SB 619

model academic standards

The 2013-15 biennial budget act (

2013 Wisconsin Act 20

) prohibits the

Department of Public Instruction (DPI) from taking any further action to implement

the common core standards (educational standards developed for kindergarten to

grade 12 by the Common Core State Standards Initiative) and from directing school

districts to implement further standards until certain conditions have been satisfied.

Act 20 provides that any common core standard adopted and implemented by DPI

before July 1, 2013, remains in effect and requires DPI to adopt additional college

and career readiness standards no later than July 1, 2014.

This bill requires DPI to adopt state standards only after those standards have

been developed and approved by the Model Academic Standards Board.

model academic standards board

The bill creates a Model Academic Standards Board (board) in DPI which

comprises the following members: the state superintendent of public instruction, or

his or her designee, who serves as cochairperson and who must appoint four

members; six members appointed by the governor, one of whom is to serve as

cochairperson; one member appointed by each of the senate majority and minority

leaders; one member appointed by the speaker of the assembly; and one member

appointed by the assembly minority leader. The members appointed by the state

superintendent must include an individual employed as a principal in a high school,

a member of a school board, one individual who is a parent of a pupil enrolled in a

public school, and one professor employed at an institution of higher education in this

state. The members appointed by the governor must include one teacher employed

by a public school, one teacher employed by a private school participating in a

parental choice program, one superintendent of a school district, one individual

employed as a principal in an elementary school, and one individual who is a parent

of a pupil attending a private school under a parental choice program. No member

of the board may be a member of the legislature.

Under the bill, the board is charged with developing model academic standards

in four discrete subject areas: 1) English, reading, and language arts; 2)

mathematics; 3) science; and 4) social studies. To further this objective, the bill

requires the board to appoint subject-specific subcommittees in the four subject

areas.

The bill requires the board to submit proposed model academic standards in

English, reading, and language arts and in mathematics to the state superintendent

within 12 months of the enactment of the bill. The bill requires the board to submit

proposed model academic standards in science and social studies to the state

superintendent within 36 months of the enactment of the bill. In addition, the bill