More on Comparing Math Standards – Common Core, Connecticut and Massachusetts

I have completed Parts II, II and IV of this on-going series of reports.


Comparing Math Standards – Common Core, Connecticut and Massachusetts – Part II: Grade Three – Geometry, Measurement and Data

Key Finding:

Connecticut’s standards are woefully inadequate, while Massachusetts has standards that compare favorably to the Common Core.

Comparing Math Standards – Common Core, Connecticut and Massachusetts – Part III: Numbers and Operations, Patterns and Algebra - Grade Four

Key findings:

1. Connecticut’s Grade 4 standards do not begin to measure up in terms of requirements to the Massachusetts GRADE 3 standards.

2. Common Core standards are a whole level of complexity above the Massachusetts standards.

3. It is going to be almost impossible to meet these standards for students who have not been adequately prepared in prior grades (i.e. all students!).

4. These standards need to be gradually introduced, not all at once.

5. High stakes testing based on the Common Core standards is absurd.

Comparing Math Standards – Common Core, Connecticut and Massachusetts – Part IV: Grade Four – Geometry, Measurement and Data

Key findings:

- Connecticut’s Geometry standards: (Absolutely pitiful.)

1. Identify 2-dimensional geometric shapes, including number of angles and sides of polygons.
2. Identify, describe and draw 2-dimensional geometric shapes and figures.

- Massachusetts Geometry standards: (These compare quite favorably with the Common Core)

4.G.1 Compare and analyze attributes and other features of two- and three-dimensional geometric shapes.

4.G.2 Describe, model, draw, compare, and classify two and three-dimensional shapes.

4.G.3 Recognize similar figures.

4.G.4 Identify angles as acute, right, or obtuse.

4.G.5 Describe and draw intersecting, parallel, and perpendicular lines.

4.G.6 Using ordered pairs of numbers and/or letters, graph, locate, identify points, and describe paths (first quadrant).

4.G.7 Describe and apply techniques such as reflections (flips), rotations (turns), and translations (slides) for determining if two shapes are congruent.

4.G.8 Identify and describe line symmetry in two dimensional shapes.

4.G.9 Predict and validate the results of partitioning, folding, and combining two- and three-dimensional shapes.

- Common Core Geometry standards: (A little more theoretical than MA, but on basically the same level.

1. Draw points, lines, line segments, rays, angles (right, acute, obtuse), and perpendicular and parallel lines. Identify these in two-dimensional figures.

2. Classify two-dimensional figures based on the presence or absence of
parallel or perpendicular lines, or the presence or absence of angles of
a specified size. Recognize right triangles as a category, and identify
right triangles.

3. Recognize a line of symmetry for a two-dimensional figure as a line
across the figure such that the figure can be folded along the line into
matching parts. Identify line-symmetric figures and draw lines of
symmetry.

(4.) Apply the area and perimeter formulas for rectangles in real world and
mathematical problems.

5. Recognize angles as geometric shapes that are formed wherever two
rays share a common endpoint, and understand concepts of angle
measurement:

a. An angle is measured with reference to a circle with its center at
the common endpoint of the rays, by considering the fraction of the
circular arc between the points where the two rays intersect the
circle. An angle that turns through 1/360 of a circle is called a “one degree
angle,” and can be used to measure angles.
b. An angle that turns through n one-degree angles is said to have an
angle measure of n degrees.

6. Measure angles in whole-number degrees using a protractor. Sketch
angles of specified measure.

7. Recognize angle measure as additive. When an angle is decomposed
into non-overlapping parts, the angle measure of the whole is the sum
of the angle measures of the parts. Solve addition and subtraction
problems to find unknown angles on a diagram in real world and
mathematical problems, e.g., by using an equation with a symbol for
the unknown angle measure.

-. In every respect Common Core and MA Grade 3 standards are far more challenging than CT’s Grade 4!