Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Hattie Burford
Common Core Practice Standards and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Process Standards
The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) created eight practice
standards to describe ways in which teachers should develop student practitioners in the
discipline of mathematics. These Practice standards emphasize the engagement of student with
the subject matter as they grow in mathematical maturity and expertise throughout the
elementary, middle, and high school years (Common Core State Standards for Mathematics,
page 8). The practice standards are: make sense of problems and persevere in solving them,
reason abstractly and quantitatively, construct viable argument and critique the reasoning of
others, model with mathematics, use appropriate tools strategy, attend to precision, look for and
make use of structure, and look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. These standards
standards. According to the NCTM, these process standards “highlight the mathematical
processes that students draw on to acquire and use their mathematical content knowledge. The
process standards are: problem solving, reasoning and proof, communication, connections, and
representation.
The process standards and practice standards contain content that connect similar ideas
and concepts for teachers and students. The first of the process standards, problem solving, is the
recalled, or developed. During this process, students are able to solve complex problems, given a
significant amount of effort. Similarly, in the first practice standard Make sense of problems and
persevere in solving them, mathematically proficient students are able to understand the meaning
Connection Between Common Core Practice Standards and NCTM Process Standards 3
of a problem and look for entry points to its solution. This connects to the first process standards
because it too asks students to selecting a strategy based on previous knowledge. Another way
these two standards connect is that they both require the students to grow mathematically, and by
the time they are in high school, to be able to solve complex problems.
The second of the process standards, reasoning and proof, requires the students to make
and investigate mathematical conjectures, as well as develop arguments and proofs as they
progress mathematically. In order to reason, students think in patterns, structure, and regularities.
These mathematical situations can be applied to more complex real-world situations as the
students learn to think more analytically. The second practice standard, reason abstractly and
quantitively, establishes that a mathematically proficient student can make sense of quantities
and their relationships in problem situations. Students will be able to decontextualize and
contextualize to determine the problem and the relationships within it. Both standards require the
students to investigate mathematical problems, and to think in terms of the problem at hand to
develop a solution.
mathematical thinking so that is easy to understand to peers, teachers, and others. Furthermore, it
emphasizes that “math language” should be used to express mathematical ideas precisely.
Students who are able to communicate mathematically will be able to analyze and evaluate the
mathematical thinking and strategies of others. The third practice standard, construct viable
arguments and critique the reasoning of others, requires students to be able to understand and use
stated assumptions, definitions, and previous established results to construct and defend
arguments. Students will be able to justify their answer, communicate it to others, and respond to
the arguments of others. These two standards go hand in hand. Both require students to have
Connection Between Common Core Practice Standards and NCTM Process Standards 4
knowledge in mathematical language, and the ability to communicate with others through it.
Furthermore, both state that students are to be able to analyze and evaluate the strategies of
others.
The fourth of the process standards, connections, requests that students are able to
recognize and use connections among math ideas as well as science, engineering, social studies,
etc. Students who are able to do this will be able to interconnect and build on mathematical ideas
to produce an improved solution. The fourth practice standard, model with mathematics, also
asks students to connect mathematical ideas to other areas. This practice standard builds on the
process standard by emphasizing that students should be able to apply mathematics to the outside
world. Whether that be in the workplace, society, etc., the student should be able to interpret
The last process standard, representations, states that students should be able to create
and use multiple representations to organize, record, and communicate mathematical ideas.
These representations include models to interpret mathematical problems in the physical and
social environments such as tables, formulas, graphs, figures, or diagrams. The fifth practice
standard, use appropriate tools strategically, connects with this standard in that it asks students to
solve mathematical problems using tools such as models, a spreadsheet, manipulatives, etc. Both
standards require students to be able to determine the problem at hand, decide what tool would
be best to solve the problem, and have the knowledge to know how to use the tool to carry out
the strategy. As students progress mathematically, the problems they face, and the tools available
The next three practice standards do not connect as directly to the process standards, but
each have a few similarities. The sixth practice standard, attend to precision, asks that students
Connection Between Common Core Practice Standards and NCTM Process Standards 5
are able to communicate precisely with others. This makes a connection with the process
standard, communication. The practice standard goes on to state that the student should also be
able to find measurements and quantities in a precise manner. The seventh practice standard,
look for and make use of structure, states that proficient students should look closely to discern a
pattern or structure. This connects with several process standards such as problem solving,
reasoning, and connections. Being able to look at a problem, and find different ways in which to
present it uses all three of the process standards. The last practice standard, look for and express
regularity in repeated reasoning, requires students to recognize repetitions, and look for methods
or shortcuts to use to solve the problem. This can be argued to connect with the process standards
problem solving, reasoning and proof, and connections. In order to determine regularity and a
method in which to shorten the problem-solving process, students may use all three process
standards.
