What is Common Core?

Last Modified: Sunday, October 6, 2013 at 12:30 a.m.

“There’s been a lot of debate in the media and the political circles around the standards. A lot of it has been characterized by some misinformation,” said Robert Rothman, a senior fellow at Alliance for Excellent Education during a recent webinar put on by the Education Writers Association.

So what is Common Core?

It is a set of standards — think of them as guidelines — that say what children across the country should know at each grade:

• A third-grader should know how to describe characters’ traits in a story and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events;

• An eighth-grader should be able to explain a proof of the Pythagorean theorem.

Common Core affects the order in which concepts are taught.

If, in the past, a ninth-grade math teacher rushed through the school year to cover algebra, geometry, probability and statistics, that same teacher could spend more time focusing on Algebra 1 so that students understand it better.

The idea? If students master a topic, they’ll have a stronger foundation when they move on to the next math class.

Common Core is tougher than the old Florida standards, called the “Next Generation Sunshine State Standards,” said Diana Greene, a Manatee County deputy superintendent.

The new guidelines require students to think more critically by comparing different kinds of writing for similarities or using evidence to prove a point.

School leaders say the new standards do not force teachers to use certain textbooks or dictate lesson plans.

Before Common Core, each state had its own standards, which could make it difficult for a child who moved from one state to another.

“For years, I’ve been saying, ‘Why is it Pennsylvania is different from Florida different from California different from New York?” said Sue Meckler, the Sarasota County Schools’ curriculum director.


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