This is Hanna. She is one of my favorite people! We had the pleasure of teaching at the same school, and my only regret is that we never got to work on the same grade level team. That didn’t keep us from becoming fast friends, as we soon found that we shared common interests for baking, books, and teaching! I felt so blessed to work with someone so passionate, fun, competent, and selfless. She has since made a career change to be an educational consultant, and I’ve been dying to pick her brain on the recent nationwide transition to the Common Core State Standards– something you’ve probably heard a lot about and something you definitely want to know more about!
It turns out we are very much on the same page about the Common Core transition! Since she is such an expert in the area, I asked her to write a guest post to share with you, dear readers! Now you can learn what all the fuss is about, why we’re doing it, and things you can do to help your own child transition well to the new standards. Please give a warm welcome to my dear friend…. Hannnnaaaa!!!
Hi! I’m thrilled to be writing a guest post for Cuppacocoa! JoEllen is a great friend and I love her blog as much as you do! I had the privilege being her colleague for 4 of my 8 years in the classroom (teaching 2nd and 3rd grades). I implemented the Common Core State Standards in my last 2 years of teaching. Now, I’m working as an educational consultant for a nonprofit organization in San Jose, CA, coaching teachers and principals through the transition to Common Core and helping them ensure high-quality education and strong results for kids through it all. JoEllen asked me to share some of what I’ve learned about the Common Core with you all, so here we go!
What are the Common Core State Standards? Why Change?
The Common Core State Standards…I’m sure you’ve heard of them. Do they intrigue you? Confuse you? Make you want to run screaming down the street or cower under your desk? These new(ish) standards have gotten a lot of press in the last few years, not all of it favorable. And if the Common Core Standards leave you befuddled, you’re in good company!
The Common Core State Standards (or CCSS, for short), have been adopted by 45 states. Before the creation and adoption of the CCSS each state had its own standards, which led to widely different measures of student proficiency across the nation. Comparing student achievement in, for example, California and New York would have been like comparing apples and hamburgers. Why is this important, you wisely ask? Because if we can’t compare how students from different states are performing, how can we possibly know if we are giving each of our nation’s children a fair shot? How can we ensure that every child, regardless of his or her zip code, graduates high school ready to enter college or the work force? We couldn’t. The CCSS and their aligned assessments allow us to finally, effectively assess student proficiency no matter where that student is from. We can finally tell if we, as a nation, are adequately preparing our children to enter the workforce and the world as competent 21st century citizens. (As a bonus, if your family has to move across state lines in the course of your child’s schooling, you can rest assured that, if you move to another state that’s adopted the CCSS, your child will be prepared to enter school without losing any ground.)
What does this mean for us?
So that’s the “why” behind the CCSS (according to me, at least). But now I’m sure you’re wondering – what does this mean for me? How are the CCSS different from what my child was expected to learn before? Why are people so up in arms about the CCSS? How can I help my child if she brings home one of those notorious enigmas of a math problem for homework?
In a nutshell, the CCSS are about depth, not breadth. In other words, instead of briefly covering 30 different topics in a math class in one year, students are asked to deeply engage with 10 or 15 concepts, ensuring that they leave the year with a full, unshakeable understanding of those topics that they can take with them into the next grade. Many states’ previous standards were like dipping your toe into 30 different pools. Now we let students get all the way in to the deep end, fully submerged and having a good swim in 10 or 15 pools. Rather than running from topic to topic, adding a bit more each year, students now really get a workout in each concept they study, building muscle and stamina around it that they will carry with them for years to come. So instead of bringing home pages upon pages of multiplication problems to solve using rote memorization or a basic algorithm, your child might now bring home a single page of multiplication problems (including some word problems), and be asked to solve each using a different strategy. Further, she might also need to be prepared to explain her strategies when she returns to school.
