How New York State Presents Its Core Standards for Mathematics Term Paper

Education

What are the differences between the Common Core Standards for grade eight and the New York State standards of mathematics?

Common Core Standards

For one thing, the Common Core Standards offer narrative (rather than bullet points) and go into more specific and in depth instructions through narrative. The Common Core Standards expressly mentions three critical areas out in front: a) formulating and reasoning about "expressions and equations," which includes "modeling an association in bivariate data with a linear equation" -- and that includes being able to solve "linear equations and systems of linear equations"; b) students are asked to "grasp the concept of a function" and to use functions in order to understand "quantitative relationships"; and c) students must be able to apply the Pythagorean Theorem when it comes to being able to analyze two and three dimensional space and figures using "distance, angle, similarity, and congruence" (www.corestandards.org). These directions are provided in two pages.

And from that point on the Common Core Standards offers paragraphs (three paragraphs), each one going into great depth as to the three "critical areas" in the field of mathematics for eighth graders.

The New York Standards of Mathematics

Meanwhile the New York Standards for Mathematics is more than five pages and under each bullet point the NYS standards have examples of what students are supposed to learn. For example under 8EE Expressions and Equations, students are asked to work with "radicals and integer exponents" and they must know and apply the "properties of integer exponents" in order to be able to generate equivalent numerical expressions.

Below that sub-head (the last sentence in the paragraph above) is a list of 16 bullet points, but they are not just bullet points. When the student moves his or her curser over each bullet point, an example problem comes up that needs to be solved. For example, when holding the curser over the bullet point that reads, "Exponents with negative bases (Eighth grade F.4)," a sample problem pops up. The "sample problem" is "Evaluate -13 = [answer]."

Under 8F Functions, a number of sub-heads give students a chance to see what problems will need to be solved under the description of functions. A function is "a rule that assigns to each input exactly one output," the instructions explain. The first bullet point for eighth grade asks the student to "compare a function table" -- and holding the curser over that bullet point reveals what a function table looks like before it is completed.

How is this program put on by New York State different than the basic Common Core Standards per se? The New York State presentation of what should be known is a very thorough and exacting description of how math is to be learned in New York State. It appears to be far and away more thorough than the Common Core Standards (which by the way are controversial in some school districts). However, when the student (or other person) holds the curser over the…