By Sharon Rose
As schools around the United States are implementing state and national Common Core Math learning and performance standards, parent complaints grow louder. Many feel their children have been set up to fail by the introduction of a complicated math process. The simplest forms of math, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division have been turned into a nightmare for some parents. An emphasis is placed on working with a partner or a group to arrive at math answers. Children who fail the Common Core Performance tests are at risk of repeating a grade and/or being placed in special programs.
Some parents have expressed that math, such as adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing has been made, unnecessarily, complicated. Parents are being introduced to unfamiliar math terms, such as, "array," "regrouping," and "area model." Common Core Math is new and parents, unfamiliar with it, are left at a lost to help with homework of grades as early as first, second, third grade. They have been given no training, by school systems, for this new math and have been left on their own to figure it out. Stacey Jacobson-Francis, 41, of Berkeley, California, interviewed by NBC Washington News affiliate, said her first grade daughter's homework requires her to know four different ways to add. "That is way too much to ask of a first grader,'' she said. "She can't remember them all, and I don't know them all, so we just do the best that we can.''
What are Common Core Standards? Common Core is a set of math and English standards that spell out what students should know and when. *(Although we don't often hear complaints about it, Common Core Standards also includes Language Arts/Reading.) The standards for elementary math emphasizes that kids should not only be able to solve math problems using the traditional methods, taught when their parents were in school, but understand how numbers relate to each other. Common Core has been adopted by 44 states, including Maryland and Washington, D.C.
What are Common Core Standards? Common Core is a set of math and English standards that spell out what students should know and when. *(Although we don't often hear complaints about it, Common Core Standards also includes Language Arts/Reading.) The standards for elementary math emphasizes that kids should not only be able to solve math problems using the traditional methods, taught when their parents were in school, but understand how numbers relate to each other. Common Core has been adopted by 44 states, including Maryland and Washington, D.C.
As a critic of Common Core Math, who would like to see it go away, I have observed that it fails to emphasize basic computation skills, leaving students unprepared for higher math. I say, traditional math still has an important role in building that strong foundation in math that children need. Educating our children should be about positive learning experiences that give them confidence and the tools to be independent and succeed in life, not throw curve balls to strike them out.
*More resources on Common Core Standards:
*The History of the Common Core Standards: http://www.usnews.com/news/special-reports/articles/2014/02/27/the-history-of-common-core-state-standards
*Sources: http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/22What-Parents-Rail-Against-Common-Core-Math-259363861.html
Copyright: Common Core Math Not Popular with Parents, Parents Want to Know 101, Sharon Rose, September 26, 2015. All rights reserved.
