Berkeley mathematics professor Marina Ratner writes for the Wall Street Journal that California’s Common Core standards “were vastly inferior to the old California standards in rigor, depth and the scope of topics. Many topics—for instance, calculus and pre-calculus, about half of algebra II and parts of geometry—were taken out and many were moved to higher grades. As a result, the Common Core standards were several years behind the old standards, especially in higher grades.” Ratner goes through several examples of absurd problems and approaches that are part of the Common Core approach. Hat tips to Breitbart.com and Warner Todd Huston. See also my article for the Objective Standard, “Common Core’s Nonsensical Math Problems Undermine Students’ Confidence.”