We support the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, known in Alabama as the Career and College Ready Standards, and ask our legislators to oppose the bills to repeal the adoption of the Common Core State Standards. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were developed by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers--not the federal government.
The CCSS has two parts: The Curriculum Standards which describe the minimum content to be taught at each grade level; and the Standards for Mathematical Practice, which describe behaviors we should see students exhibiting in quality mathematics classrooms such as "Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them" and "Attend to precision."
For 12 years the Greater Birmingham Mathematics Partnership (GBMP), a partnership between Birmingham area school districts, UAB, and Birmingham-Southern College, has been working with teachers in the Birmingham area to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics, funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Our research consistently showed that when teachers fostered in their students the abilities described in the eight Standards for Mathematical Practice in the CCSS, there was a statistically significant increase in student achievement compared to students whose teachers did not foster these practices or did so at a low level. This was true across all socio- economic levels. We support Alabama's College and Career Readiness Standards for Mathematics, including the Standards for Mathematical Practice, based on what our evidence-based research clearly and consistently showed.
Prior to adoption of the CCSS, the State Superintendent recruited former members of the committees that wrote the Alabama Courses of Study in English and Mathematics and asked them to do a thorough comparison of Alabama's standards versus the Common Core standards. The committee reported that the CCSS were more rigorous and better than the Alabama standards currently in use. The State Board of Education adopted the CCSS with a majority vote in November 2010.
The major arguments to repeal the adoption of the CCRS are based on fears of states' rights being violated, not on the content of the CCSS for Mathematics or the Practice Standards included in the CCSS. We do not see this as a states' rights issue, but an issue about the quality of education for our children. Alabama is fourth from the bottom in mathematics compared to other states in the US, and the USA is near the bottom compared to other industrialized nations of the world. While the Common Core State Standards are not perfect, we believe they are a great improvement over what Alabama had and will go a long way toward improving the teaching and learning of mathematics in our state.
Faye Clark, Ph.D. and Ann Dominick, Ed.D.