2-2: Standards, Standards, Everywhere: Algebra

The NCTM, Common Core, and CMP standards blend together in most cases when dealing with algebra. In their words they aren’t exactly the same as each other, but the goal of Algebra in middle school is mostly the same. Common Core goes much more in depth with their standards than the other two, but they still all cover the same standards for the most part. All of the standards talk about: • Using equations and expressions to solve real life problems • Graphing and solving linear equations and relating them • Use tables and graphs to analyze equations • Understanding variables and their relationships to a problem There are many more, but these seem to be the biggest concepts that are most closely related between the standards. The differences in the standards are mostly the way that students use all of the different standards and how they use them. CMP is mostly about connecting concepts and relating concepts to real life, NCTM seems to be about making things simple and understanding concepts at their most basic level, and Common Core has to do more with analyzing concepts and figuring out what they mean. All of those styles are pretty similar and the three standards are very similar in my opinion.