A brief history of Common Core in South Carolina

The new Common Core Standards were adopted by the SC Board of Education in July of 2010 and by the SC Education Oversight Committee in June of 2010. The legislature meets in regular session from the second Tuesday in January until the second Thursday in June. It is important to note that actions to adopt the Common Core occurred when the legislature was not in session.

Notices that new standards may be adopted were not communicated to the members of the Senate Education Committee. Also, notice of the adoption of these new standards was not communicated to the members of the Senate Education Committee. While I can not speak for what occurred in the House, I would not expect that their communications were any different.

Very few people in our state knew that our educational standards might be changed. Governor Mark Sanford, Education Secretary Jim Rex and their staffers were the leaders that brought the Common Core State Initiative to South Carolina. They were also responsible for aligning our state with the Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium. Without legislative input, the SC Board of Education with the concurrence of Education Oversight Committee officially changed our educational standards.

Senator Mike Fair, as a member of the Education Oversight Committee was one of the first legislators to learn about the efforts to adopt the Common Core in SC. He introduced the first bill to nullify the actions that brought Common Core to our state.

Below are links to the minutes of the EOC and SBE meetings that adopted the standards.

http://ed.sc.gov/agency/stateboard/documents/SBE-Minutes-07-10.pdf

http://www.eoc.sc.gov/Meeting%20Minutes/Past%20Minutes/All%202010.pdf

I hope this information helps,

Larry Grooms