Dear Parents, Patrons, Staff, and Board of Education,
Here is a link to the DRAFT version of the new Nebraska Health Education Standards https://cdn.education.ne.gov/w...
and here is a link to a presentation that identifies where the Department of Education is with the adoption process of the new standards https://cdn.education.ne.gov/w...
What is the extent of our statutory obligation regarding NDE adopted content area standards?
The board of education and school district employees are responsible for adhering to the
programs of instruction as outlined in the academic standards for language arts (reading
and writing), mathematics, science, and social studies as approved by the Nebraska State
Board of Education. The level of instruction shall be equal to or more rigorous than what is
outlined in such standards. School district employees shall be responsible for doing
everything possible to assist every student in becoming proficient in each of the standards
contained therein.
The school district administration shall be responsible for implementing assessments on
the academic standards in accordance with the procedures established by the Nebraska
State Board of Education and Department of Education, including conducting
assessments in the same subject areas and the same grade levels as established in the
academic standards, and the reporting of scores and sub-scores.
Legal Reference: Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 79-760.01 to 79-760.05
This chart shows the timeline for the standards revision process in all the content areas.
Don Loseke, NDE Accreditation Director and Robin Stevens, Nebraska State School Board Member have both verified and communicated that all the other content area standards, other than Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies, are not required to be adopted by local public schools. These other content area standard documents are recommended as guidelines as the local public schools see fit. These recommended guidelines give local schools the opportunity to tailor and design the standards in all the Non-Core areas in a way that is culturally relevant to our communities.
The Morrill School Board, administration and staff are committed to educate all of our students in all content areas in ways that promote positive attitudes toward health and wellbeing.
To be clear, when the New Health Education Standards are adopted by the State Board of Education, our school administration will form a committee of concerned parents and staff to harvest from the Standards document the guidelines that we feel are appropriate and design local "standards" in the areas that we feel need to be modified in order to be consistent with our community cultures, values, morals and perspectives. If you would like to serve on such a committee, please email me at joe.sherwood@mpslions.org