College and a professor from the University of Illinois to lead the review of Florida’s new standards.

The “challenging time line” Florida’s education department faced to write new standards likely contributed to some of the weaknesses the reviewers noted, Northern said.

Florida’s new math standards do not focus enough on developing a deep understanding of math concepts, the review found. “Conceptual understanding is sacrificial on the altar of procedural fluency,” it said.

Some of the math standards are too vague, so they won’t provide teachers a clear sense of what must be taught; some topics, such as place value, aren’t given enough attention; and there are mistakes in the glossary, including the definition of a polygon.

Though there are lots of examples of what is to be taught in the standards,“they are often not helpful,” the review said. “Several examples provide ‘real-world problems’ but do a poor job of illustrating anything real world,” it added.

In language arts, the review praised much of what was there but was troubled by what was missing, noting there were no standards requiring students to read history and science texts or to learn how to interpret multimedia or technologybased information. There also were few specific expectations for writing skills.

“The job is unfinished,” the review said.

The standards list the same expectations for several grades, a mistake that suggests those writing them “simply ran out of time,” it added.

The reviewers also noted that the standards are paired with a list of books, “literary classics and civicsoriented texts.” The list is “excellent reading material,” but it isn’t clear if they are examples of books teachers might assign or required.

The standards say the books are to serve as guides for teachers, textbook publishers and “test makers,” the review noted. “If the texts are to serve as a guide for test makers, it is not hard to see why teachers might view them as required. If they are required, they represent excellent choices, but they are also breathtakingly ambitious and probably not very realistic.”

Other states have also stumbled when they dropped Common Core and adopted their own standards, Northern said.

A 2018 institute review found Common Core standards to be “strong” and several of the replacements to be “weak,” like Florida’s.

But Texas, which never adopted Common Core, has “strong” math standards, and Indiana, which dropped Common Core, has developed “good” math and language arts standards, it found.

Northern said California and Massachusetts, which kept Common Core but enhanced those standards, are also now national models.

The institute hopes Florida will use the review to improve its academic blueprint. “We’d want them to go back and take another look,” she said.