Common Core Math: Explained

These days, it is not uncommon to hear parents and teachers voicing their frustrations over Common Core Math.  Believe me, as both parent and teacher, I get it. Even though the intentions of the Common Core Curriculum were good, a generational gap in math strategies left parents and many teachers frustrated and asking questions.  Why does my child need to learn so many different ways to add or subtract?  What in the world are partial products? What was wrong with the traditional strategies that I used to add, subtract, multiply and divide? How am I supposed to help my child with their math homework when I have no clue what these directions are talking about?  If any of this sounds familiar to you it’s because I was asking all of these questions as well.  My oldest children were in grades 2nd, 3rd and 4th when Common Core Math made an appearance in schools, and I was just as confused as everyone else. 

Two Sides of Common Core

Since becoming a teacher and having perspective as both a parent and a teacher, I can see and understand both sides.  If you research into the purpose of the Common Core Standards being developed, you will learn that they are not indeed evil.  Prior to their development, there was no consistency in the progression of the curriculum for the core subjects of Math and Reading across states and even within some states.  What a 3rd grader was expected to learn in one state might be totally different in another.  If you are someone that has lived in the same town your whole life, you may not have realized that a change was needed.  However, as the spouse of a retired active-duty soldier in the U.S. Army who lived in 3 different states within a timespan of 5 years with 3 children changing schools each time…. I can personally attest to the need of a streamlined curriculum. Sometimes our family moved, and I would have my children saying how easy the new school was because they had already learned everything previously that was being taught.  Then the next move would be a struggle because my kids were behind and trying to catch up. As parents we all want the best for our children and the truth is that, because of the inconsistencies, not all children were receiving the best education possible to prepare them for college and/or life.

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So now you are probably thinking, “Ok, I see the need for consistency across the board, but WHY all the new and frankly, more complicated, ways of performing basic math operations?” This is where my knowledge and experience as a special education teacher can help shed some light on this topic. I need you to be open-minded and hear me when I say this - some of the same common core math strategies that seem unnecessary and difficult to you, actually benefit and help many students learn and retain skills more easily.  I promise you this is true because I have witnessed it myself in my classroom. Students all have different learning styles or ways of processing and learning information. It is a good thing to teach students a variety of ways of solving problems.  Ideally, in my own opinion, students should be taught and exposed to the different ways of approaching a problem, but only graded on their ability to solve that problem using whatever strategy works best for them. Unfortunately, I feel that this is still being implemented improperly in many schools and students are graded on and expected to master all of the different strategies.

Common Core Math Examples

At Ignite Learning Company we understand that helping your child with his/her math homework can be overwhelming when you feel like you have to 1) research and teach yourself a math strategy that you were not taught in school and then 2) try to teach this strategy that you just learned yourself to your confused child.  That is why we are working hard to provide you with resources that provide the help you need. With our Grade-Level Math Guides, we have taken the Common Core Math Standards and not only put them in a language that parents can understand, but also packed them with examples you can use again and again. Choose your grade and download here: FREE Grade-Level Math Guide