Here's what's good about Common Core math

A new post on the Education Next website by Tom Loveless looks at Common Core (CCSS) instruction and its impact on how teachers teach, as well as how teacher decisions around instruction shape implementation. Standards emanate from the top and are produced by politicians, policymakers, and experts. Curricular decisions are shared across systemic levels. Instruction, on the other hand, is determined by practitioners. Loveless looks at Common Core mathematics in the elementary grades, with an example of how the standards will likely shape math instruction. The CCSS introduces fractions as numbers on a line, versus traditional representation as parts of a whole. Emphasis on a number line doesn't guarantee effective instruction, and there will be variation in how teachers implement the concept, but overall it's a shift that will yield needed and beneficial change. Loveless points to a practice guide published by the What Works Clearinghouse, Developing Effective Fractions Instruction for Kindergarten Through Eighth Grade, which states supporting evidence for use of number lines inferred from studies involving whole numbers and decimals. This is the kind of research that underlies many curricular changes in the Common Core that will have huge ramifications for how teachers teach. In a successive post, Loveless will cover less-promising Common Core impacts on instruction. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

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