Common Core (full name: Common Core State Standards Initiative or CCSSI) is an education initiative sponsored by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the purpose of which is to establish consistent education standards across the states as well as ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to enter college or the workforce.
On June 2, 2010, Common Core standards were released for mathematics and English language arts. States were given an incentive a lure to adopt the standards through the possibility of competitive federal Race to the Top grants.
To date, 44 of the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia are members of the CCSSI. Minnesota has adopted the English Language Arts standards but not the Mathematics standards. Texas, Virginia, Alaska, Nebraska and Indiana have not adopted the initiative.
Common Core is much criticized. The latest example has to do with its bizarre math that critics say is needlessly and nonsensically convoluted, so bizarre that a North Carolina dad with a Ph.D. was stumped by his kindergarten kid’s math homework assignment.
Below is another example of bizarre Common Core math.
Students are asked to solve what 427 minus 316 is, by using the number line below:
No?
You’re not alone.
This is what a mom wrote about her son’s math assignment (source: Clash Daily):
See also “Obama’s ‘Race to the Top’ Agenda,” Parts One and Two.
~Eowyn
