News Release

March 11, 2022

STATE BOARD CLARIFIES ACTION ON CONTENT AREA STANDARDS

The Nebraska State Board of Education took action during the March 4^th meeting to ensure transparency and protect opportunities for public input on content area standards.  “It remains the Board’s intent to ensure the process for content area standards development in all areas properly engages parents, educators, schools, and the public,” noted Board President Patsy Koch Johns.

An Ad Hoc Committee comprised of Board Members was created last Fall to review the overall standards development/revision process for all content areas.  The Ad Hoc Committee brought its recommendations to the State Board for adoption at the March meeting.  The committee’s recommendations included

• The Executive Committee continue to review bylaw B2: Board Committees to improve the makeup and operation of standing committees and recommend adoption of any revisions to the Board.
• The Executive Committee create a policy that defines the role of the Board in the development and revision of content area standards and recommend adoption of the policy to the Board.
• The Planning and Evaluation Committee assume responsibility for guiding development, monitoring progress, and affirming revision of the NDE staff-managed content area standards development process.
• The Commissioner enlist the services of an external consultant to review and make recommendations to NDE staff to improve the content area standards development and revision processes.
• The Executive Committee draft a policy that directs the Board to approve content area standards for all subject matter areas and recommend adoption of the policy to the Board.

The focus of the recommendations was on all content area standards. The decision to continue the process of developing health education standards is separate and must be supported by a majority vote of the State Board of Education per the Board’s action in September 2021.  “The Board will need to have a specific vote to restart the health education standards process and this is not currently an item under consideration by the Board,” said Vice President Robin Stevens. “To be clear, the conversations around ensuring the proper policies and processes are in place are necessary before even considering future draft health education standards.”

There has never been an action item on a Board meeting agenda for the adoption of health education standards.  The initial draft standards were released for public input and feedback in March 2021, a second draft was created but the process was postponed indefinitely on September 3, 2021.

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