Common Core Aligned Math in Your Student's Backpack: Here's Proof it's Really Not About the Wright Answer.

Disclaimer: I know the word "wright" in the above title is misspelled and that's the point of talking about the Common Core aligned math homework coming home in your student's backpack.  You got the gist of my meaning and that's the most important emphasis of the message, right?


There have been many articles the last few days about the teacher who was filmed on video stating the correct answer (4 x 3 = 11) is not that important in math answers:


 

Supporters of Common Core aligned math insisted this wasn't about Common Core since Common Core are STANDARDS, not curriculum. (We'll respond to this fallacious argument at the end of the article).  They complained that the original clip published on many outlets did not show the trainer also saying the correct answer was important, too.  But read what she says the real intent of math is in the full clip:

“We want our students to compute correctly but the emphasis is really moving more towards the explanation, and the how, and the why, and ‘can I really talk through the procedures that I went through to get this answer,’” August details. “And not just knowing that it’s 12, but why is it 12? How do I know that?”

We now have proof that this is how math is being taught in Common Core aligned curriculum.  A North Carolina mother is concerned about the Common Core aligned math curriculum taught in her 5th grader's class.  She wrote her school board the following letter explaining how Common Core aligned math is presented:

Dear members of the Wake County School Board:

I have a fifth grader at Holly Grove Elementary School on track 4. She’s been in fifth grade for all of two weeks. Her first week of math homework was general review: multiplication and division. Then yesterday she brought home Common Core homework.

"Explain how one division expression can have many different answers. Use a specific division expression to support your answer."

Do you think a fifth grader can answer this question? This isn’t math, this is an English essay in abstract thinking. I have a college degree, and it confused me. Have you spoken to any fifth grade teachers to ask them how they will present this type of material so 10-11 year olds can articulate an answer? If you allow them to answer honestly, I think you will hear a common answer to Common Core: “it is going to set elementary math skills back by several years.”

Here is another math homework problem: 

“32 divided by 5. Use the division expression to create 6 different word problems that match the answers below. Write the word problem in the appropriate box provided below. 1) the answer is 6; 2) the answer is r2; 3) the answer is 7; 4) the answer is 6 2/5; 5) the answer is 6 or 7; 6) the answer is 6.4.” 
 
Do you see a serious problem with this type of math homework? I foresee huge problems as kids have to re-learn real math, the kind that has one answer; one right answer, not a bunch of guesses that they have to explain. They don’t have to know the right answer, as long as they can explain how to do it? Please tell me how this will raise the standards of education if even adults don’t understand it.

This kind of abstract math foisted on children who barely have a grasp of basic math is going to accomplish a few goals, none of them being ‘raising the standards of education.’ Let me tell you what I’m already observing in my daughter’s classroom: 1) frustration, 2) tears, 3) vacant expressions that clearly indicate ‘I’m lost,’ and as my daughter now puts it: 4) ”I hate math.” This is only the second week of school.

I’ve done a lot of research on CCSS and have spoken to several elementary school teachers who are attempting to present the curriculum. This quote is from a good friend who teachers 5th grade in NY state, where 70% of students failed the CCSS tests in April: “It is VERY abstract and our 5th graders had extreme difficulty. You can't tell me that 75% of NY children should have an IEP. We are being told that the kids learn the concepts by doing the application. I still have not figured out how you can apply something you know nothing about!”

Are you aware that no educators or child development specialists were consulted in creating this curriculum? Are you aware that NC agreed to accept CCSS for RTTT funding without even seeing the curriculum? In fact, it hadn’t even been created when Gov. Perdue said “yes.” I feel that our kids are now expected to be guinea pigs for this untested, data mining, twice as many standardized tests, extremely liberal-thinking education program. The long arm of the DOE has taken parents, teachers, and local school boards out of the decision-making process. It’s not right, and this is one parent who isn’t going to let a bureaucrat in Washington say, “I know what’s best for your child.”

NC needs to reject CCSS, and Wake County should lead the way. Even if you are not convinced how this will be detrimental to our children, please consider how much this federally-mandated snuck-in-the-backdoor curriculum is going to cost NC. Taxes will have to be raised to pay for its implementation. The RTTT funds don’t cover the full program, and the only people who stand to profit from this new misery are private corporations like Gates and Pearson. Our children deserve better!

My high school teens start school in a few weeks. You can expect to hear from me again when I review their textbooks – my tenth grader’s Civics textbook was a big red flag last year – such a biased presentation of the political process! I am already aware that fewer AP classes are being offered in order to bring the high schools into compliance with CCSS. So, the way I see it, my IEP child will be completely lost and my accelerated learning teens will be bored because I see the real goal of Common Core is to lump kids into one mold and expect them to learn at the same pace, as in “one size fits all.” Those of you who are/were educators must realize that this is a prescription for failure on a national scale.

I encourage you to lead the way for NC by rejecting Common Core. Please allow the parents, teachers, and local school administrators to make decisions about school curriculum.

Sincerely, Rachel L. Walker Holly Springs 

Another school board member responded, insisting that it was only a set of 'standards,' not a curriculum. Obviously none of these people even glanced at CCSS before signing off on it. I know I need to take this fight to the state school board. I emailed the governor, but he's still on board with it, even though the lieutenant governor has done research and wants it blocked. Bureaucrats will be the death of us -- literally.

My response, written on the worksheet: "This abstract concept is well beyond my child's comprehension. (Actually this Common Core 'many answers' math is probably too confusing for any 5th grader.)" 

Since I've already written "this is impossible for any 5th grader" on worksheets, the teacher has already requested a conference.  My 11th grader couldn't articulate a response to this question, and he's a math genius.

********************************

Thank you, Rachel, for sharing your letter with other parents concerned about CCSS aligned curriculum and teaching practices.   Parents can go to the Smarter Balanced Assessment site and see for themselves what math problems are being taught to students:
                                            http://sbac.portal.airast.org/practice-test/

Many parents have written these tests make no sense to students, causing frustration and a budding hatred of math.   Is that the goal?

Here's your talking point of the day when CCSS supporters insist CCSS are "only standards". The curriculum has to be CCSS aligned so this video and homework coming home indeed is connected to Common Core standards.  Start referring to curriculum as Common Core "aligned" curriculum.  This an argument CCSS supporters cannot refute.