SENATE DOCKET, NO. 826        FILED ON: 2/8/2021

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 360

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_________________

PRESENTED BY:

Jason M. Lewis, (BY REQUEST)

_________________

To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act for the end of Common Core, and establishing certain other curriculum standards.

_______________

PETITION OF:

SENATE DOCKET, NO. 826        FILED ON: 2/8/2021

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 360

[SIMILAR MATTER FILED IN PREVIOUS SESSION
SEE SENATE, NO. 309 OF 2019-2020.]

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_______________

In the One Hundred and Ninety-Second General Court
(2021-2022)

_______________

An Act for the end of Common Core, and establishing certain other curriculum standards.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. The Massachusetts General Laws are hereby amended by inserting the

following new chapter:

An Act for: Ending Common Core, and establishing certain other curriculum standards.

1.) The interest of parents, students, families, teachers, and many others, in achieving the

best of educational standards has, in many ways, been influenced by serious concerns about the

“Common Core” curriculum.

2.) This legislation, seeks to spare the negative effects of the Common Core curriculum,

and establish certain new standards for curriculum in schools.

Therefore, the language below is proposed, and upon passage, is adopted:

SECTION 2. Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the

contrary, the vote taken by the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on

July 21, 2010, to adopt the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and English

Language Arts is hereby rescinded. The curriculum frameworks in Mathematics and English

Language Arts that were in effect prior to that date are hereby restored.

SECTION 3. Section 1D of Chapter 69 is hereby amended in the second paragraph by

inserting after the first sentence, the following new sentences:

The process shall include committees made up exclusively of public school teachers and

academics from private and public colleges and universities established and operated in

Massachusetts. The commissioner shall copyright the frameworks, which shall be wholly owned

by the department; permission shall be granted to copy any or all parts of these frameworks for

non-commercial educational purposes.

SECTION 4. Said section 1D of chapter 69 is hereby further amended in the second

paragraph by inserting after the third sentence the following new sentences:

There shall be three review committees, one for each discipline of math, science and

technology and English. Each review committee shall have three members appointed by the

governor who shall choose said members from private or public research universities established

and operated in Massachusetts for each of the disciplines. For the purposes of this section, a

“research university” is any university that awards doctoral degrees in the arts and sciences. Each

review committee shall warrant by a two-thirds vote that the frameworks are equivalent to the

standards of the most educationally advanced nations as determined by the Trends in

Mathematics and Sciences Study. No framework shall be approved by the board without such a

warrant.

SECTION 5. Section 1I of Chapter 69 is hereby amended in the third paragraph by

inserting after the second sentence, the following new sentence:

In order to better inform the teachers and administrators about the diagnostic

assessments, after the administration of the assessments but before the start of the new school

year, the commissioner shall release all of the test items, including questions, constructed

responses and essays, for each grade and every subject.

SECTION 6. The several provisions of this Act are independent and severable and the

invalidity, if any, of any part or feature thereof shall not affect or render the remainder of the Act

invalid or inoperative.

SECTION 7. This act shall take effect immediately upon becoming law.