Common Core Defended

Writing for USA TODAY, Solomon Friedberg (Boston College) defends the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.

Friedberg attempts to clarify what the Common Core is and is not:

Common Core is a list of topics everyone knows we should teach. It doesn't tell teachers how to teach them (though it does ask that they teach them coherently, with understanding). It is also not a test, not a curriculum, not a set of homework problems, not a federal mandate and not a teacher evaluation tool.

He articulates how Common Core math differs from the subject as often taught:

Common Core saves us from plug-and-chug. In fact, math is based on a collection of ideas that do make sense. The rules come from the ideas. Common Core asks students to learn math this way, with both computational fluency and understanding of the ideas.