Public comment sought on Arizona’s science and social studies standards

Arizona’s science and social studies standards for K-12 students are being updated, and the state’s department of education wants your input.

Those standards, or what a student needs to understand in each grade, have not been updated in over 10 years.

Alexis Susdorf, communications specialist for the Arizona Department of Education, said the revisions are long overdue.

“The first step in the process is to get public feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of our current standards,” Susdorf said.

The public comment period lasts 60 days, running until Dec. 3. From there, a group of educators will create their vision for the revised science and social studies standards, while incorporating public feedback.

“We hope to have adoption of the standards by the state board of education in the spring of 2018,” Susdorf said.

From there, schools will have about a year to implement the standards for their students.

Math and English standards are already well on their way to being updated. A working group of educators submitted a first draft for a public comment period that just ended. Now the working group will review those comments as they prepare a final draft of math and English for the state board of education. That could be approved as soon as December.

Susdorf said while the public comment period is still open for science and social studies, they welcome community feedback.

“This is very important that teachers, administrators, parents, students, community members [and] policymakers provide feedback so that we’re able to develop standards around Arizona and what Arizona wants,” Susdorf said.