Christopher Danielson

As a parent, you’re most likely to encounter the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (Common Core Standards for short) in the homework that your child brings home. The Common Core Standards are a set of statements about what students should know and be able to do at each grade level from kindergarten through high school.

In Common Core math, seventh grade students add and subtract both positive and negative numbers using the number line. On the number line, numbers have two important meanings: A number is a point on the number line. A number is a distance on the number line. What the first one means is that each little tick mark you put on a number line represents a number — 0, 1, 2, and so on: Each of these is matched with a point on the number line.

Being able to solve proportions is important in seventh grade math. In a Common Core classroom, the emphasis is on making sense of the solution method, rather than on memorizing a given procedure. One general rule for whether your child is making sense of his solution is this: Does he know what each number means along the way?

In seventh grade math, Common Core students begin to learn about probability. Probability is the study of how likely something is to happen. Students develop theories about probability and then test these theories with experiments. The common example is flipping a coin. If the coin isn't weighted, if you let it hit the ground, and if you don't otherwise interfere with the flip, then the probability of getting heads is The probability of getting tails is also so these two outcomes are equally likely.

Sixth grade is the first time that Common Core math students start to solve problems using variables and the property of equivalence (specifically, the distributive property). They typically use variables that closely match the values they represent, so s for side length, v for volume, and so on. They also notice that some expressions — even though they may look quite different — always have the same values as each other, and they explore this property, called equivalence.

A lot of misinformation is available about the Common Core Standards. These standards guide the math your child learns in school each year. In order to advocate for and to support your child, you need to be well informed. Here are some important facts that counter some of the common myths about the Common Core Standards.

One important change in the Common Core Math Standards is that students are expected to work through multi-digit computations by thinking about number relationships before they’re expected to follow standard algorithms. For parents who never had to think about their computations in school, this can make homework time a bit daunting.

Place value is an important concept to know for Common Core math. The fact that it took thousands of years for humans to develop a place value number system is an important sign that place value is difficult for people to learn. The usual way of writing numbers is a place value number system. In other words, a limited set of symbols (called digits) builds numbers (0, 1, 2, 3, and so on up to 9) and you can write all numbers using these symbols.

States, districts, schools, and teachers have invested a lot of time, money, and effort implementing the Common Core Math Standards — to say nothing of parents. Before the Common Core, each state wrote its own standards for math. Now, nearly all states have agreed on the mathematics students will study in school.