Common Core Math Standards Online Center

What Common Core math is

The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSS-M) are grade-by-grade expectations for what students should understand and be able to do, published on June 2, 2010 by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers. They are standards, not a curriculum: they say what to teach by the end of each grade and leave the how to states, districts and teachers.

More than 40 states adopted them in 2010 and 2011. Texas, Virginia, Nebraska and Alaska never did. Several states later rewrote or renamed their standards, Indiana and Oklahoma in 2014, South Carolina in 2015, Kentucky in 2017 and Idaho in 2022, and states including Arizona, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee run rebranded versions that still track the same grade-level progression. In practice, a student in almost any state meets the same topics in roughly the same order, whatever the standards are called locally. Our guide to Common Core vs. State math standards compares them side by side.

The 8 Standards for Mathematical Practice

Every Common Core math question is written against one or more of these eight practices, which run unchanged from kindergarten through high school.

MP1, Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them

Read a problem, decide what it is asking, choose an entry point, and keep checking whether the approach is working.

MP2, Reason abstractly and quantitatively

Move between a real situation and the symbols that represent it, stripping context to compute and then putting the context back to interpret the answer.

MP3, Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others

Justify a conclusion with definitions and prior results, and find the flaw in someone else’s argument.

MP4, Model with mathematics

Turn an everyday situation, a budget, a rate, a shape, into an equation, diagram or graph, then judge whether the model is good enough.

MP5, Use appropriate tools strategically

Choose sensibly among pencil and paper, a ruler, a calculator, a spreadsheet or estimation, and know the limits of each.

MP6, Attend to precision

Use exact language, correct units, and an accuracy appropriate to the problem.

MP7, Look for and make use of structure

See a pattern inside an expression or figure, that 7 × 8 is 7 × 5 plus 7 × 3, or that x² + 9x + 14 factors, and use it.

MP8, Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning

Notice that a calculation repeats, and generalize it into a shortcut, rule or formula.

What each grade covers

Common Core groups content into domains. The domains change as students move up, which is why a grade 4 test looks nothing like a grade 8 test.

Kindergarten to grade 2

Counting and cardinality, addition and subtraction within 100, place value to 1,000, measurement and data, and basic shapes.

Grades 3 to 5

Multiplication and division fluency, fractions as numbers, decimals to the hundredths, area and perimeter, volume, and the coordinate plane.

Grades 6 and 7

Ratios and proportional relationships, all four operations with rational numbers, expressions and equations, area and surface area, and statistics and probability.

Grade 8

Linear functions, systems of equations, integer exponents, scientific notation, congruence and similarity, the Pythagorean theorem, and bivariate data.

High school

Number and quantity, algebra, functions, modeling, geometry, and statistics and probability, usually taught as Algebra 1, Geometry and Algebra 2.

Common Core math practice tests by grade

• Grade 3 Common Core math practice test · top 10 grade 3 questions
• Grade 4 Common Core math practice test · top 10 grade 4 questions
• Grade 5 Common Core math practice test · top 10 grade 5 questions
• Grade 6 Common Core math practice test · full-length grade 6 test
• Grade 7 Common Core practice tests · full-length grade 7 test
• Grade 8 Common Core math practice test · full-length grade 8 test
• Common Core Algebra 1 and Common Core Algebra 2

Common Core math worksheets by grade

• Grade 3 worksheets
• Grade 4 worksheets
• Grade 5 worksheets
• Grade 6 worksheets
• Grade 7 worksheets
• Grade 8 worksheets
• Algebra 1 worksheets

Full step-by-step courses are available for grade 6, grade 7 and Common Core Algebra 1.

Common questions about Common Core math

Is Common Core a curriculum?

No. It is a list of end-of-grade expectations. Textbooks, lesson order and teaching methods are chosen by states and districts, which is why two Common Core classrooms can look very different.

Which states still use Common Core?

Most do, in original or renamed form. Texas, Virginia, Nebraska and Alaska never adopted it; Indiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Kentucky and Idaho rewrote theirs. Even the rewritten standards keep most of the same grade-level content.

Why does Common Core math use several methods for one calculation?

Practices MP7 and MP8 ask students to see structure and generalize it. Area models and number lines exist to make place value and regrouping visible before the standard algorithm is taught, not to replace it.

Which tests are aligned to Common Core?

Smarter Balanced (SBAC) and PARCC were built for it, and most state tests, STAAR, FSA, PSSA, Georgia Milestones and others, assess the same grade-level content under different names.

What does a Common Core math question look like?

Typically a short real-world scenario with a single correct answer, plus at least one item per test that asks the student to explain or justify the reasoning rather than only compute.

How should a student prepare?

Take a timed practice test for the grade, note which domain each missed question came from, then work the worksheets for that one domain before retesting.