Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments What do you think of potential Common Core impact?

I've heard that one casualty may be accelerating in math. Apparently the Common Core for math is that every year it builds on itself; it isn't in discrete topics anymore like Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, etc. So a gifted child can't accelerate through it.
With our local public school gifted program, my son will take Algebra I in 7th grade, Geometry in 8th grade, Algebra II in 9th, pre-calculus in 10th, then two years of Calculus. I'd hate to see that change.

Discrete math topics seems to be a US thing. While that is the system we are used to, many other countries don't focus on one math topic each year - they have a bit of each topic every year.

My kids did most of their elementary years in an immersion school that was based on a European school model. They did a wide variety of math topics each year, and they were clearly ahead of their public school peers when they switched to the local public school.

I think that there will still be discrete topics in middle/high school. The College Board wouldn't let the model change - too much money at stake with AP tests.

It is changing-- at least through Algebra II.

It's a more "integrated" math progression, which sounds fine until you dig into what curriculum modifications are being rolled out by the big curriculum/textbook houses as a result.

It's more spiraling pedagogy that goes over the same concepts relentlessly drilling them...

and frankly, there is VERY little supporting analytical coverage, which means that the same structural problems that exist for the low-end NOW are going to persist in it under Common Core.

This, by the way, is my DD's report on the basis of the Course 3 math students that she has been seeing in tutoring sessions over the past year. They have underlying gaps in understanding that are going unaddressed, and no amount of drilling on geometry theorems is going to help them understand those theorems without filling them in first.

I don't think the common core will make it impossible to accelerate. We've had no indication that our school district will stop accelerating students in the gifted program. Currently, in the highly gifted program which runs 3rd to 8th grade, students complete two years of high school math along with a high school level earth/environmental science course.