The Hechinger Report recently published an article describing the challenges many Elementary School teachers still face teaching Common Core math objectives. They conclude: “If the Common Core is to improve the math education of U.S. students as intended, experts agree that teachers who are meant to get students excited about math and become proficient in its basic concepts need more help and support.”
I concur. A recent study of pre-assessment results by Ascend Education shows that elementary students struggle with the new conceptual objectives more than any other objectives. More than 16% of grade 2 objectives are conceptual. However, data show that 30% of the grade 2 objectives that 5th graders least often understand are conceptual. These skill gaps follow them because a) they’re challenging for students and b) they are challenging for teachers to teach.
Elementary school teachers have so much on their plate. They need help providing appropriate instruction to students not understanding the new objectives. Support programs need to offer improved instruction for the conceptual objectives found in common core and other revised state standards. That’s why we added more than 60 new learning objectives written to the Common Core and rigorous state standards and updated many others.
http://hechingerreport.org/elementary-school-teachers-struggle-with-common-core-math-standards/