Our state has adopted the common core standards. Despite the dire warnings of one of our (embarrassing) (reactive)(ultra-conservative) state senators, Chris Buttars (yep, his real name), who said that the common core disguises dangerous socialist messages that will pollute our children, I think the common core is splendid! I love the literature choices and I strongly agree with teaching numeracy throughout most of the elementary years. I’ve always said that little kids aren’t ready for abstraction so young (well, Piaget and I said it 
).
The common core is cool because it encourages cross-curricular instruction, with cooperation between the various subjects and teachers, even encouraging giving credit for a paper written in social studies that can also count for English. I’ve always thought that was a good idea. I used to encourage my college writing students to do it. (Why am I not teaching college now? Another story…but the bottom line was that I wanted to teach in juvenile corrections).
My dearest hope is that the common core standards will obviate the constrictions of the now-defunct NCLB. We know that standardized testing won’t go away, but we hope that the more humane and broad education offered by Common Core will change the unhealthy emphasis on test scores.
Go to the site; read about it. I think you will like it!
