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"A professor at Stanford's Graduate School of Education has launched a new free math curriculum designed to help engage students more deeply in math. Dubbed the "Week of Inspirational Math," the program is aimed at students in grades 5-9 and includes five lessons, one for each day in a week, featuring math problems designed to be fun and engaging along with videos with positive messages about math. Teachers using the curriculum will also be able to join a network offering additional support and resources throughout the school year. "We want to give kids inspirational math tasks that help them see math as a lovely subject of beautiful patterns and deep inquiry," said Jo Boaler, the program's designer, in a prepared statement. "And we want teachers to see what happens when kids are really engaged in math." Boaler said she hopes teachers will use the program at the beginning of the school year to give students a positive experience right off the bat and set the tone for the rest of the year, but the program can be used at any point. "The lessons address five key areas of math: geometry, algebra, numbers, patterns and connections," according to a news release. "The problems are so-called 'low floor, high ceiling' tasks that are accessible to all students but can be solved in different ways to challenge those just being introduced to the topics as well as high achievers. They also emphasize different messages: Mistakes help you grow, for example, and it's not how fast you complete a task that's important but how deeply you understand it." The Common Core-aligned program is the latest offering from YouCubed at Stanford, a program Boaler helped launch that aims to make new research into math learning accessible to teachers and parents. "We're researching and using new brain science to find out how best people learn," said Boaler, in a prepared statement. "Then, we're giving teachers things they can actually do in their classroom based on this research." The program

"ASCD SmartBrief Special Report: Common Core State Standards (Part I) For many years, academic standards in the U.S. have differed by state, district and sometimes even school. The varying standards have resulted in wide disparities in student knowledge. The adoption of the Common Core State Standards by most states is an attempt to create guidelines that can be used by educators across the country to teach math and English, with the goal of improving student proficiency. This two-part ASCD SmartBrief Special Report on the Common Core State Standards offers guidance to educators on what to expect as the standards are implemented. Part I examines the standards and how instruction will change. Part II, to be published Thursday, looks at how schools are beginning to align their teaching with the common core and how testing will change. "

"In the last year, there's been quite a bit of chatter about whether textbooks that claim to be aligned to the common-core standards really do meet that mark. A Consumer Reports-style review of K-8 math materials found that nearly all of the textbook series analyzed were out of sync with the common-core standards (though that review has since come under fire and been revamped). Other researchers have called claims of common-core alignment a 'sham.'"

"A year-long effort to define a common set of academic standards for English and math culminated on June 2 with the release of the final version of the Common Core State Standards, which aim to establish consistent learning goals across states. The K-12 English, language arts, and math standards are intended to ensure that students in Kentucky have the same learning opportunities as students in Wisconsin, for instance, and were developed in collaboration with content experts, state officials, teachers, school administrators, and parents."

"A few weeks ago, I wrote an article for TheAtlantic.com describing some of the problems with how math is currently being taught. Specifically, some math programs strive to teach students to think like "little mathematicians" before giving them the analytic tools they need to actually solve problems. Some of us had hoped the situation would improve this school year, as 45 states and the District Columbia adopted the new Common Core Standards. But here are two discouraging emails I received recently. The first was from a parent:"

"The common academic-content standards that dozens of states are now adopting are better overall than 33 individual states' standards, according to an analysis released today by a Washington research-and-advocacy group." Provides a REPORT CARD for each state's standards in comparison to the ELA and Math CCSS.

"Karl Nelson is the director of the Digital Learning Department for the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). In this Q&A, he talks about how his state is using open educational resources (OER) to help support Common Core State Standards. The OSPI's OER Project was launched in 2012, when the Washington Legislature passed HB 2337. According to Nelson, the legislature saw OER as a chance to both save districts money and improve instructional material quality, so it directed OSPI to identify a library of openly licensed courseware aligned with the state standards. The legislature also asked OSPI to provide guidance to school districts using OERs."

"Common Core foes spreading misinformation, Duncan says. Education Secretary Arne Duncan planned a robust defense on Tuesday of the Common Core standards, new academic standards in reading and math that have been adopted by 45 states and D.C." The standards, which are rolling out in most states and will be in place by 2014, have been attacked in recent months by conservatives and tea party activists, who say they amount to a federal intrusion into local school systems. "

"Now that the Common Core State Standards in English and math have been adopted by most states, how will teaching and learning change? This two-part ASCD SmartBrief Special Report on the Common Core State Standards offers educators a guide to the latest information. Part II of this special report looks at how states and districts are preparing for the changes and how student assessments will be revamped. Part I of the report, published on Tuesday, looked at the standards in detail and how instruction will change. "

"Steve Leinwand, Sue O'Connell, Pamela Weber Harris and other math leaders examine the Standards for Mathematical Practice. 'A deeper understanding of these eight practices enables us to envision what it means for our students to be mathematically proficient, and to select teaching practices that shift our teaching from a focus on content to a focus on application and understanding. The Standards for Mathematical Practice are actually the heart and soul of the Common Core State Standards. Sue O'Connell and John SanGiovanni from Putting the Practices Into Action"

"Math instructors at the Downers Grove high schools are developing a new curriculum based on the state's more difficult learning standards, one that will introduce some new courses. The Common Core Standards, which Illinois adopted in 2010, revamp learning expectations for students in English Language Arts and in Mathematics. Community High School District 99 officials plan to implement new curricula in the 2013-14 school year, while the statewide testing based on Common Core will start the following year"

"Calculators. Protractors. Spreadsheets. Computer algebra systems. Dynamic geometry software. You might not realize it, but the Common Core State Standards for mathematics make explicit reference to the use of all these tools, and others, in learning math. I discovered this as I was gathering information for a recent Education Week story about calculator policies for the forthcoming common-core exams. It turns out that the standards have a lot to say about using technology."

Common Core Website - Lessons and videos of teachers in Instructional mode

"he chemistry students at Northwestern High School were not fiddling with Bunsen burners or studying the periodic table one recent weekday morning. They were sitting at their desks, reading an article about food coloring, underlining key ideas and preparing to analyze it in an essay. This is the beginning of what Prince George's County officials hope will be a significant shift in teaching and learning, one that mirrors a change taking hold in high schools nationwide as districts adjust to the Common Core State Standards. Literacy, long the responsibility of English teachers, is filtering into every other classroom - including math, science and even health class."

Well ... yes and no, according to a pair of new surveys from the RAND Corporation, a research and analysis firm. Teachers do seem to be getting a lot of professional development aligned to the common core in both English language arts and math. The problem is that it's not always focused on the topics that they say they need the most help on. Instead, teachers seem to be saying: "OK, we totally get that there are these new standards. We even kinda know what they want us to do differently. But we still need help digging into the pedagogy on some of the finer points."

"Georgia teachers are starting to get schooled on the new Common Core State Standards that roll out in the nation's math and English/language arts classes as early as next year."

"The videos on this site exemplify the key shifts that Common Core brings to classroom pedagogy. For more information on the shifts please see the Description of the Common Core Shifts. Or, listen to the teachers featured on the site in the ELA shifts video and Math shifts video and in What Does it Mean?."

"Results from new state tests in Kentucky-the first in the nation explicitly tied to the Common Core State Standards-show that the share of students scoring "proficient" or better in reading and math dropped by roughly a third or more in both elementary and middle school the first year the tests were given."

"Playing a math game designed to encourage practicing the basic "number sense" all children are born with improved the ability of young children in a study to do math, Johns Hopkins University researchers report. The study is due to be released in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology in July and is available online now. "