SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah State Board of Education voted Friday to do a comprehensive review of Utah's English and math standards in answer to ongoing debate over the Common Core State Standards, adopted in 2010.

The review will be contingent upon a one-time budget supplement from the Utah Legislature to handle the work of reviewing those standards in addition to others already scheduled for review.

The board also voted to discontinue using SAGE, Utah's standardized testing system, in grades nine through 11 and replace it with the ACT, which is currently administered to 11th-graders throughout the state. That action will require changes to state law by the Utah Legislature.

Those motions came in response to a request from Gov. Gary Herbert, who expressed concerns with the divisiveness surrounding the standards and the test. While addressing the board Friday, Herbert cited ongoing concerns that there was insufficient public input when the standards were adopted and that SAGE is not meeting its objectives for high schoolers.

But the board's action is a step toward alleviating those concerns, he said.

"Working together, we can combine our efforts and improve educational outcomes in the state of Utah. And giving everybody an opportunity to be heard and voice pros and cons is part of the process," Herbert said. "I hope we're going to move to a resolution of some of the controversy out there. There will be other controversies that come. That's just part of life."

Herbert last week called for the board to "move beyond the Common Core," as well as to remove SAGE's mandatory status from high school. His Republican challenger, Jonathan Johnson, made similar comments on the same day.

Some saw Herbert's seemingly new opposition to SAGE and the Common Core as a political move since he has upheld the standards previously, commissioning reviews of their implementation and effectiveness in Utah.

The governor denied that his request had any political motivation.

"For me, this isn't about politics. It's about policy," he said.

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After criticism, Herbert backs off push for SAGE on special session agenda

After drawing harsh criticism Tuesday, Gov. Gary Herbert backed off of an attempt to get lawmakers to address an issue related to the controversial Common Core standards in Utah at next week's special session of the Legislature.

The Common Core State Standards formed the basis of the Utah Core as it was adopted in 2010. The standards have been revised several times since then, including new standards for English in 2013, and new math standards adopted last month.

Dave Thomas said the proposed review will be somewhat ahead of schedule from periodic reviews conducted on all academic standards.

"That's the reason we need the supplemental appropriation. We need the bandwidth because we are essentially taking this a little bit earlier," Thomas said. "But we don't want to stop what we're already doing."

Some board members were opposed to the move since regular reviews to standards are already part of the process.

"What I see is like painting a wall, and we just painted it in some cases," said board member Leslie Castle. "We just did some of these standards. … It seems like a very odd way to do business. I'm not in favor of that."

The board has been considering changes to SAGE in high school for more than a year in light of ongoing problems, such as questionable effort from students, parental opt-outs, differences with elementary versions of the test and others. State law prohibits that the test be used in calculating a student's grade, and recent legislation removes it from teacher evaluations.

"Everything that I've heard about SAGE testing, particularly in high school, says that our students don't care because it doesn't mean anything," said board member Stan Lockhart. "ACT means something because that's their path to college."

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