This document discusses Missouri state laws regarding the development of academic standards and assessment systems. It notes that the state board of education is responsible for establishing standards and assessments, with input from educators. However, the Common Core State Standards were not developed in this manner and involve the sharing of student data without proper consent. The document argues the state board overstepped its authority in adopting the CCSS and cooperative agreements related to assessments. Overall, it raises concerns that current policies do not follow the intended processes established in state law.

1. Dr. Mary Byrne, Ed.D.
Missouri Coalition Against Common Core
October 5, 2013

2. Outstanding
Schools Act 1993
 http://www.dese.mo.gov/schoollaw/LegFolder/SB380.htm

3. Chapter 160
Schools--General Provisions
Section 160.514
Academic performance standards, adoption by state board, standards-
-procedure for adoption--development of written curriculum
frameworks--adoption of written curriculum by boards of education.
 160.514. 1. By rule and regulation, and
consistent with the provisions contained in
section 160.526, the state board of education
shall adopt no more than. . . are necessary in this
era to preserve the rights and liberties of the
people.

4.  The state board of education shall convene work
groups composed of education professionals to
develop and recommend academic performance
standards. Separate work groups composed of
professionals with appropriate expertise shall be
convened for each subject area listed in section
160.518. Active classroom teachers shall
constitute the majority of each work group.
Teachers serving on such work groups shall be
selected by professional teachers' organizations
of the state.

5.  The state board of education shall develop
written curriculum frameworks that may be used
by school districts. Such curriculum frameworks
shall incorporate the academic performance
standards adopted by the state board of
education pursuant to subsection 1 of this
section. The curriculum frameworks shall provide
guidance to school districts but shall not be
mandates for local school boards in the adoption
or development of written curricula as required
by subsection 4 of this section.

6.  . . . Local school boards are encouraged to adopt
or develop curricula that are rigorous and
ambitious and may, but are not required to, use
the curriculum frameworks developed pursuant
to subsection 3 of this section. Nothing in this
section or this act** shall prohibit school
districts, as determined by local boards of
education, to develop or adopt curricula that
provide for academic standards in addition to
those identified by the state board of education
pursuant to subsection 1 of this section
◦

7. Chapter 160
Schools--General Provisions
Section 160.518
Statewide assessment system, standards, restriction--exemplary
levels, outstanding school waivers--summary waiver of pupil
testing requirements--waiver void, when--scores not counted,
when--alternative assessments for special education students--
adjustments administered, when--waivers of resources and
process standards, when.
 . . . the state board of education shall develop a statewide
assessment system that provides maximum flexibility for local
school districts to determine the degree to which students in the
public schools of the state are proficient in the knowledge, skills,
and competencies adopted by such board . . .

8.  2. The assessment system shall only permit the
academic performance of students in each school
in the state to be tracked against prior academic
performance in the same school.
 3. The state board of education shall suggest
criteria for a school to demonstrate that its
students learn the knowledge, skills and
competencies at exemplary levels worthy of
imitation by students in other schools in the state
and nation.

9. Chapter 160
Schools--General Provisions
Section 160.526
Development of academic standards and assessment system, criteria--
assistance of experts--notification of implementation of system,
legislative veto--professional advice and counsel.
. . . the state board of education shall consider the work that
has been done by other states, recognized regional and
national experts, professional education discipline-based
associations and other professional education associations.
Further, in establishing the academic standards and statewide
assessment system, the state board of education shall adopt
the work that has been done by consortia of other states and,
subject to appropriations, may contract with such consortia to
implement the provisions of sections 160.514 and 160.518
NOTE: CCSS were not developed through work of other states, but work of non-educators in a non-
government organization; no appropriations have been authorized by the legislature.

10.  Within six months prior to implementation of the
statewide assessment system, the commissioner
of education shall inform the president pro
tempore of the senate and the speaker of the
house about the procedures to implement the
assessment system, including a report related to
the reliability and validity of the assessment
instruments, and the general assembly may,
within the next sixty legislative days, veto such
implementation by concurrent resolution adopted
by majority vote of both the senate and the
house of representatives.

11. Duties of the commissioner.
161.122. The commissioner of education shall supervise the
department of elementary and secondary education. . . shall
confer with and advise county and school district officers, . . .on
all matters pertaining to the school law; visit and supervise
schools, and make suggestions in regard to the subject matter
and methods of instruction, the control and government of the
schools, and the care and keeping of all school property; attend
and assist in meetings of teachers, directors, and patrons of the
public schools; and seek in every way to elevate the standards
and efficiency of the instruction given in the public schools of
the state. The commissioner shall study and evaluate and test
the progress, or lack thereof, in achieving these objectives and
shall promptly make public by free electronic media the results
of all studies and evaluations and tests insofar as consistent
with student or parental privacy rights contained in federal or
state law.

12. Superintendent of schools, employment of
authorized (first class charter counties).
. . ., any board of education, other than boards in
urban districts, in charge of a public school system
maintaining a classified high school, previously
approved by the state board of education, and
employing a superintendent devoting his full time to
supervisory and administrative work, may employ
and enter into contract with a superintendent of
schools for the school district for a period of not to
exceed three years. . .

13. The board’s role and authority was
never meant to allow others to:
1) to give away their authority determine Missouri’s
educational standards/tests to external non-government
agencies, and
2) peruse Missourians’ personal data without parental
consent or student knowledge; (via the Cooperative
Agreement with the Dept. of Ed)
 (See http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/sbac-
cooperative-agreement.pdf)

14.  “. . . society requires that the education
of youth should be watched with the
most scrupulous attention. Education,
in a great measure, forms the moral
characters of men, and morals are the
basis of government. Education should
therefore be the first care of a
legislature; not merely the institution
of schools, but the furnishing of them
with the best men for teachers. A good
system of education should be the first
article in the code of political
regulations; . . .
Noah Webster, Schoolmaster to America, H. R.
Warfel, (New York: Octagon Press, 1966), pp. 181-
182; see also Faith of Our Founding Fathers, Tim
LaHaye, (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt,
Publishers, Inc., 1987), pp. 76-77

15.  . . . the people . . . are the ultimate guardians of their
own liberty. . . . The influence over government must be
shared among all the people. If every individual which
composes their mass participates of the ultimate
authority, the government will be safe; because the
corrupting the whole mass will exceed any private
resources of wealth: . . .”
 – Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XIV: the Administration of Justice and the Description of
the Laws, 1781; The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition, Editor: Paul Leicester Ford,
(New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5) Vol. 4