Parent Guide: What is the Common Core?

It’s more important than ever that students graduate with the knowledge and skills to attend college. But how do you know if a student is ready for college and how do students get there? That’s the question we’ll be exploring in this series of articles for parents.

In the news, on social media or from your child’s school, you might be hearing a lot of talk about the Common Core. What’s it all about?

What is the Common Core?

The Common Core is a set of new curriculum standards in math and English language arts (ELA). The standards set clear guidelines for what every student should know at every grade so that they’ll be on track and fully prepared for college by the time they graduate high school.

So, for instance, the Common Core tells schools that one of the things students should be able to do by the end of second grade is add single digit numbers in their heads. By 11^th grade, students should be able to “demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature.”

The Common Core provides a destination, but teachers and schools still decide how to get there: They create the curriculum, pick the projects, assign the homework, and determine the best way is for a student to move from point A to point B.

Teachers often say that the old California state standards were “a mile wide and an inch deep.” The Common Core includes fewer topics than the old standards, but teachers will go deeper into each one to make sure students really understand the ideas and concepts and can apply them.

Where did the Common Core come from?

A simple but urgent truth: too many students graduate from high school and aren’t ready for college. Many don’t make it to college at all. Others start college classes and can’t handle the work or have to take remedial classes that cost them time and money and can be a huge obstacle on the road to a college degree.

In response, educators from across the country came together to develop standards that would prepare students for the demands of college. The Common Core standards have been over ten years in the making. They draw on input from top colleges and universities, business leaders, and other countries and on the best research about how students learn.

California adopted the Common Core standards in 2010, with the full support of public university system, the California Teachers Association and hundreds of local community groups. Most other states in the country have also adopted the standards.

What does this mean for my child and my school?

In general, the Common Core puts more emphasis on critical thinking, on explaining why the answer is right, understanding why it matters, and applying it to real world challenges.