I want to highlight a great piece written by Julia Steiny which attacks the criticism that common core dumbs down math standards. She writes that the reduced focus of the math standards should be viewed as a positive move because it allows educators to push their students to deeper levels of critical thinking:
Rather than racing to cover topics in a mile-wide, inch-deep curriculum, the Standards require us to significantly narrow and deepen the way time and energy is spent in the math classroom. We focus deeply on the major work of each grade so that students can gain strong foundations: solid conceptual understanding, a high degree of procedural skill and fluency, and the ability to apply the math they know to solve problems inside and outside the classroom.
She also makes the point that the standards are not a curriculum. Rather, they simply note when certain concepts will be tested. However they do not dictate the grade in which content should be taught:
Despite opponents claiming otherwise, standards are NOT a curriculum. CC offers “exemplar” curricula suggestions — some truly bad — but by all means, ignore them. The standards only identify when particular skills will be assessed.
This leads to the most important point she raises, which is that the standards do not limit what teachers and schools can teach. Rather, they should serve as a baseline. Once they’ve mastered the baseline standards, schools could and should push students to higher levels if they are prepared to handle a more challenging curriculum.
As a teacher, I find her perspective to be incredibly liberating. Viewing the standards as a baseline from which to work gives teachers so much more freedom in what and how we teach. We have less to cover, but this also means we can and should continue to push our students to higher levels of learning when they are ready for us to do so.
Ms. Steiny makes some excellent points in her article, and the entire thing is worth a read. You can find the entire piece at educationnews.org.
Posted on February 15, 2014
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