Laura Strait, a teacher at Aspire ERES Academy in Oakland, California, has sat down with three different parents from the school district to see how they feel about Common Core standards.

"I sat down with three ERES parents, Aracely Jimenez, Olga Pelayo and Marcie Watan, all of whom now are a part of our ERES staff. Each parent is passionate about their child’s education—as well as the education of all our students at ERES. Graciously, they accepted the opportunity to speak candidly about their understanding of the Common Core," Strait said to the Huffington Post.

What she found as a problem in her school and likely a problem nationwide is that parents need to be better briefed on how Common Core standards impact their child's learning experience.

Though all three parents reported seeing a positive change and improvement in their children, particularly in math, since Common Core standard implementation, they all did not know how to define the Common Core.

Said Marcie Watan about her child under Common Core standards: "He is a much better critical thinker now and I’ve also noticed that he is doing a lot more reading and writing—which is good! But what I think is probably most important is that he is beginning to develop his own strategies for solving problems. Sometimes, I’m the one learning from him."

But when Marcie was asked what she thought the Common Core was, she said, "I hear about the Common Core a lot. But I don’t have any knowledge other than it is something big to do with education."

All three parents agreed that more needs to be done- more open lines of communication- so that they can understand what the Common Core means.

"I want to know about the Common Core so I can help my kids with their schoolwork. Sometimes they get stuck and frustrated with learning new things, but I can’t help them. They are learning new ways to do math. I was never taught these ways in Nicaragua. I really want to know about the Common Core so I can help my kids be successful with their schoolwork," said Aracely Jimenez.

In general, all three expressed a desire to learn more about the standards in order to better help their kids at home so they could excel back in the classroom.

Read more about the parents' responses here and comment your thoughts below.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

07/02/2015