I am excited about the Common Core standards and what they brings to Alabama and most of the nation as a whole. The idea behind the CC was to start with college and career standards and work backwards rather than the traditional way of building up from kindergarten/first grade. The problem with the traditional way of progression was that many students were completing high school but finding themselves unprepared for college rigor and workplace expectations.
By working backwards, gaps and holes that had been overlooked in traditional education are now being filled. This has created standards that are much more rigorous and relevant to what our students will need when they leave the sanctuary of our halls for the challenge of the real world.
"Shift" is a word that you will see over and over again in the transition into CC standards. In math, the overall shift is one from basic math practice and repetition to real-world application and number theory. Mathematics will focus more on depth and less on breadth with attention give to deep understanding and mastery of anchor concepts instead of the shotgun exposure approach that has been taught in the past.
In reading, the shift to requiring textual support to justify answers and the return to working with complex text and vocabulary will challenge our students to become higher-level thinkers. This will equip them with the skills to reason and communicate effectively. No longer will a story or an informational text be given merit based simply on how a student "feels" about it but will be put through the student's academic critique of analysis and evaluation to determine the validity and relevance of the passage.
These are just an overview of some of the shifts the CC bring, but they illustrate the difference in the CC standards versus our traditional Alabama course of study.
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