The Common Core standards are successful in classrooms all over the country, not just here in New Hampshire.  Here a Louisville Courier-Journal reporter conveys telling quotes from Kentucky teachers. In 2010, Kentucky became the one of the first states in the country to adopt the Common Core.  Policy makers were concerned that their students regularly scored “proficient” on state tests, yet still required high rates of remediation in college. Since implementation of CCSS, the percentage of Kentucky high school graduates legitimately considered ready for college and careers has increased from 34 percent to 62 percent in 2014.

Kentucky teachers have seen Common Core work first hand:

Melissa O’Connell wrote, “I am an 8th grade math and algebra teacher in Shelby County. During the ‘roll out’ of Common Core I had my doubts about the ‘new’ standards….This year, my math students have come to me with a much better ‘number sense’ (’10 is your friend’) than ever before….Most children are mastering the standards in 8th grade that people of past generations did not even know about until our first algebra class!”

…Being a teacher that teaches Common Core standards, I find most backlash comes from adults and parents because they didn’t learn the content ‘this’ way, so it must be the ‘wrong way’. Kids are still being taught long division, they are still being taught their multiplication tables, and they’re still learning how to read. A further investigation into CCS should reveal students are going more in depth into concepts, instead of learning rote memorization of steps and rules.