Common Core to the States: How Solid is the Mathematics Core in Each State?

The final draft of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) was released in June 2010 by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).1 The NGA reports that 45 states had adopted the CCSS by June 2012.2 All 45 of those states adopted the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSS-M). Since the release of the CCSS and the adoption by 45 states, numerous states have reviewed their state mathematics standards. States have done a variety of things with the standards that include renaming the CCSS with the intent of denying they are the CCSS, repealing the CCSS with the intent of replacing them with standards of their own, or just making changes to the standards. Available information about the status of each state seems to be out of date, and most sources give no indication that actual standards were even looked at or compared. The purpose of this project was to examine specifically each state’s math standards to get a feel for the purity of the adoption of the CCSS-M and to see if non-adopting states’ math standards or those of states claiming to have revised or replaced the CCSS appear to be influenced by the CCSS-M. The Review and Comparison Activity section explains how this project was conducted. The Algorithm Antics and Key Standards Compared sections explain which standards were selected for comparison, and possibly why. The main feature of this report is a table with indicators comparing certain CCSS-M items with the standards documents for each state. A lengthy section containing a brief narrative for each state follows the main table. A section titled Repeal, Revise, Replace, Rebrand, Update, or Unique gives a breakdown of some information provided in the main table. The last section provides information about three recommended sets of math standards, not including the deficient CCSS-M, for states to consider for adoption or use as a base in developing a new set of standards. It also makes suggestions for improving the CCSS-M if states chose to revise or use them as a base for developing standards. Appendix A provides the name, as best could be determined, that each state has for its math standards, and Appendix B provides the URL to download the math standards for each state or for the website page from where the standards can be downloaded.