The idea of math and literacy redesigned until they are accessible to all may be nonsense in fact but it is the official utopian nonsense promulgated by many of those involved with CCSSI.

Over time the states adopting the standards will be reminded that they can be investigated by the Justice Department for civil rights violations if they do not use the discovery oriented texts like Everyday Math or Connected Math with their broader conceptions of “math”.

That is the importance of keeping the vague “understand” in the math standards. It’s why it’s important to emphasize the visual and media in Language Arts.

In the new America we will have “collaborative learning activities” with socialization and interaction of diverse groups is the primary goal of school.

An emphasis on academic knowledge and skills inevitably leads to a hierarchy of the more and less able. Because those traits may not be equally distributed in the US across all races and cultures, they are officially no longer to be emphasized at all. That’s the new national policy and CCSSI federalizes that mindset.

First they took over school districts like Atlanta. Then whole states like Georgia. Now with Common Core they are nationalizing this vision.

The only acceptable academics in K-12 will be what can be done by all. Imagine if that vision governed our sports teams.

The CCSSI should field test the common core state standards for a minimum of a year prior to wide-spread use.

The CCSSI should actively support, promote, and help states establish consortiums to develop sets of standards.

The CCSSI should declare the Massachusetts , California, and Indiana mathematics standards as acceptable alternatives to the common core state standards.

In the math standards, “understand” should be replaced with more precise measurable verbs that will clarify the desired proficiency level.

The math standards should specifically include standards that develop skills related to simplifying fractions, finding factor pairs, finding prime factors, finding common denominators, finding least common multiples or denominators, and finding greatest common factors to provide students with the necessary foundation for success in authentic algebra and beyond.

The standards are a great improvement over the January draft in many ways, although they still fall short of being world class, thus not good enough for the students of this country.

The common core state standards for math do not match up to the standards for MA, CA, and IN. The common core state standards are not world class. Anything less than world class is not acceptable for the students across the country.

I’ve been teaching HS math for 19 years now. The Common Core math standards fall short of what my rural school expected years ago. How can they possibly better prepare today’s students for college and career readiness in our globally competitive society?

I disagree though with Stergious on his analogy that it’s good to pass faulty legislation then go back and fix it. All we have to do is look to Mass. to see that their socialized medicine has serious problems.

The CCS will be a big improvement for our state since I live in a state with “F” rated math standards.
However I also know that political operatives are waiting in the winds to inject their agenda into these standards.

Kevin Jennings, the controversial safe school czar has already said he’d like to use these standards to carry out his own personal political agenda.

All we are doing is opening up the door to the problems we see in England. POlitical operatives can’t seem to help themselves.