HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Corbett is asking state education officials to clarify that a set of proposed academic achievement standards for Pennsylvania public school students are not uniform national standards.

A spokesman for Corbett’s Department of Education said today that Corbett’s request won’t affect the substance of the proposed math and English standards called the Pennsylvania Common Core.

The State Board of Education approved them in March and approval from a government regulations board is necessary before they can take effect.

Corbett’s request comes after lawmakers heard a groundswell of criticism last week over the effectiveness of the new standards and his move to tie them to course-specific student graduation tests.

The proposed standards are built partly on national uniform standards developed by non-government associations of governors and state education officials.