JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Educators and parents chosen to rewrite learning benchmarks for Missouri children are divided on how to move forward.
Work groups tasked with writing new education standards spent their first meeting Monday clashing over the state education department's involvement and how to rework the national goals currently in place.
A law passed in May requires new goals for learning in each grade to replace the standards adopted in the Common Core. Those standards are used to create consistency between states, but opponents say they were adopted without enough local input.
More than 40 states use the Common Core, but Missouri is one of several states backing away from it.
A Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education spokeswoman says the level of fighting over education standards is "unprecedented."