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SVEF is the education foundation advocating for the needs of school districts across Silicon Valley. SVEF seeks to improve public education through establishing partnerships with the private sector and the education community ..
Mr. Wurman brought up some points that are essential for state school boards and state departments of education to consider.
One thing I have not heard discussed is what will happen when the federal government, one day in the future, decides the common core standards need to be revised? Would the states have a chance to opt out at that time? Or is joining the common core standards a permanent commitment?
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How come noboby is talking about the other two core academic disciplines being left out of the Common Core State Standards initiative? History/Social Science and Science are being forgotten in this fixated rush to establish state standards for Math/ELA, but nobody is committing to completing the job for all four CORE academic disciplines. Is the civic dispositions and understandings of future voters less important than 8th graders’ ability to master aglebraic equations?
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California certainly should adopt the common core standards (at least for math). As a Math Coach, I am delighted with the Common Core Standards.
These common standards are infinitely superior to the current CA mile-wide and inch-deep standards created by Mr Wurman and others. Oddly, they seem proud of their old choppy, unrealistic, inferior CA Math standards that we currently have.
In particular, Mr Wurman’s pet goal of Algebra for All in 8th grade isn’t working – many students learn Algebra much better if they wait until 9th grade.
Currently the CA standards mandate that students take Algebra in 8th grade even when they don’t have a solid foundation for this topic. A huge percentage of these students fail and then have to retake that class in 9th grade. It just makes them hate math.
On the other hand, for students who are ready for Algebra early, there are many schools that allow some students to take Algebra in 7th grade – taking a class early can still be an option. With these new standards, there is no rule against taking a class earlier than the standards indicate.
Nationally, rather than the current practice of having Math defined differently in each state, switching to common National text books and National tests makes much more sense.
The group that created these Common Standards have done great research. They have looked at what works in the highest performing states and countries (states like like Massachusetts and amazing countries like Finland and some Asian countries).
In California, we should be smart and learn from success. Since these common math standards are well thought out, they progress logically through the grade levels – unlike the ridiculous jumps in the CA standards. The problem of inconsistency is especially bad in the CA middle school standards (for grades 6th -8th).
We have had these CA math standards and the associated text books for years. It is time for a tune up. Using the Common Core standards would be a wonderful improvement.
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Students need to be numerically literate when they graduate. This does not mean they all need two years of algebra. Most will never use it.
I tutor middle school students, bright and eager, who must struggle through algebra 1 without having yet mastered the concept of fractions, sometimes not even the times tables. I have found that the text books are neither clear nor logical. As an example: reduce 8/16 to its simplest form; the process required six steps to get to 1/2.
The teachers often give students multiple ways to solve a problem; I guess they hope one will stick. The result I see is that the students are confused; they never master one way.
Conservatively, 20% of the kids I’ve worked with in algebra 1 get the concept; the rest haven’t a clue. And why should they? Most careers do not require a rigorous background in math. There should be a choice. There should be the optional requirement of a rigorous course in numerical literacy, which is an entirely different but more relevant skill.
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