re: Do They Still Teach Common Core Math In School? And What Is The Point Of It?

I always find it amusing, and ironic, when the person bitching to me about “common core math” can’t calculate a 15% tip in their head.

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If it slows everyone down, how is the gap closed?

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Less is more: math under the Common Core

Before, U.S. math curricula tended to be "an inch deep and a mile wide." Under Common Core, the mantra for math is "depth, not breadth."

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It is designed to intentionally narrow the subject matter, so that Cleophus and Wang stay on the same topic for weeks, rather than days. So by the end of the year, Wang isn't an entire year ahead of Cleophus, just a month or so. Gap narrowed. Problem solved!

It’s better when you get it from kindergarten on.

The problem I’m running into as a hs math teacher is kids having started with conventional math and then flipping to common core half way through their education. A lot of them are confused

ETA: it also doesn’t allow an avenue for kids that can do this without having to be taught it an avenue to move ahead. Which sucks

Math teacher here. People have argued for decades in the "math wars" about the best ways to teach math. One side derides the other as "drill and kill," while the other brands the other side "fuzzy math." The Common Core State Standards are actually a compromise between extremes. It definitely involves teaching kids conceptual math and mental math techniques, but kids also still learn all of the standard algorithms.

The CCSS are a set of standards, which determine skills that students must learn. The CCSS are definitely superior to Louisiana's old standards, which tried to cover too much ground and wasted time on less-important concepts. (As an example, when I taught sixth grade, I had to teach kids which shapes tessellate.) There is no such thing as "Common Core math," as Common Core is a set of things that kids have to learn, not a curriculum or set of teaching techniques.

Eureka Math is one curriculum which was created in response to the new Common Core standards. The state of New York paid for it to be developed, and has made the curriculum available for free on the internet. Because the curriculum is available for free (and printed copies available at very low cost), Eureka Math has become a very popular curriculum choice.

Eureka Math is definitely more on the "conceptual" side of the math wars. I think that it is a good curriculum in the hands of a competent teacher. My complaint with it is that the curriculum often does not give good information to parents about what their kids are doing, so parents are often confused.