While I disagree with government imposed standards I do

Posted on: March 30, 2017 at 11:32:55 CT

agree with educators coming together and agreeing on what should be taught, to what level it should be taught and roughly when it should be taught. And that is basically what Common Core has done.

Again I will only speak to the math standards because they are the ones I am familiar with. The Common Core Math Standards are a huge step forward from the previous standards. The new standards focus much more on problem solving and math literacy than the old standards that focused on processes and practices.

As a high school math teacher I do not care if a child comes to me being able to do algebra or not, that is what I am here to teach them. What they need to know to make a successful transition to high math is a understanding of numbers. In today's world memorizing multiplication tables is a waste of time I would rather a student be able to quickly group numbers in their head, understand simple fractions and think logically. With those skills in place I can quickly teach them the concepts behind algebra, geometry and even calculus.

I have been teaching math for 20+ years and I can honestly say I have never had a kid at algebra. They always knew the algebra skills. It is always the simple computational skills that prevent them from being successful at algebra and above.