Washington to adopt new national education standards

OLYMPIA — Washington’s superintendent of public instruction says he will review the new national education standards for the next month before provisionally adopting them. Washington is one of 48 states that have agreed to consider adopting the Common Core Standards for English language arts and math, which were released on Wednesday. Adopting the standards is part of the state’s application for federal reform dollars under the Race to the Top competition. State Superintendent Randy Dorn says the standards will help make education across the nation more globally competitive. The Legislature has asked Dorn’s office to deliver a detailed comparison between Washington’s state learning standards for reading, writing and math and the new national standards by January 2011.