Conference of Hispanic Christians Endorses Common Core Educational Standards

The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference endorsed the Common Core educational standards on Feb. 5. The Common Core initiative has been opposed by some conservative Christians who say it promotes a liberal agenda.

The endorsement serves to solidify legitimacy of the standard that has been adopted in 45 states, the District of Columbia, four territories and the Department of Defense Education Activity. Texas, Alaska, Virginia, Minnesota, Nebraska and Puerto Rico have not adopted the Common Core curriculum.

Common Core educational standards "are positively impacting the future of Hispanic children and all children who live in poverty," said the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the conference, according to the Religious News Service. "Rigorous standards must be available to all children, especially those in poverty who need clear signals of what skills they need to succeed in college or a career," said Rodriguez.

Some Republicans officially opposed the Common Core curriculum on Feb. 5, complaining that there are coercive measures in place to put pressure on individual states to adopt the curriculum, which is endorsed by President Barack Obama.

The curriculum itself is divided between standards for educational adequacy in both "Mathematics" and "English Arts Language" primary divisions. Within each, standards are outlined for every grade and category.

As an example category on the math standards side, high school math modeling skills improve a student's ability to relate mathematical principles and apply them to real world scenarios. Some examples of such situations might include:

-Estimating how much water and food is needed for emergency relief in a devastated city of 3 million people, and how it might be distributed.
-Planning a table tennis tournament for 7 players at a club with 4 tables, where each player plays against each other player.
-Designing the layout of the stalls in a school fair so as to raise as much money as possible.
-Analyzing stopping distance for a car.
-Modeling savings account balance, bacterial colony growth, or investment growth.
-Engaging in critical path analysis, e.g., applied to turnaround of an aircraft at an airport.
-Analyzing risk in situations such as extreme sports, pandemics, and terrorism.
-Relating population statistics to individual predictions.

In Language Arts, English instruction curriculum is broken down to categories such as "Reading, informational texts." In the Grade 1 level, specific standards are catalogued in "strands" that each student is expected to master:

Key Ideas and Details

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.1 - Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.2 - Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.3 - Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.

Craft and Structure

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.4 - Ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases in a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.5 - Know and use various text features (e.g., headings, tables of contents, glossaries, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.6 - Distinguish between information provided by pictures or other illustrations and information provided by the words in a text.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.7 - Use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.8 - Identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.9 - Identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.10 - With prompting and support, read informational texts appropriately complex for grade 1.

(Review the entire Common Core standards inventory by clicking HERE.)