The NCTM content standard, number and operation, states that students will be able to
systems, and will understand meanings of operations and how they relate to one another. This
standard includes that students will connect number words and numerals to the quantities they
represent in Pre-K through second grade, correlating with the practice standard, model with
mathematics. It also states that the students will use number –theory to make arguments and
justify relationships in grades 9-12, correlating with the practice standard, reasoning and proof.
Connection Between Common Core Practice Standards and NCTM Process Standards 6
Algebra
Content standard, Algebra, states that students will be able to understand patterns,
relations, and functions. There are many connections that can be made, but only a few will be
shown here. In the Pre-K-2 grade levels, students are expected to analyze how both repeating and
growing patterns are generated. This expectation is connected to the practice standard, look for
and make use of structure, which states that proficient students should look closely to discern a
pattern or structure. This may also connect to other practice standards such as problem solving.
In grades 3-5, students should be able to represent and analyze patterns and functions, using
words, tables, and graphs. This content standard connects to the practice standard, model with
mathematics because students will need to construct different models to represent different
patterns. This content standard also states that students will be solve different forms of equations
using technology, correlating with the practice standard, use appropriate tools strategy.
Geometry
Content standard, Geometry, states that students should be able to analyze characteristics
and properties of two- and three-dimensional geometric shapes and develop mathematical
arguments about geometric relationships, as well as use visualization, spatial reasoning, and
geometric modeling to solve problems. In grades 3-5 students are expected to make and test
conjectures about geometric properties and relationships and develop logical arguments to justify
conclusions. This standard goes hand in hand with reasoning abstractly and quantitatively.
Another content standard, which correlates with the CCSSM practice standards, is that students
will be able to recognize geometric ideas and relationships and apply them to other disciplines
and to problems that arise in the classroom or in everyday life. Here, students are modeling with
Connection Between Common Core Practice Standards and NCTM Process Standards 7
mathematics, the practice standard, by taking mathematical ideas and applying them to other
problems.
Measurement
measurable attributes of objects and the units, systems, and processes of measurement, as well as
apply appropriate techniques, tools, and formulas to determine measurements. In grades 6-8
students are expected to understand, select, and use units of appropriate size and type to measure
angles, perimeter, area, surface area, and volume. This standard links to the practice standard,
attend to precision. When determining these measurements, it is important for the students to be
precise. There are many standards within the content standard, Measurement, that directly
correlate to problem solving. Geometry students are constantly problem solving to take shapes,
Content standard, Data Analysis and Probability, states that students will be able to select
and use appropriate statistical methods to analyze data. In grades 3-5 students are expected to
describe the shape and important features of a set of data and compare related data sets, with an
emphasis on how the data are distributed. In order for students to be able to describe the shape
and features of data, they need to be able to communicate using mathematical language. This
makes the connection to the practice standard, construct viable argument and critique the
reasoning of others. In grades 9-12 students are expected to be able to display the distribution,
describe its shape, and select and calculate summary statistics. This standard correlates with
several practice standards including, construct viable argument and critique the reasoning of
Conclusion
The CCSS include both content standards and mathematical practices that can be easily
linked to past standards, such as NCTM’s standards. Both outline what students should know and
be able to do at the end of each grade, with many of the same ideas and concepts emphasized.
Together, these standards provide an adequate outline of what skills and knowledge all students
References
Principles and standards for school mathematics. (2008). Reston, VA: National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics.
http://www.corestandards.org/Math/