A parent who attended last night’s presentation on Common Core Math standards strongly recommends the event. Two more sessions will be given:

Wed Dec 5, 6-8pm at Del Mar Middle School, 105 Avenida Miraflores, Tiburon
Thu Dec 6, 6-8pm at Bacich School, 699 Sir Francis Drake, Kentfield

Common Core is the new (almost) national curriculum, and the MVSD views it as their framework for all future in-class differentiation. How CC affects ICD is critically important to all our gifted students — and for that matter, to all students who learn differently.

If you went to the speech or watched the video, please share your thoughts & questions with MVGATE parents here in the comments!

(Looking for Math Club & Math Team?  They’re here.)

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UPDATE: We went to the event in Kentfield, and found it fascinating.  Our initial thoughts: CCSS sounds like a big & welcome step forward for the majority of kids. For GATE kids, however, it may be beneficial, it may be neutral — it may even be a step backward:

“Although the CCSS are considered to be more rigorous than most current state standards, they fall short in meeting the specific needs of gifted learners, and if held strictly to the standard, could actually limit learning. To overcome this pitfall, it is imperative that gifted educators create a full range of supports for high-ability learners through differentiated curriculum, instruction, and assessments.” —NAGC

It all depends on the schools implementing it. Dr. Daro was very clear that CC does nothing specifically to address GATE, and indeed he seemed a little unresponsive to the concerns of a community (like MV, Tiburon, Kentfield, etc.) where for many families a “grade-level target” is simply not high enough — what one parent half-jokingly called the “Good-Enough-for-Sacramento Effect.” So CC makes it more important than ever that we collaborate with the district to ensure that this goes the way our kids need it to go.