[ahsanhilal]

The common core standards which talk about division are described here http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/7/NS

At no point do the standards direct you how to teach long division. Rather they try make sure that kids who go through 5,6,7 grades have a basis in division and consequently long division. Claiming that common core directs teachers to teach division in a certain manner is false. The fact that the kid is learning how to do division in a weird manner is probably the fault of the teacher who does not understand it herself.

Common Core is a set of guidelines regarding what should be taught in a curriculum to provide some structure to the curriculum variability across classes, schools, districts and states. Common Core definitely has some problems and most of them pertaining to implementation, teacher training, and the fact that due to standards some students are being set up to fail. However, it definitely does not direct anyone how to teach, but rather what they should be teaching at the minimum.

[blakesterz]

" However, it definitely does not direct anyone how to teach" I'm a parent of 3 kids in a NY elementary school. Several members of my family are teachers or administrators in schools. As a parent I disagree with that, and every single teacher/administrator would disagree with that. The entire point of COMMON core is to have everyone doing the same thing. This is one of the many reasons teachers hate it.

[burkemw3]

Deidre Austen responded [0] to the original post that the standard being assessed is "find whole number quotients of whole numbers with up to 4-digit dividends and 2-digit divisors using strategies based on place value, the properties of operations, and/or the relationship between multiplication and division. Illustrate and explain the calculation by using equations, rectangular arrays, and/or area models."

Considering that this school has has chosen a reform (or non-standard) division approach to achieve this standard, instead of using regular long division, shows to me that curriculum managers do have options for ways to achieve the standards.

(Hopefully, this Facebook link works correctly)

[0] https://www.facebook.com/dan.bongino/photos/a.51705718172038...

[ahsanhilal]

Exactly teachers have a lot of leeway in how they want to teach something. The most common reasons for failure are that the teacher does not understand exactly what she is teaching. That is a failure of the district and school in not recognizing that the teacher is not well-trained to teach the subject matter.

[ahsanhilal]

I work with over 30 schools in Bay Area, Chicago and New York as well, and have been working with teachers, districts etc on common core for the past two years. The entire point of CCSS is to make sure that WHAT is taught in a grade level does not vary. HOW varies so much from district to district, as each school/classroom contains so much demographic variability. My point was that it does not direct you "how" to teach kids division. Rather it provides guidelines that they should be taught division. Please go read the entire standards list and tell me if they contain anything more than suggestion on how to teach any mathematical curriculum. I agree teachers hate it, but its mostly because: 1. They are being forced to adapt to something without adequate amount of training 2. They have children with a whole range of skill sets which do not map to the common core for the grade levels they teach. So some children might be ahead and some might be behind for the particular grade level, so its hard to make sure that everyone in a grade level is mapping on the standards

[noobermin]

Read the GP's link. You'll see that the COMMON core (despite its name) does not quite do that. It is up to the states and I think even local districts to decide how to implement it. The idea is that a common core is to set up ideas that every student should learn (that's the COMMON part), not _how_ they should learn it.

[watwut]

Same thing everybody is doing in this case is long division. Everybody gotta get the result when faced with long division exercise.

If some administrators in schools or school district decided that there is only one way to do long division, then it is on them.