How does the Mathematics Curriculum Study relate to the Common Core of Standards for mathematics courses?
The product of a collaboration of the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association, the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) is a recent effort to define a national mathematics curriculum or standards for what students should know and be able to do. The CCSSM contains an elaborate framework of subject matter knowledge and practices.
As with previous guidelines and standards, CCSSM specifies standards for each year from kindergarten through eighth grade. Standards for high school, however, are much less prescriptive, with content areas grouped into conceptual categories that cover the whole of high school mathematics but may possibly cross course boundaries.
The CCSSM is structured around six “conceptual” categories – number and quantities, algebra, functions, geometry, modeling, and statistics and probability – that spans traditional high school courses typically taken over at least three years. The algebra I and geometry courses covered by the MCS, along with algebra II, would be the major source of exposure to the first four categories for most high school graduates.