Opinionz.. Please!

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/22What-Parents-Rail-Against-Common-Core-Math-259363861.html?_osource=SocialFlowFB_DCBrand#

  

Simple - since I haven't any kids, no reason to spend any time thinking about this!

Sounds a lot like the "New Math" they were teaching a while back. Teachers say the program was created by non-educators who are fairly clueless.

These types of math enables debt to be explained as wealth.

Some 30 years ago, my son was doing poorly in grade-school math so the wifey and I hired a tutor to give him a little help once a week. The tutor used some of these same methods to teach him alternative ways to solve math problems. His math grades improved almost immediately and, although he did not grow up to be a rocket scientist, his math skills are excellent.

Please look at the other side. The Common Core was developed by educators, as well as business people and others with an interest in improving education. It would mean that students in all states are held to the same expectations and same tests, and that test results would be comparable. It does not tell anyone how to teach. It is a set of standards with assessment strategies. There is a fear that when results of assessments come out, some schools and states which have looked good on their own assessments will not anymore.

Check out this link on the myths

http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/myths-vs-facts/

Here is an example of math operations for grade four

Use the four operations with whole numbers to solve problems.
Gain familiarity with factors and multiples.
Generate and analyze patterns.

It isn't new math or weird math ... It is an expectation that kids will master the basics and then use the skills to critically think. It isn't just ok for kids to pick the answer to a computation problem from three choices. They must figure out what to do and then solve the problem. Much more in line with what the top countries expect.

Retired teacher and principal,

Carol

Ever live in Singapore?   They have the best math program in the world for smart people. It is almost impossible to fix math until we separate children by skills again and give them the correct level for the skills they possess.  No child left behind was really no child shall get ahead so many of us are pretty skeptical of one size fits all programs for math.  I think we need to go back to three levels of teaching. One for smart kids one for average kids and one for lower than average kids. Sorry about some below average kids self esteem. I think what Carol is saying is a step in the right direction but not sure it will do the job.  

My background was working for HP as a Member of the Technical staff and part of my job was to interview  Eng. Graduates and the programs they come from. I can assure you the Math problem is so severe at the Scientist level in this country I have worry of losing our technology edge which would be a disaster. If it were not for the Indian/Russian scientist coming over here we would be in worse shape. We also need to fix Math in College which is even sadder.