Nevadans Against Common Core (Nevada Academic Content Standards)
Problems with common core math
Dr. James Milgram is a Professor Emeritus Stanford University, Department of Mathematics. Milgram is one of the lead authors of the California Mathematics Standards (among of the highest math standards in the country) and the California Mathematics Framework. Dr. Milgram has worked with a number of states, and with the Achieve Mathematics Advisory Panel on standards in education. Milgram is a member of the National Board for Education Sciences, and he has worked with the U.S. Department of Education on the math that pre-service K-8 teachers need to know and understand.
Dr. Milgram was on the Math Feedback Group, and the Validation Committee, for the Common Core State Standards.
Dr. Milgram discussing the problems with Common Core and how CC math will impact our country.
Milgram says Common Core is exactly the same as "Fuzzy Math" that has failed in the past.
Especially interesting from 5:50 to 9:30 and from 20:30 to the end.
Here's Dr. Milgram testifying in Louisiana in February 2014.
Dr. Milgram would not sign off on the math standards because he says, the math standards put us "TWO YEARS BEHIND HIGH ACHIEVING COUNTRIES." Milgram went on to say, "In a number of the high achieving countries, calculus is actually a high school graduation requirement, but where it is not, typically, half or more of the high school graduates will have had calculus."
Dr. Marina Ratner - Professor emerita Berkeley wrote a Wall Street Journal article titled, Making Math Education Even Worse
Dr. Ratner writes:
“The Common Core fails any comparison with the standards of high-achieving countries, just as they fail compared to the old California standards. They are lower in the total scope of learned material, in the depth and rigor of the treatment of mathematical subjects, and in the delayed and often inconsistent and incoherent introductions of mathematical concepts and skills.”
In February, 2013 Trevor Packer, the senior vice president of the College Board (AP and SAT), confirmed what Dr. Milgram said using different words. "AP CALCULUS SITS OUTSIDE OF COMMON CORE, CALCULUS IS NOT PART OF THE CC SEQUENCE."
What Mr. Packer omitted is that TRIGONOMETRY AND PRE-CALCULUS ARE NOT PART OF THE STANDARDS EITHER.
Dr. Milgram is correct, the Common Core State Standards in math, put us two years behind other high achieving countries! Why would we implement "national math standards" that put us two years behind high achieving countries?
The architect of CC math, Jason Zimba, tells us, Common Core does not get students ready for STEM or selective colleges.
William McCallum a lead writer of CC math said, “WHILE ACKNOWLEDGING THE CONCERNS ABOUT FRONT-LOADING DEMANDS IN EARLY GRADES [MCCALLUM] SAID THAT THE OVERALL STANDARDS WOULD NOT BE TOO HIGH, CERTAINLY NOT IN COMPARISON WITH OTHER NATIONS, INCLUDING EAST ASIA, WHERE MATH EDUCATION EXCELS."
Phil Daro, the third and final lead writer of CC math said, “AND REMEMBER THAT THE REASON WE HAVE STANDARDS IS BECAUSE OF THE SOCIAL JUSTICE AGENDA TO MAKE SURE ALL KIDS GET ENOUGH MATH TO HAVE A DECENT OPPORTUNITY."
Most educators would agree that mathematical education in the US is in crisis, and that the reason is the way math is currently taught here. But Common Core does nothing to address this problem. And in fact, in many areas the national standards are fully as poor as the standards of the weakest states. "I CANNOT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH THAT COMMON CORE IS USING OUR CHILDREN FOR A HUGE AND RISKY EXPERIMENT, ONE THAT CONSISTENTLY FAILED WHEN TRIED BY INDIVIDUAL STATES SUCH AS CALIFORNIA IN THE EARLY 1990's AND EVEN COUNTIRES SUCH AS THE OLD USSR IN THE 1970's."
Jonathan Goodman, a professor of mathematics at the Courant Institute at New York University, found: “THE PROPOSED COMMON CORE STANDARD IS SIMILAR IN EARLIER GRADES BUT SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER EXPECTATIONS WITH RESPECT TO ALGEBRA AND GEOMETRY THAN THE PUBLISHED STANDARDS OF OTHER COUNTRIES."
Dr. Bill Evers, a researcher at Stanford University's Hoover Institution said, the CC geometry is “rigid motion,” he also said, “IT HAS NEVER SUCCESSFULLY BEEN USED IN K-12 EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES IN ANY STATE, OR IN ANY COUNTRY." (A3)