Fourth in a series
Re “Figuring Out What Common Core Is About”
[img]2264|right|Dr. Kati Krumpe||no_popup[/img]For all of the student emphasis that has accompanied the anticipated smooth rollout of the federally mandated Common Core standards next year, teachers are facing a huge shift themselves.
To clarify the new tasks for teachers, Dr. Kati Krumpe, the School District’s assistant superintendent who is engineering the transition, returned to an earlier discussion of math practice standards. “The idea there is creating opportunities for the students to be able to learn how to justify the math they know,” she said.
“Beyond getting the answer right, explain to me why you got the answer right – that is the goal. What math did you use? The question is why.”
In her student days, Dr. Krumpe had a taste of the Common Core experience long before anyone had thought up the concept.
“I was an advanced student through school who had the opportunity to take a high school class as an eighth grader,” she said.
“I would get on the bus, and they shipped me to the high school where I took Algebra I. I was a math/science person. I went through the rigor of the curriculum offered to me. Taking Algebra I in eighth grade was ahead of time. Most kids took it in high school.
“Today when I look at the eighth grade standards – one of the changes in Common Core is that Algebra I, for most kids, has been moved back to high school. Through the last 10 years, it has been a requirement of eighth graders in California. So through the past decade, we have taken the rigor and lowered it.
“There has been a lot of controversy over whether kids were ready,” Dr. Krumpe said.
Why was it done?
“Because we were not competing well internationally,” she said. “The United States has not competed well internationally, especially in mathematics. And so this was one of the answers.
“Now it is back in grade nine.
“When I look at the algebra course,” said the first-year administrator, “it is much different.”
(To be continued)
