This special report—the latest in an ongoing series on high-priority issues in K-12 education—looks at how the Common Core State Standards are changing instruction in mathematics. It explores how schools and teachers are adjusting their practices and shows where there are gaps in support and understanding.
The United States has produced plenty of inspiring, fresh approaches to teaching math. The problem is that it has dropped the ball on implementing them.
Close readers of the common-core standards for math will notice that in the high school section, some items are marked with a plus sign (+). Those are the so-called "plus standards," designed to go beyond the general expectations and prepare students for advanced math courses.
A new group billing itself as a "Consumer Reports for school materials" will soon begin posting free online reviews of major textbooks and curricula that purport to be aligned to the Common Core State Standards—an effort, some say, that has the potential to shake up the market.
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has released a document that aims to describe in detail what teachers and education leaders need to do in practice to help students meet the expectations of the Common Core State Standards for math.
In a recent talk for education journalists, William Schmidt, a researcher and education professor at Michigan State University, in East Lansing, laid out what he sees as the four major problems with how the Common Core State Standards for math are being implemented in schools.
The state consortia charged with developing common-core-aligned assessments take steps to address concerns about potential bias and difficulty level in the performance-based questions.
The common standards for math put a heavy emphasis on coherent instruction, prompting efforts to familiarize teachers with standards for grade levels beyond their own.
Long a staple of the high school curriculum, the mathematics-course sequence of Algebra 1, geometry, and Algebra 2 is facing a budding challenge as schools transition to the Common Core State Standards.
With their heightened emphasis on language and explication, the new math standards pose unique challenges for students who are not fully proficient in English.
Anthony Rebora, November 10, 2014
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9 min read
Coverage of efforts to implement college- and career-ready standards for all students is supported in part by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, at www.gatesfoundation.org. Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage.
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