Nuts and Bolts: The Organization of CCSSM Part I

Hey! You came back! Great! Hopefully yesterday's info-heavy post didn't overwhelm you, but just helped us to set some groundwork and common definitions to work from :)

Today's going to be a quick primer on navigating the CCSSM (Common Core State Standards for Mathematics) document, so that as a parent, you too can read and know what the standards say and what goals are laid out for your kids' education.

First things first: did you know that the CCSSM is available online, for you (yes, you!) to read for yourself? Just pop on over to corestandards.org and you can read both math and ELA standards documents, as well as read up on other info about the standards, what states have adopted, and who has made a public show of support.

Once you're there, you'll see a button for the "Mathematics Standards" (the arrow below is pointing to it). Go ahead and click it.

You'll be brought to this nice interactive page where you can navigate through the standards by intro, standards for mathematical practice*, and grade level. First check out the info under intro--that's what we're chatting about today.

You'll notice that once you click "Introduction," some broad information comes up.

The standards' authors put this bit in as a guide map so that you could know how the standards are organized and how to navigate them. The three organizational levels (in increasing magnitude) are individual standards, clusters, and domains. I've copied and pasted the descriptions below. (But I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that it's also very much well-worth the read to go ahead and read those three paragraphs below the structural info as well. Those three little paragraphs explain how the writers of the standards see the standards in the larger scheme of education--not as a curriculum, and not as a prescriptive way to teach, or chronology to teach--but as I described yesterday--as a backbone to give math education its form and function.)

Standards define what students should understand and be able to do.

Clusters summarize groups of related standards. Note that standards from different clusters may sometimes be closely related, because mathematics is a connected subject.

Domains are larger groups of related standards. Standards from different domains may sometimes be closely related.

A few things that are worth noting here: there's a nesting happening. I've drawn up a little diagram to help you see this. A grouping of standards is called a cluster. Some clusters are tiny and only have one standard in them. A grouping of clusters is called a domain. Both domains and clusters are formed by standards that have related content.

Domains stretch across grade levels. Clusters do not. Not every domain is present in every grade. Counting and Cardinality, for example is really about establishing the ability to count, and to understand quantity. It makes sense that this domain would begin and end in kindergarten, and wouldn't have a need to spread all the way to 12th grade.

The graphic below maps out which domains exist at which grade levels, with the grade levels across the top and the domains listed below. If you read it left to right, it gives you a sense for which domains lay the groundwork for later domains (for example, Measurement and Data lay the groundwork in the elementary grades for Statistics and Probability in the middle grades).

Let's take a look at a specific example from the CCSSM to help us see how this organization works. I've got pulled up the Grade 1 Standards, and have chosen the "Measurement and Data" domain from the menu that appears below "Grade 1."

In 1st grade, in the Measurement and Data domain, there are four standards. These standards are organized into three clusters. Each standard has a code that tells you exactly where it can be found in the standards. If we take, for example,

CCSS.Math.Content.1.MD.B.3

If I read the code left to right, I can tell you that that standard is a common core (CCSS), math (Math), content (Content) standard, that it occurs in first grade (1), is a measurement and data standards (MD), is part of the second cluster in the MD domain for 1st grade (B), and is the third MD standard overall for 1st grade (3).

Your state's coding may be slightly different, because as each state adopted the Common Core, they needed to fit it into their state's existing structure as much as they were able. Though in my experience, most states' coding is very similar to this, or easy enough to decode once you understand the structure of standards, clusters, and domains.

It's worth noting as you look through this particular excerpt of the CCSSM that not every standard is the same "grain size" or necessarily takes the same amount of time to teach. Some standards are more complex and have multiple pieces. Some are fairly straightforward, like 1.MD.B.3.

And a last element of the standards that you will really want to look at: the grade-level introductions. These introductions give you a sense for what your child will learn through the course of the year. They also give teachers ideas for what areas are most key to spend instructional time on, so that they know which concepts are foundational for future grades, etc.

If, as you peruse your kids' grade levels, you feel like this language is heady--you're absolutely right! And that's ok! Standards documents are not for children. And they're also not for novices. This is the blue-print of K-12 math education--it is complex and sophisticated and deserves a level of language precision that reflects that. Keep in mind--this document wasn't written with parents (and the general populace) as the intended audience. Rather, it was written by mathematicians and math educators to communicate a plan for K-12 math education to other math educators--educators who write curriculum, and administrators who map out curriculum, researchers who study math education, and teachers who enact these sophisticated and complex processes.

I promise that I didn't bring you to the CCSSM document to make you feel dumb :) I brought you here to demystify the standards--to show you that you have the ability to search and read what's actually in these documents for yourself. Hopefully you feel like you have the tools to navigate these documents on your own.

* You might have noticed that I just so happened to not mention the Standards for Mathematical Practice that are at the top of the menu (above the Introduction), and are listed at the end of each grade level introduction. That's because I'm going to spend a whole post talking about what those standards are (spoiler alert: they're SUPER DUPER special!), and plan to dig deep with you through this series, so that we can better understand them together.



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