UDL and Common Core FAQs

More about UDL and Common Core Standards -- from National UDL Taskforce
http://www.udlcenter.org/advocacy/faq_guides/common_core
Exerpt: 


UDL is included in the section of the Common Core Standards called “application to students with disabilities”. In this section the authors referred to the definition laid out in the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (PL 110-135).The reference to UDL in this section may give the impression that UDL is just for students with disabilities. However, UDL not only applies to students with disabilities, it applies to all other learners as well...


There are many ways in which the Common Core Standards align to the UDL framework. Curricula (goals, methods, materials, and assessments) designed using UDL put an emphasis on creating effective, flexible goals, and the Common Core Standards provide an important framework for thinking about what goals will be most effective.


UDL emphasizes that an effective goal must be flexible enough to allow learners multiple ways to successfully meet it. To do this, the standard must not embed the means (the how) with the goal (the what). What do we mean by this? One good example is from the Mathematics standards: “apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication and division and of fractions to multiply and divide rational numbers.” (Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, Grade 7, The Number System, 7.NS, item 2, p.48) This standard is flexible enough that all learners can meet this goal because it does not specify how it must be done...