Math and CCSS

A little over a week ago, I met with a group of teachers to continue working on developing our district's new math curriculum that aligns to the national Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  It has been a great learning process and the team has a strong understanding of the new standards, including increased rigor, utilizing mathematical practices, and thinking about how we are going to teach math both differently and more effectively.  It has been great seeing how the conversations and work has evolved.  It was reassuring that PARCC's recently released Model Content Frameworks outlined the Content Emphases by Cluster, which aligned closely to our group's focus on outlining the Essential Knowledge for each grade level.  Basically these two phrases stand for the foundational knowledge that teachers should go into great depth with and spend time on because of the importance that these standards have on future mathematics, along with college and career readiness in the higher grade levels.  

A couple days after this meeting, I read a blog entry on NASSP about the challenges that lie ahead in implementing this new curriculum (NASSP PRINCIPAL DIFFERENCE).  It began with a quote from Tim Sass, "You have to know math in order to teach math.", which essentially sums up the gist of the blog entry.

It is critical that districts and colleges spend time and resources on training our teachers and future educators in mathematics.  It is time to balance the literacy and mathematics equation.