From Friday’s CDT:
About 50 percent of Pennsylvania’s math standards for third, fifth and eighth grades don’t align with the proposed national core standards, according to a study conducted by University of Pittsburgh professor Suzanne Lane.
The state Board of Education presented the information, and other study results, Thursday morning at a lightly attended forum at Mount Nittany Middle School, one of three taking place across the state.
The board of education will vote on adopting the national standards July 1.
Some of the variance between PA and Common Core is due to standards in one being absent from the other, but most is due to requirements appearing in different grades. For example, compare the Grade 3 PA standard of:
2.2.3.B. Solve single- and double-digit addition and subtraction problems with regrouping in vertical form.
with the Grade 2 Common Core standard standard of:
2-NBT.13. Compute sums of two three-digit numbers, and compute sums of three or four two-digit numbers, using the standard algorithm; compute differences of two three-digit numbers using the standard algorithm.
If there are many instances like this of the PA standards lacking in rigor compared to Common Core, SCASD would do well to consider math programs that exceed the current PA standards rather than meet them, since it appears that adoption of Common Core in PA is inevitable if PA wants to compete with other states for additional federal funding.
UPDATE: This post referred to the draft version of the Common Core Standards. The final version released on June 2 requires that the standard algorithm for addition (i.e., carrying) is taught, but by the end of fourth grade.