Teaching and learning in this way is very different from the schooling you might be used to. It’s also different from the schooling your child’s teachers are used to. Gone are the days of simply going through the book from start to finish and completing a new worksheet each day. Also on their way out are the anthologies and basal readers that the entire class reads together, regardless of reading abilities, interest, and engagement. We all – teachers, parents, and students – have to build a new schema for what school is. This is a big change. And change is hard. So if you, your children, or your children’s teachers are “feeling the pain,” so to speak, there’s good reason why. (When thinking about the necessity to make this difficult change, I like to compare teaching to medicine. Complaining that teaching and schooling have changed and aren’t the way they were back when we were in school is akin to complaining that medicine isn’t the way it used to be. None of us want our doctors to forgo anesthetics for the surgical preparations of the past – 6 strong men holding you down and a belt to bite down on. We’d be horrified if medicine didn’t change and improve with improving technology and increasing knowledge. We should be similarly horrified when teaching and schooling don’t change when we know better and have better technology. Enter the Common Core Standards.) What we’re doing for schools, for education, and for America’s children is no small feat.
But good things – things that matter – are rarely easy. So it goes with the CCSS. We are now providing a common set of standards that ask students to deeply engage with a small number of topics, arranged in such a way that they build upon each other year after year (which gives students a chance to actually build their knowledge “house” from the foundation up, rather than putting a few bricks in all over the place and hoping it all stays together). We are attempting to ensure that all children, in every state, receive a quality education that leaves them ready to be a productive member of society. We’re working to make ourselves competitive with other developed (and developing) nations by creating skilled, thoughtful workers, inventors, thinkers, and citizens. None of that is easy, but all of it is worth it. It’s the right direction to go.
How can I help my child through this transition?
So where does that leave you, a parent trying to help your child with their new CCSS homework? The CCSS in reading and writing are all about comprehension – do you fully understand the stories you’re reading? How do you know? How can you prove it to someone else? When you read with your child at home, simply sounding out the words isn’t enough. Even at a young age, children should be actively thinking about the books and stories they read and hear. Ask questions about the books. Ask them about their opinions about the books. Ask them to justify their opinions with evidence from the books. (Read this great blog for more information about asking questions while reading!) In math, your children will still need to demonstrate fluency (basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts in the lower grades). But they’ll also need to deeply understand how to manipulate numbers. When your child solves a problem, ask her how she got to her answer. Ask her to teach you how to solve problems like this. Can she draw you a picture that demonstrates her thinking? It’s not enough to know the algorithm (carrying and borrowing, for example). Does your child actually understand the process that the algorithm simplifies? If he happens to forget the steps in the algorithm, could he still find an answer? If he fully understands the concept, it’ll stay with him and will help him to learn more complex concepts later. And he’ll learn the algorithm, too. It’ll just be an understanding that’s so much more than mere memorization.
And if your child brings home homework you’re not sure how to help her with, call your teacher! She’s the expert, after all! She went to school specifically to become a teacher and to help your child become a proficient and productive student. She attends a number of professional development sessions each year and likely reads professional texts and blogs to keep up on the latest in best teaching methods. And if you want a tutorial on the Common Core and how to best help your child, she’s your best resource!
Lastly – remain calm! The Common Core State Standards are, in my opinion, at least, the right move for our country and for our children. Change is hard, but it’s worth it. Having kids who can think critically is a goal worth pursuing. So take a deep breath, keep reading the great information JoEllen is providing, talk to your child’s teacher, and know that, though the road is long, it’s headed in the right direction.
3 responses to “What are the Common Core State Standards All About?”
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Good article. Explains things from a different angle. My wife and I have decided to send our kids to Montessori schools. We feel that it offers the best environment for our kids to learn and develop their unique skills. I wonder how CC differs, or is similar in ways, to Montessori schooling. My concern with programs like CC is that the model of standardized testing is becoming obsolete.
I agreed with much of this, especially the part about focusing on arithmetic instead of covering dozens of topics superficially. However, there is a tension, or contradiction, in the author’s presentation that I wanted to call out. Here are the statements I’m talking about:
> instead of bringing home pages upon pages of multiplication problems to solve using rote memorization or a basic algorithm….
>your children will still need to demonstrate fluency (basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts….
If the second passage is true – and it is, because the standards require knowing the facts from memory – then the first passage is misleading.
Repetitive practice is still necessary if students are to meet the standards as written.
Hi Jason,
Thanks for your comment. The point I was trying to make is that, while it is still important for children to master their basic math facts and demonstrate fluency with traditional algorithms, that it is no longer the only thing that is important. Children need to demonstrate both fluency and critical thinking ability. You’re right that some rote memorization may still be necessary for students to achieve this fluency. But so will word problems and mathematical explanations. Apologies if that juxtaposition was confusing!
-Hanna