How would you answer this test question? From a 1st grade Common Core test.

[Sancho]

364. New ways of teaching, learning, explaining, and illustrating ideas are as old as Socrates....

and that's part of the frustration of teaching in today's high-stakes testing schools.

Most veteran teachers have lived through many of the "new" ways. I remember the first time a personal computer showed up in a school classroom (a TRS 80 in the 1970's).

We used to take courses in using AV equipment like movie projectors. We taught cursive writing and phonics. I remember the first calculators (that only performed MDAS). Teachers constantly keep up and change methods.

When curriculums and tests change without the opportunity for teachers to integrate them, it causes issues for the test scores and teacher evaluation.

I don't see the Common Core or the new "method" of teaching math as some kind of revolution any more than the last half dozen similar revolutions that I've experienced. Some new things will stick and be useful while others will prove to be worthless or disappear next year. The people who should be making decisions about methods and curriculums should be front line teachers and experienced researchers - NOT test companies, book publishers, politicians, profiteers, and preachers!