Parent Teacher Magazine Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools January 2014 | Page 4
Message from Superintendent Dr. Heath Morrison
There’s been a lot of discussion
of the new Common Core State
Standards – if you’re a parent,
you’ve probably heard about them
at your child’s school and you may
have heard some of the national
conversation about them. These new
standards have their advocates and
their detractors. I’m an advocate
– a strong one! -- because these
standards are going to help us better
prepare our children for college,
career and success in later life.
The new North Carolina tests
aligned with the Common Core
State Standards are more rigorous. Students are expected to apply
information they have learned, not merely memorize it. The Common
Core standards will establish the framework we need by defining what
students need to know and be able to do at each grade level, so that by
graduation, they are prepared for post-secondary work in college or in
workplace training.
What does more rigor look like on these tests? Here’s an example
from a math test. The old kind of question asked students to identify
from a list of four numbers which was closest to three-fourths of a
dollar. Here’s the new kind of question: “Two-thirds of the students
in a class are wearing blue jeans. Two-sixths of the students who are
wearing blue jeans are also wearing red shirts. What fraction of the
students in the class are wearing blue jeans and red shirts?”
The second question requires a far