Posting #2: Common Core Standards

http://www.corestandards.org/

This is a link to the website explaining the Common Core State Standards. The website starts with the mission statement of the Common Core Standards and explanation of standards. The website has the documents for the new math and language arts standards that the reader can look through and read.  There is a portion explaining how the standards were created with collaborative efforts of teachers, parents and community supporters with the success of students in mind. One thing I found interesting about this website was that it has a map showing what states have already adopted the states; when you put the cursor over a state a box pops up with the date the state adopted the standards and when they implemented them into classroom instruction; it also gives a link to that state's home page, which I assume would be for people considering moving to that state. I think my favorite part of this webpage was the resources tab. On this tab is has several documents of information about the creating of the standards, changes made, adoption process and much more. There is also a section of FAQs that someone could quickly read through in search of information. The FAQs line up with the documents for the most part, so the documents can be used as additional research after a person has found the answer to their initial question.

I chose this website to be a useful resource for parents because parents are trying to stay as up to date on their children's education, and knowing what content is being taught is a major part of it. Common Core Standards are fairly new, and many people still don't know what they are. This website is an easy way for parents to learn about the standards, what content is being taught in their students' classroom and how it is different from previous standards. I found this to be a useful resource for parents and myself because it is chocked full of useful information that people can revisit as needed; the new standards are a lot to take in, and can be really confusing if you aren't familiar with it, so this website would be good to use as a reference. I also liked it because I feel like the embarrassment factor can be taken out. I have encountered a few parents who want to know more about their child's education or school but are intimidated by the teacher for whatever reason (they didn't go to college so they feel inferior, they don't have a background in education so they don't want to look ignorant, they have an older student so they feel like by this point they should understand more than they do, etc.) and don't ask questions. Those parents could use resources like this to answer their questions and get as little or as much information as they want.