Thanks to Patty Hurley, Learning Disabilities Specialist at Northwest Elementary (Manchester), for forwarding this Huffington Post piece by Edward Frankel and Hung-Hsi Wu, a member of the Common Core math development team (I also quote him here).  These two widely-respected mathematicians discuss the need for improved math textbooks that align with the Common Core math standards:

The Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSSM) have been adopted by 45 states and District of Columbia, and are due for implementation in the fall of 2014, but controversy around these standards is continuing unabated — alas, for all the wrong reasons. In our recent Op-Ed in The Wall Street Journalwe have discussed this controversy as well as the importance of the CCSSM. But adopting CCSSM cannot by itself solve the problems facing our schools. We need to make sure that the CCSSM are implemented successfully, and this requires a sustained long-term effort by politicians, educators, teachers, and mathematicians. Without such an effort, the CCSSM will fail, setting back math education in this country by decades.

Here we will discuss three critical issues that have to be addressed for the CCSSM to succeed: math textbooks, assessment, and teachers’ preparation.

…continue reading here: Common Core Standards for Mathematics: The Real Issues.