8 QUESTIONS is a series of interviews with teachers who have effectively transitioned their classroom skills into new and exciting careers in the field of education. We at Teach.com believe that teaching is a rigorous and diverse classroom in and of itself; the skills learned “in the trenches” can translate into an exciting portfolio of professional options. From education tech to consulting, the only “X factor” is where you want to go — our interviews hope to shine a light on the steps it takes to get there.

It’s been 15 years since the National Research Council revised the standards for science education on a national level. Since then, NASA landed their first successful Mars Rover, measles was eliminated from the U.S. for good, and Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet status. Times are changing, and it’s time for our outdated science standards to change as well. And that’s exactly what happened. The NRC named these up-and-coming standards the Next Generation Science Standards, or NGSS, for short.

Since its inception in 2009, the Common Core State Standards, or CCSS, has accumulated a bad rep from teachers, parents, and students alike. They believe that the standards restrict creativity in education. Today, we’re taking a closer look at the CCSS to find out if it’s as unaccomodating as it’s made out to be.

So far, 45 states and the District of Columbia have adopted Common Core standards. Many teachers who teach around the CCSS have been very vocal. It is surprising to note that they do not have a problem with the standards but rather the supporting assessments to measure whether or not these standards are being achieved.

One source of complaint is math, which has been heavily criticized for the CCSS’s new notoriously roundabout and overly-complex methods of solving math problems. This has been a great source of confus…