With many educators scrambling to understand and implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) I feel the need to comment upon them and my own journey to understand them. In my humble opinion they are not the Holy Grail for which some of us had hoped. They are no more narrow than the Michigan High School Content Expectations (HSCE's) under which educators in my state had been operating. They are still a "mile wide and an inch deep". I continue to find myself struggling to "meet" all of the standards much to the dismay of my administration. I continue to fight for my students with my never ending rant that there is no way (or reason for that matter) that I should try to "cover" all of the standards laid out in this national plan called CCSS.
Let's get real for a minute. We have an educational system that continues to function on the premise that social promotion supersedes mastery. Until I no longer have students in my high school Algebra 1 course that have potentially failed the last 2-3 years of mathematics (and I have them), I refuse to proceed through a laundry list of standards. The CCSS are built upon the assumption that students have achieved "fluency"(see here and here) at the lower levels. This, my friends, does not always happen. Even if a student has passed their lower grade mathematics courses they may have barely done so. This is because moving through our current system is based upon a passing grade and not mastery. And I hate to call out the elephant in the room but many times that grade is based upon effort not understanding.
Now let me step off my soap box.
In the summer of 2012 my district gave us the opportunity to work with our ISD's K-12 Math Coordinator for Math Instruction at unpacking the CCSS. Almost all of our math teachers grades 5-12 were there and we worked for three days to wrap our heads around the CCSS and the expectations for us and our students. It was a wholly worthwhile experience. We had an opportunity to have real vertical alignment discussions that brought to light assumptions some of us had about what was covered at the lower levels. And those at the lower grades had a much greater understanding of where it is that our students were being asked to end up at the end of their high school careers. It was eye-opening for all of us.
We began by taking an individual standard and deciphering what it really meant. We used a worksheet to begin to call our attention to the nouns and verbs used in individual standards. We then wrote "I can..." statements using teacher language and then "This means I can..." in student friendly language. In essence, we took vague and hard to understand standards and broke them down into their collective pieces and wrote them in student friendly language. Now at times this was difficult because sometimes we didn't even know what the standards were really trying to get at. We looked at examples and found the Illustrative Math website to be quit helpful. You may also want to visit this LiveBinder and go to "Content Unpacked" and then "flipbooks". There you will see unpacked standards from many states with instructional strategies and examples. I personally find this flipbook put out by McGraw-Hill to be something I cannot do without. It has standards broken all the way down to "I can" statements for you. Quite frankly they are better than the ones we came up with, in most cases. Having said that, do not underestimate the value in unpacking standards yourself. It is a wholly worthwhile process. I have a better understanding of the standards because of it and our district has better vertical alignment because of the conversations we were able to have while doing it.
Now, even though it may seem that I am poo-pooing the CCSS there is something that came out of their development that I believe is a game changer; the Mathematical Practices. I have heard it said that our state HSCE's had something similar woven throughout. However, by specifically addressing those skills, characteristics, and practices that are indicative of good critical thinkers I believe we can bring our mathematics education in this country to the 21st century. Those eight, simply stated practices eloquently address a focus for our math instruction that moves beyond mathematics itself to skills that will help our students be successful in an ever changing global society. They support something I have always believed and said; mathematics is the vehicle to developing critical thinking. That goes beyond understanding that the sum of a rational number and an irrational number is an irrational number (that is seriously a Common Core standard, see N.RN.3).
Last school year (2012-2013) after unpacking the standards and aligning our curriculum we also chose to have a focus on the Mathematical Practices. We discussed them with students and called attention to at least one in a lesson. Although we didn't get the results we were looking for I believe we did get a better understanding of their importance. I've come to personally realize that to focus on all eight is difficult as we transition to CCSS, both for us and our students. I have decided to choose two to focus on in this upcoming school year; (1) making sense of problems and persevering, and (3) constructing viable arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others. I've written a previous post. Teaching Perseverance. on my initial game plan for developing the first math practice in my students.
In the end, I've come to develop my own personal balance between CCSS and my students needs. They do not all need to "cover" or even be exposed to every standard. Right or wrong, I see them as a guide. However, I see so much value in the Mathematical Practices that they have become my focus. For me, the standards have become a vehicle to teach the Mathematical Practices. Just like you wouldn't take an electric car on a 500 mile trip with nowhere to recharge, not every standard is necessary to develop the Mathematical Practices. I will choose wisely which standards to use. I will consider the needs and experiences of my students and for what next math course I need to prepare them. It is how I have personally found balance. How will you?
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