It's not a secret that parents frequently feel left out about what their children are learning in this era of Common Core standards-aligned material. They are sometimes frustrated when trying to help with homework.

In order to remedy this problem, a school district in Georgia has created video tutorials to help parents understand how Common Core math is taught so they can help their children at home.

According to NeighborhoodNewspapers.com, Paulding County School District has used some of its Math Science Partnership grant, a two-year $1 million federal award, to create the tutorials which are expected to be on the district's website soon.

"School district spokesperson Suzanne Wooley said the videos emphasize that what is being taught is not new math, but a new approach," according to the article.

“'Instead of counting up on our fingers, we’re putting it on a number line and actually see how to count up by ones...It is really teaching the value of the number instead of just following what the teacher says you do by ‘carrying the one,'" she said.

A simple math problem such as 37+56 is taught much differently in the current Common Core classroom than parents are traditionally used to, and parents trying to help their children at home might not even be aware of this change let alone how to teach it.

Certainly, adding 37+56 in the Common Core classroom is much different than the way parents are used to:

The traditional way is to solve it vertically by stacking the two numbers, adding the 7 and 6 on the right side, “carrying” an imaginary one and adding it to the sum of 3 and 5 on the left side to equal 93.

However, under the new method, the student would “take apart” the numbers and show the parts which are multiples of ones — 7 and 6 — and 10s — 30 and 50.

The student would add the numbers which are multiples of one (7 + 6) to equal 13; and add the numbers which are multiples of 10 (30 + 50) to equal 80. The two answers (13 and 80) would be added together to equal 93.

Administrators and educators in the district say the new way of teaching math under Common Core standards has resulted in great improvement from students- even those with special needs- in grasping the concepts.

They hope that the video tutorials will help parents get on board, too.

Read the full article here and comment with your thoughts below.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

07/23/2015