Very simply, Common Core is a set of skills and information that a child will learn during a school year. There are specific standards for Kindergarten through 12th grade. They get more and more complex as a child moves through the grades and the standards build on one another across grades. The common core was created to try to give some uniformity to learning in California and many parts of the United States where it has been adopted. This was done so that a student moving schools might still experience the continuity of similar information and skills being taught in a new environment and to increase the equity and rigor of learning across many schools. It also sought to unify the states disjointed standards. There are (comparatively to other sets of standards) less standards in the common core. Common core’s mission was to strive for depth of knowledge and the ability to explain an answer rather than just follow a formula.

So you might be thinking, “wow! That sounds great!” Who wouldn’t applaud students really understanding a topic and the admirable pursuit of trying to get all schools on the same page academically so no student is left behind. You might also be thinking, “this has not been my experience with common core.” Many parents and educators see the common core as too demanding or as making relatively simple things like borrowing while subtracting unnecessarily confusing. Some parents have even alleged that the common core has tried to “change” math.

You may also have had no preconceived notion of what the common core might mean for your child. Regardless of the position you take on Common Core, knowing what Common Core is will help arm you with information you need to assure your child’s academic success.

How are they organized?

This blog post refers to the standards in Kindergarten through 2nd grade. Below is a quick summary of the different groupings of standards for math and language arts.

Math Standards –

Counting and Cardinality – This category of standards is only present in Kindergarten. It has to do with counting, which is pretty self-explanatory, and cardinality, which is counting objects in a group.

Operations and Algebraic Thinking – In kindergarten through 2nd grade, this set of standards deals with addition and subtraction, which are operations learned in these early grades. Algebraic thinking refers to patterns and relationships that help to help students solve these problems.

Numbers and Operations in Base Ten – These standards have to do with place value. For instance, students would need to know that 11 is composed of 1 group of 10 and 1 one. Students would then need to know how to use that information to make adding and subtracting easier.

Measurement and Data – This set of standards teaches students about length, weight, height and how to use this type of data to compare objects. In 1st and 2nd grade, students learn about time and money.

Geometry – In the early grades, geometry refers to recognizing and naming shapes and learning the important vocabulary to describe shapes.

Language Arts Standards

Reading: Literature – These standards have to do with understanding and analyzing fiction.

Reading: Informational Text – Like the literature standards, these standards deal with understanding and analyzing non-fiction.

Reading: Foundational Skills – These are the phonics standards or what children need to know in each grade in order to actually read grade-level appropriate texts.

Writing – These standards detail the writing students should be able to produce according to grade level. This includes writing conventions, like where to place capitals and periods, the organization of writing, and the quality of the content.

Speaking and Listening – These standards are also pretty self-explanatory. They detail the behaviors students should exhibit while learning and discussing academic subjects.

Language – Finally, these standards relay the conventions of standard English conventions and grammar that a student needs to master.

How do the standards build on one another?

The good thing about common core is that the standards build on one another. For instance, a skill that a student is merely exposed to (taught but not expected to master) is mastered 2 years later in 2nd grade. This gives students lots of time to work up to mastery, which is a really good thing. Additionally, because the standards build on one another, the amount of knowledge a student needs to learn in a given year becomes less over-whelming.