In case you missed it, the lead authors of the Common Core State Standards have issued publishers’ criteria in math. The criteria outline, in essence, what good curricular materials look like if they fully reflect the standards.
My colleague Erik Robelen blogged about the criteria last week when they came out, and will be back soon with a story on the criteria and what folks in the field think about them. But in the meantime, it’s worth taking a look at his introduction, and at the criteria themselves.
Since the criteria reflect the standards’ authors’ interpretation of common-core-friendly curriculum alignment, they are sure to draw attention, and could wield tremendous influence on publishers and curriculum developers as they create materials for the new standards.
Already, districts are taking advantage of their collective power to leverage these criteria. More than 30 districts have banded together in a pledge not to buy any materials that don’t align to the criteria.
You might recall that a parallel set of criteria for English/language arts drew tons of attention and caused a bit of a hubbub for their interpretation of the underlying standards.