1. Understanding Colorado’s Standards for College and Career Readiness in Math

2. Why New Standards?
Why did the state adopt the Common Core State Standards and embed them into Colorado Academic Standards. This video shares the importance of having common standards for all students across the country and of course across Colorado.

3. How were the standards developed?
Colorado adopted the Common Core State Standards in August, 2010
The development was led by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)and the National Governor’s Association (NGA)
Find out more at the Common Core State Standards Initiative webpage
Colorado adopted the common core state standards in The state standards also include the Personal financial literacy standards required by state law.
The CCSS were actually developed from a grass roots initiative started by the CCSSO and NGA.
If you are interested in knowing more about the Common Core state standards then click..

4. Facts about Math
Ensure ALL students have access to the minimum standards for College and Career Readiness
Incorporate both content and practices necessary for success in mathematics

5. College and Career Ready in Math
“School graduate has the math knowledge and skills needed to qualify for and succeed in the postsecondary job training and/or education necessary for their chosen career.” – Achieve.org Prepared Graduate Competencies in math are the concepts and skills all students who complete the Colorado Education system must master to ensure their success in a postsecondary and workforce setting. - CDE
The ultimate goal of the Colorado Academic Standards is to prepare students for their future whether that includes going directly into postsecondary education or going directly into the workforce. Colorado has explicitly defined Prepared Graduate competencies to support teachers in understanding the key understandings students need to be prepared for this transition.

6. The new standards can be defined by three key shifts for mathematics …
Focus
Coherence
Rigor

7. Greater FOCUS on Fewer Topics
What does this mean for me? Read the Mathematics Grade Level Expectations at a Glance from the Colorado Academic Standards. This incorporates language directly from the Common Core as well and will help you understand the key focus areas of a particular grade.

8. COHERENCE: Linking Topics and thinking within and across grades
What does this mean for me? I need to know how to make connections. Think as a system.
Coherence: Linking topics and thinking across grades
Mathematics is not a list of disconnected topics, tricks, or mnemonics; it is a coherent body of knowledge made up of interconnected concepts. Therefore, the standards are designed around coherent progressions from grade to grade. Learning is carefully connected across grades so that students can build new understanding onto foundations built in previous years.
Coherence is also built into the standards in how they reinforce a major topic in a grade by utilizing supporting, complementary topics. For example, instead of presenting the topic of data displays as an end in itself, the topic is used to support grade-level word problems in which students apply mathematical skills to solve problems.
Pick a major focus in your grade level. Think about how the content build from previous grades and how it extends in future grades?

9. RIGOR
...demands students acquire a balance of conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application/problem-solving skills.
Rigor has three key instructional areas to bring out the balance
Focus on conceptual understanding first
Build procedural fluency connections to conceptual understanding
Include problem solving opportunities and instruction in problem solving
Rigor: Pursue conceptual understanding, procedural skills and fluency, and application with equal intensity
Rigor refers to deep, authentic command of mathematical concepts, not making math harder or introducing topics at earlier grades. To help students meet the standards, educators will need to pursue, with equal intensity, three aspects of rigor in the major work of each grade: conceptual understanding, procedural skills and fluency, and application.
Conceptual understanding: The standards call for conceptual understanding of key concepts, such as place value and ratios. Students must be able to access concepts from a number of perspectives in order to see math as more than a set of mnemonics or discrete procedures.
Procedural skills and fluency: The standards call for speed and accuracy in calculation. Students must practice core functions, such as single-digit multiplication, in order to have access to more complex concepts and procedures. Fluency must be addressed in the classroom or through supporting materials, as some students might require more practice than others.
Application: The standards call for students to use math in situations that require mathematical knowledge. Correctly applying mathematical knowledge depends on students having a solid conceptual understanding and procedural fluency.

10. Standards are more than content
Common Core State Standards Mathematical Practices
The standards include the 21st century skills students need to be prepared for post secondary learning. (Click) In math these can be connected as well to the habits of mind students or practices needed to successfully master mathematics.

11. Where are all of the concepts and skills located in the Colorado Academic Standards.
Click first arrow: a complete list of the Prepared Graduate competencies are found in the beginning narrative of all standards but also are associated at the top of each Grade Level Expectation section of the standards.
Click second arrow: The CCSS code shows where the Common Core State Standards have been embedded in the state standards.
Click third arrow: The State Standards also include the required Personal Financial Literacy standards that are not found within the Common Core State Standards.
Click fourth arrow: The 21st skills are embedded in the right column throughout all grades and contents
Click fifth arrow: The math practices are incorporated into the 21st Century skills column as well.

12. Why are the new standards great?
The Mathematics standards compel us to make mathematics relevant to students by moving beyond mere answer getting to doing the work of mathematicians. The standards emphasize the development of students’ abilities to use mathematics to represent their lived experiences and to simplify and explain complex phenomena.