Los estudiantes de hoy en día se están preparando para entrar en un mundo en el cual las universidades y las empresas están exigiendo más que nunca. Para asegurar que todos los estudiantes estén preparados para el éxito después de graduarse de la secundaria (High School), los Estándares Académicos Fundamentales, conocidos como el Common Core, establecen pautas claras y consistentes de lo que cada estudiante debe saber y ser capaz de rendir en matemáticas y artes del lenguajes inglés desde kindergarten hasta el 12vo.grado.

Los estándares fueron concebidos por expertos y maestros de toda la nación y están diseñados para asegurar que los estudiantes estén preparados para las carreras actuales de nivel de principiante, cursos universitarios a nivel de primer año y programas de capacitación laboral. Los Estándares Académicos se enfocan en desarrollar el pensamiento crítico, resolución de problemas y habilidades analíticas necesarias para que los estudiantes tengan éxito. Cuarenta y tres estados, el Distrito de Columbia, cuatro territorios y la Actividad Educativa del Departamento de Defensa (DoDEA) han adoptado voluntariamente y siguen avanzando con los estándares.

Los nuevos estándares también proporcionan un método para que los maestros puedan medir el progreso estudiantil a través del año escolar y asegurar que los estudiantes estén en el camino al éxito en sus trayectorias escolares.

¿Está interesado en aprender más sobre los Estándares Académicos y las destrezas que los estudiantes necesitan para tener éxito?

• Aprende más acerca de lo qué está haciendo su estado para implementar los estándares, apoyar a los maestros y mucho más en la página “Estándares en Su Estado”.
• Infórmese sobre cómo se desarrollaron los Estándares Estatales en la página “Acerca de los Estándares”.
• Vea cuál es la diferencia de los Estándares Académicos comparados con estándares estatales anteriores en las páginas “Cambios Fundamentales en Matemáticas” y “Cambios Fundamentales en Artes del Lenguaje Inglés”.
• Obtenga los datos sobre los Estándares Básicos en la página de “Mitos vs. Realidades”.
• Obtenga más respuestas en la página “Preguntas Frecuentes”.
• Descubra consejos y herramientas para asegurar el éxito escolar de sus hijos en la página “El Súper 5.”
• Lea más acerca de los Estándares Académicos Fundamentales en su idioma visitando la página “Common Core Translation Project.“

The standards are not curricula and do not mandate the use of any particular curriculum. Therefore, the Common Core State Standards does not prescribe instructional materials or lessons. States and organizations have come up with tools and rubrics to help inform decisions about purchasing materials and build understanding of what aligned materials look like.

There are resources developed by education organizations to help communities make informed decisions about instructional materials, such as EdReports.org, Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products (EQuIP), Instructional Materials Evaluation Tool (IMET), and the Textbook Navigator.

The expectations of students in the Common Core State Standards are backed by research and the expertise of educators of what is developmentally appropriate for children to know and be able to do in literacy and math in early grades. For more detailed information on what the Common Core says about English Language Arts and Literacy in Kindergarten and the research supporting it, please take a look at this fact sheet compiled by Student Achievement Partners.

As or perhaps more important for standards being developmentally appropriate is how standards are taught, which is determined locally by communities and educators. An example is how this might work with the kindergarten math standard, “Fluently add and subtract within 5.” It is developmentally appropriate to expect students by the end of kindergarten to be able to do this. However, it is not developmentally appropriate for kindergarteners to be sitting quietly alone at their desks completing worksheets for 30 minutes on adding and subtracting within 5. It would be developmentally appropriate for kindergarteners to be playing a game with other children that helped them build this skill, with a teacher supporting and guiding their learning.  In fact, the standards themselves point to the importance of play stating, “[T]he use of play with young children is not specified by the Standards, but it is welcome as a valuable activity in its own right and as a way to help students meet the expectations in this document.” The standards welcome play and encourage implementation of instruction that is play-based, engaging, and cognitively enriching.

Early childhood experts and national education organizations have discussed research supporting the developmental appropriateness of the Common Core State Standards including the National Association for Education of Young Children, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, and early childhood expert Douglas Clements.

The Common Core State Standards provide clear and transparent benchmarks that parents can use to track if their children are on the path toward college and career readiness. Still, these are higher standards and parents may find the methods and approaches different or have difficulty helping their children with homework as states transition to these standards. Fortunately, these standards provide a great starting point for parents to have a conversation with their child’s teacher about what their child should be learning in the classroom and how families may be able to help their children outside of school.

Additionally, online resources such as Be a Learning Hero are designed to assist parents in helping their children. This site includes resources developed to support your child’s learning in Math and English language arts at home. Parents can search by state, grade, subject and type and access resources to support children outside of the classroom.

The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers strongly believe that all students should be held to the same high expectations. However, how students meet these expectations will and should differ based on children’s needs. For more specific information on the application of the Common Core State Standards for students with disabilities, please click here, and for information on application for English language learners, please click here.

To read the Common Core State Standards, please visit this link. To view the standards in Spanish, please see this translation of the standards.

Yes. Adoption of the standards is voluntary. It is up to each state and territory to decide if they choose to adopt the Common Core State Standards as their state educational standards in English language arts and mathematics. States can tailor the standards to address their needs.

Here is a map showing the states that have adopted the standards.

Table 5. The properties of inequality. Here a, b, and c stand for arbitrary numbers in the rational or real number systems.