In Berkeley, CA, and schools around the nation, students, parents and teachers are struggling with Common Core State Standards. For Marina Ratner, grandmother of a sixth-grade, public middle school student in Berkeley, Common Core State Standards, in her opinion, are making math education "even worse."

The new math standards, according to Ratner's article in The Wall Street Journal, would "not be too high" in comparison with other nations whose students show higher math achievement. Another lead writer of the mathematics standards told the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education the new standards "wouldn't prepare students for colleges to which 'most parents apire' to send their children." 

Ratner agreed. She said the standards' instruction for students to draw visual models for fractions and other simple concepts took time away from learning geometry and other important topics. 

"Yet the most astounding statement I have read is the claim that Common Core standards are 'internationally benchmarked,'" she said. "They are not. The Common Core fails any comparison with the standards of high-achieving countries, just as they compared to the old California standards. They are lower in the total scope of learned material, in the depth and rigor of the treatment of mathematical subjects, and in the delayed and often inconsistent and incoherent introductions of mathematical concepts and skills."

Ratner said the adoption of Common Core standards represents a "huge steps backwards."

"The Common Core standards will move to the U.S. even closer to the bottom in international ranking," she said. 

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Article by Kassondra Granata, EducationWorld Contributor