Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Common Core as a Staircase Presented by Gerber Life Insurance Company.

Describing and defining Common Core challenges most people who are not familiar with education.  One way to explain it is to imagine that the K-12 grades are giant staircases.  Gerber Life Insurance Company (who even know such a thing existed) gives a message on its website that the Common Core standards are vital for parents of babies and toddlers to understand.

First, on the webpage is the video that presents staircases analogy. You see, before Common Core there were different staircases so that a student who would be working at one grade level in one state, say, Florida, would be at another grade level if he/she moved to another state (think Kansas). This has changed. Currently, now that Common Core has been initiated in most states the standards are aligned so that a student working at one grade level in one state will be at the same grade level if they move to another. For example, students studying linear equations in eighth grade in Florida will move into the same topic in Kansas at that grade level.

Note that the Gerber Life Insurance article misinterprets the number of parents who know about Common Core. It states that 39 percent of parents did not know about it yet in the linked article published by the University of Connecticut states that 39 percent of parents "have heard of the much-debated initiative." That would make 61 percent of parents who had not heard of Common Core.

Gerber Life Insurance Company needs to brush up on their math. Subtraction is an important skill.