Florida Officially Adopts B.E.S.T. Standard For Education

TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami) - The education testing standards known as Common Core is officially be taken out of Florida's education system.

On Wednesday, the state's Department of Education officially adopted the "B.E.S.T" Standards. BEST stands for Florida "Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking."

DeSantis signed an executive order in January 2019 to cut Common Core standards in Florida schools. He said there needs to be other ways to measure success and "not just teaching to a test." He also put an emphasis on making Civics education a priority in Florida.

He said, B.E.S.T. standards "create pathways for students that lead to great college and professional outcomes and parents will now be able to reinforce what their children are learning in the classroom every day. Florida's B.E.S.T. Standards were made by Florida teachers for Florida students, and I know they will be a model for the rest of the nation."

B.E.S.T. standards include changes to the way students learn math and American history and offers a reduction in testing.

It employs a back-to-basics approach in the early grades and makes it understandable for teachers, parents, and students, according to the Department of Education.

Florida is now the first state in the nation with an English, language, and arts booklist spanning grades K-12, according to Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran.  In addition, Civics will be embedded into language arts lessons at every grade level and there will a civics book list integrated across all grades.

Corcoran also said, "Florida is a state has that dropped the crazy math" which was a roadblock for parents to help students at home.

Click here to read more about the Florida B.E.S.T. Standards including the benchmarks and quick facts.

When adopted, the language-arts curriculum is expected to be updated for the new school year and the math curriculum would be updated for the 2022-2023 year, according to the Department of Education.