By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA — Changes at the state level means schools, including Massena Central, will be moving away from the Common Core teaching standards, Superintendent Patrick Brady told the Board of Education on Thursday.

The state in 2020 will phase in what they are calling Next Generation Learning Standards, which Brady described as “a refurbishment of Common Core, which as you know was a challenge when it came out.”

“It came out hastily … you saw achievement go down because they (teachers and students) were not prepared for the standards,” Brady said.

He said testing companies had no input in the Next Generation standards, as opposed to Common Core.

"The result is teachers will start teaching new standards not in 2017 but in 2020. So there will be a phase in … and the first test under the new standards will be in 2021,” Brady said.

He said the new standards will also be more age-appropriate.

“They found the levels in Common Core were too challenging, so they’re trying to make the content more age appropriate,” he said.

“So when we start looking into these changes, new standards, do we generally get the deptartment chairs to get training and bring it back, or administrators … representatives from each school?” Board President Pat Bronchetti asked.

“I think a combination of that … BOCES-wide will have trainings … our staff days will be more focused on that information,” Brady answered.