Common Core: Pass or Fail Part Two

By Alexandria Chapin, 6 and 11 News Anchor/Reporter

Now that we know what Common Core is, and how it was established, we’ll dig deeper into the standards to find out what kids are learning and at what cost to their privacy?

When most people think of Common Core, they think of the new math standards children are learning in school. These new standards are meant to not just show the student ‘what’ the answer is, but help them understand ‘why’ the answer is.

They go through multiple steps to grasp a foundation of where the answer comes from.

Jen Vonderwell, a Shawnee Middle School math teacher said, “We found that showing models, making them understand that not just rope memorization so that they can carry that information past that year. We find that when they understand and have that basic number sense that it’s much easier for them to learn the patterns that many of us were taught which ends up being the way that everyone learned. We know that that is still an important way but we know that that is not the ultimate way, it’s not the only way.”

The math portion of the standards is a major concern for parents I’ve spoken with, who struggle to help children at home. The new standards require children to calculate math problems in multiple steps and procedures.

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