Common Core State Standards released

Common Core State Standards is a state-led initiative (not by the government) and designed by a diverse group of teachers, experts, parents, and school administrators.

They hope these standards will be adopted by various states. We shall see! It would definitely help if the math standards didn't vary so much among the various states. In some states, there are SO many standards and objectives per grade that it seems impossible students could learn it all well.

You can view the mathematics standards here. They also have language arts standards available.

Comments

Michael Paul Goldenberg said…
I'm curious as to how you distinguish between "state-led" and "not by the government." Further, why you think that having what will for all intents and purposes be a national curriculum won't result in over-standardization, the further entrenchment of the standardized test insanity that has been increasingly driving US mathematics education (at the same time that the Asian countries we profess to admire so much are trying to get away from such things and approach what they view - rightly or wrongly - as the freedom of US mathematics education, and seriously suppress creativity and individualism amongst schools, teachers and students in this country.

While there are some small pluses to be found in the idea of a core curriculum, on my view they are nearly entirely outweighed by the myriad of minuses.
8:16 AM, June 20, 2010
VinceRN said…
I like this. These standards seem reasonable, and provide a nice set of goals to shoot for.
7:10 PM, June 20, 2010
Maria Miller said…
I just copied the website when they said it's "state-led" and not by the gov.

And I do feel that these standards can be a good thing. Some of the states standards aren't in very good "shape" and need improving so perhaps those states can design their standards based on these core curriculum standards.

Even if the curriculum was to become more similar in different states, that is a different issue from testing. I hope they don't go towards more testing... but less.
8:33 AM, June 21, 2010
Becky said…
@Michael, she means that the common standards are an initiative by the states to coordinate their standards, not something being imposed by the Federal government. Each state would still maintain full control over their own standards. Now, I am not a fan of the standardized testing movement, but I don't think that mutually agreed to standards inevitably increase the testing push. Rather, they can just be used as a framework for curriculum planning.
3:21 PM, August 23, 2010
Anonymous said…
Nationalized education is NOT an answer to our education woes any more than nationalizing health, banks, or the auto industry has been. Nationalization of anything takes choices out of the hands of individuals and local communities... CCSS is an absolute threat to the rights of homeschooling families.
7:22 PM, September 05, 2010
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