AP PHOTO/JOHN MILLER
THE
CORE
experts worked on reading and
math committees to actually write
the standards. They started by
examining international education
systems and researching what it
meant to be “college ready.” Then
they determined precisely what
an American high schooler should
know upon graduation.
From there, they went backwards, mapping the standards
from 12th grade down to kindergarten. While existing standards
were inconsistent, the Core dictated that all 12th graders would
be expected to do things like
HUFFINGTON
02.02.14
“demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and earlytwentieth-century foundational
works of American literature,
including how two or more texts
from the same period treat similar themes or topics.” High school
seniors would also have to know
how to multiply matrices in math,
and graph atmospheric carbon dioxide levels over time.
The writers of the Core especially wanted students to understand the logic, reason and narrative language of math. Some of
the biggest fights they had centered on the question of whether
kids really needed to learn how
to divide with remainders, or
Tom Luna, the
Republican
schools chief
of Idaho,
voiced his
support for
common
education
standards
in 2009.