PIERRE — South Dakota should consider replacing the statewide standards used in public schools for teaching math, English and language arts with a new set of national standards in those academic areas, state Education Secretary Tom Oster said Tuesday.

The South Dakota Board of Education plans to discuss the concept at its next regular meeting Sept. 28 at Chamberlain. The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers developed the new Common Core standards that were released in June.

Oster told state board members Tuesday the Common Core standards are more rigorous than what South Dakota currently has for math and somewhat stronger than South Dakota’s standards for English and language arts.

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He said one advantage will be saving money on testing, because South Dakota won’t have to pay for its own specially-designed assessments that fit the South Dakota standards.

He said another benefit will be that states will be better able to share their best practices with each other if they’re operating under the same standards. And South Dakota might be able to adapt end-of-course exams designed by other states, providing both savings and a short-cut, he said.

“I think it’s vital that the country is going by the same set of standards,” Oster said. “If they’re rigorous enough for Massachusetts, that’s a pretty good measuring stick.”

If the state board decides in September to formally consider adopting the Common Core approach, a public hearing would be scheduled for the board’s mid-November meeting.

Because Common Core was a joint project of the governors and chief school officers organizations, there’s no requirement that state boards adopt the national standards.  States would have the flexibility to add 15 percent of their own standards to reflect their specific purposes.