NC is redesigning school math and reading standards. But lawmakers want their say.
State education leaders are redesigning the math and reading standards used in North Carolina’s public schools at a time when some state lawmakers want to have more say on what’s taught.
The State Board of Education gave permission on Thursday for the state Department of Public Instruction to develop new K-12 math standards after having given approval last May to develop new K-12 English language arts standards. DPI staff say they want to allow teachers to go more in-depth into topics by reducing the number of standards that are required for each grade level.
“That does not equal watering down,” Kristi Day, director of DPI’s Office of Teaching and Learning, told the state board this week. “So you’re going to see a lot of these changes and they are done very strategically with educators in the field based on feedback, not to water down or to lessen or to minimize, but rather to help teachers be able to go deeper. It’s quality over quantity.”
New language arts standards could go into effect for the 2026-27 school year. New math standards could go into effect for the 2027-28 school year.
But that could change based on proposed legislation that would form an advisory commission for developing subject standards. The bill also would also give state lawmakers the power to block the state board from implementing new standards.
Current standards called too broad
The state board adopts the standards that say what students should know about a subject by the end of that grade level. Schools pick the curriculum used to teach the standards.
This will be the first major revision since the current language arts standards were adopted in 2017; the math standards were phased in between 2016 and 2019. The current standards replaced the controversial Common Core-based standards.
But, citing feedback from teachers, DPI staff repeatedly told the state board that the current language arts and math standards cover too much ground.
Day said they want to replace superficial language arts coverage with in-depth study.
A review committee found the math standards aren’t clear and the breadth of what students are expected to learn is too broad, according to Charles Aiken, DPI section chief of math, science and STEM. Aiken said the review committee recommended narrowing the scope of the math standards going forward.
The idea was seconded by Heather Smith, a Haywood County middle school math teacher who serves as an adviser to the state board. Smith, who is the 2024 North Carolina Teacher of the Year, said math teachers don’t have the time to do inventive things to show the fun side of math.
“It’s so valuable that when we are looking at these standards we’re thinking about what our students really need,” Smith said. “We’re allowing the math teachers to not be ‘the mean old people that have to get through every standard.’”
Fewer standards per grade level
The team hasn’t been formed yet that will devise the new math standards. But the first two drafts of the language arts standards show the direction DPI is looking in.
For language arts, DPI is no longer recommending standards for each individual grade level. Instead, standards are proposed to be grouped by “grade bands” with multiple grades: K-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-8, 9-12.
The number of standards for each grade band is less than what’s now required. For instance, the number of language arts standards in middle school would drop from 205 to 70.
Teachers across the different grade levels in each band would revisit topics multiple times to build on what students previously learned about the standard.
“There’s going to be a lot of powerful conversations for 6th- through 8th-grade teachers as they come together,” Day told the state board. ‘”This is what I’m doing in 6th grade. How is this building in 7th and 8th, and how are we going deeper?’”
Lawmakers want say in new school standards
Under the proposed timelines, the state board would adopt new language arts standards this year and new math standards next year. Both subjects would have a one-year planning period before the new standards are taught in schools.
But legislation filed on April 1 would turn the job of developing K-12 standards over to a new group called the Standard Course of Study Advisory Commission. The majority of the members of the new commission would be selected by state lawmakers. Most of the members of the state board were appointed by former Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat.
Lawmakers followed a similar approach in 2014 when they formed a temporary commission to recommend changes to the Common Core math and language arts standards.
One of the things House Bill 596 specifically wants the advisory commission to do is to make recommendations by Jan. 1, 2026, on revisions to the social studies standards. In 2021, the state board adopted new social studies standards that supporters said are more inclusive but opponents said were anti-American.
If the Republican-sponsored bill becomes law, the state board would either have to accept the commission’s recommendations without making substantive changes or reject them. The commission would submit revised recommendations that the state board can accept or reject.
The state board could adopt the revised recommendations or elect to develop its own standards. But the bill would require the state board to report to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee before any new standards could be implemented.
The changes wouldn’t go into effect for at least a month to give lawmakers time to file legislation to block them.
This story was originally published April 4, 2025 at 6:30 AM.
