By Lillian Mongeau, EdSource
The quality of teacher training will be crucial to the success of the new Common Core State Standards in math, educators say, and the pressure is on districts to give elementary school teachers the skills they’ll need to provide students with a firm foundation in early arithmetic.
“My big worry is that we’re not going support (teachers) and then we’re going to say, ‘See, the Common Core doesn’t work,’” said UCLA education professor Megan Franke, who focuses on mathematics education.
Franke said the teachers she’s met in her trainings are unevenly prepared to take on the challenge of instructing students in the dramatically different fashion needed to reach the more comprehensive standards. Continue reading…