What is Common Core?

EXL311

I will hopefully be homeschooling DS starting in the fall, and maybe DD too.  So I've just started to hear about this Common Core thing.  I consider myself to be a pretty smart person but I don't get what it is exactly and how it affects students in public school.  Could someone explain it to me in simple terms please?

wifeofadam

Simply put, it's the federal government's way of taking control of education.  States have always had the right to determine their own academic standards and methods of assessment.  Every state's department of ed had their own criteria for what needed to be taught in the schools in their state.  Then, the federal government said that in order to be eligible for certain funding, you had to adopt these Common Core standards and assessments.  Of course, since states are desperate for funding, nearly all (45, I think) decided to throw out their autonomy in this area and adopt the federal standards.

It's an effort to fix a failing system by teaching even more to the test...

wifeofadam

I forgot about the student part of your question.  I have no experience with the public schools since the implementation of Common Core, as a homeschooler, so all I know about it is what I've read and heard from parents.  I've read that many students are frustrated by the amount of assessment and also with the way in which things are graded, particularly in math.  You no longer simply get credit for a right answer.  If you give a correct answer and fail to show your work in a variety of ways (ways that may not make sense to you, even though you know the answer), you do not get credit.  Common Core focuses much more on the process and not the product.

EXL311

Thank you so much!  That was exactly the kind of explanation I was looking for to help me actually understand what I've been seeing mentioned everywhere.

Chichigo

I used Common Core teaching in a private school. There are some benefits, such as being able to move to a new state and be on the same page as classmates. But it's very rigorous and demands a lot from young kids. It might be easier on kids who start using it in kindergarten. You can use them as a guideline of grade level expectations to guide your curriculum development or supplement a boxed curriculum.

Mama-Bear

There's also the 400 points of data mining.  
"New" math
Inappropriate literature for upper grades that are considered "exemplary texts"

Replacing a lot of classic lit with "informational texts".

The basis is that all children in the country are learning the same math and ELA in the same year.  

I'm opposed to most of it, but do your own research.  Just google Common Core, you'll find a ton of sites.

amieeyoung

The basic premise was to come up with a curriculum that was the same in all states. Now, most people argue this, but working in a school system I see how hard it is when kids transfer from one state to the other.

However, the way the main curriculum that is being sold and pushed is what everyone has a problem with (trust me teachers have a hard time with it to). I believe they are trying to get kids to develop critical thinking skills and understand why and how to do a math problem, comprehend what they are reading etc.

It can be frustrating though (esp. math) - my son is ahead in school and find it annoying that not only can he do the math problem in his head very quickly, but he still has to explain how the problem is solved and draw something that illustrates it (or make a word problem / word sentence / write it in a different way).

Like all things it has it's pros and cons