State Board of Education seeks feedback on state ELA standards

The Tennessee State Board of Education has launched a new survey to gather public comments and feedback about Tennessee’s K-12 English Language Arts (ELA) standards, a Monday announcement said.

According to a news release, the survey will remain open through September 8th, 2024, and will help guide the board in future decisions relating to adopting academic standards that provide a common set of expectations for what students will know and be able to do at the end of each grade level.

“In order to promote collaboration and transparency, it is critical that we allow all Tennesseans the opportunity to provide public feedback on our current ELA standards. This continues our momentum to ensure that educators, students, and parents have a clear picture of academic expectations at each grade level,” said Dr. Sara Morrison, executive director of the State Board of Education.

The announcement noted that existing ELA standards, last approved in 2019, are currently being reviewed with the help of the public feedback survey. It said the public is encouraged to note whether a standard should be kept, removed, modified or moved to a different section.

Participants can also focus on reviewing individual grades, grade bands or electives, the announcement said.

“Tennessee’s multi-year, rigorous standards review process is rooted in multiple rounds of feedback from students, educators, and others to ensure Tennessean’s voices guide our work,” said Breanna Sommers, director of policy and academics of the State Board of Education.

The public feedback survey, along with a detailed timeline for ELA standards review, can be found on the State Board of Education website.