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Education Secretary Arne Duncan earlier this week announced that the federal US Department of Education would allow California and other states some additional time and flexibility during the implementation of the rigorous new Common Core standards and assessments, according to today’s EdSource.

If California takes advantage of the offered flexibility, teachers and schools will get relief from having to administer (and be held accountable for) the results of two different sets of tests next year: the current CST exams and the new Common Core assessments.

State Supt. Tom Torlakson said the state should seize this flexibility. “Double testing would have taken up time students need to learn, and could have made our move to new assessments even more challenging,” said Torlakson. “I will urge the State Board of Education to take advantage of this opportunity.”

Some local educators are embracing this potential change:

“It’s a reasonable thing to do because implementing new curriculum on a statewide level is a pretty large endeavor,” said Warren Sata, director of school operations at New Designs Charter School in South L.A., which has been piloting the new Common Core standards for the past year.

“We have been doing benchmark testing to determine how we are doing and how the kids are taking to the new stuff, and it’s not an easy task,” said Sata. “We would welcome any extension so we can ease into this transition and not have to go in two different directions simultaneously.”

Previous posts: LAUSD Will Resubmit Federal Waiver Application; More on Math Scores, Deasy Wants to Revamp Local School Funding Formula