!   Support the common core by addressing situations that would inhibit success

!   Build support to make changes in educational policy to get the most out of CCSS through outreach and publication

!   Provide a voice for multiple groups and organizations whom have a stake in CCSS

!   Provide constructive methods/strategies to the aforementioned situations that would derail success of CCSS.

•  An article in the New York Times addressing testing and common core

•  Dialogue among educators, politicians, media, etc. about this drastic change in education

Stephen Krashen’s letter raises important issues about testing, the Common Core State Standards, and equality. As mathematicians and math teachers, we support the CCSS’s emphasis on a coherent, cummulative curriculum that engages all students in deeper mathematical reasoning and problem solving. However, we share with Krashen a concern about the implementation of assessments. Specifically, assessments need to reflect the richness of the CCSS standards and be used primarily to improve teaching and learning, not to make high-stakes decisions about students, teachers, and schools. Moreover, we fully agree with the author’s contention that poverty and unequal resources are impediments to the effective implementation of the CCSS. Only if all schools can afford small classes, high-quality professional development, technology, and materials, will it be possible to achieve the CCSS’s admirable goal of greater conceptual understanding in mathematics for all students.

“Aim above morality. Be not simply good. Be good for

something”

~Henry David Thoreau~