I'm a senior in a PA public school, and fortunately I'm a few years ahead of the effects of common core, not that my school is difficult at all. In fact, my most difficult year (relative to my age at the time) was 1st grade, which was at a private school. It is because of my learning abilities that I acquired from private schools that I am in the top 10 of my public school. Privatize education please.

As a retired teacher of Gifted students ages 7-12, and the mother of two gifted children I empathize immensely with your quandry. I thought the tests and state standards we developed in 2002 in response to Ted Kennedy's No Child Left Behind debaucle were bad enough, and fortunately, I retired in time to avoid the current Common Core disaster. Obama's goal is to take government control of everything, so we can all be "equal". (except those who are exempt). We can help FreedomWorks fight Common Core and other issues by joining and contributing to their organization.
However, in your case in particular, I suggest you look into some of the online education (some are free) opportunities available, and allow your daughter to excel academically at her own pace, at home, and actually learn something. My Gifted/ADHD son almost flunked out of high school because he was so bored and always in trouble-online classes saved him. Now he's in medical school, even though his teachers all said he'd never amount to anything. If she doesn't want to miss out on being with her friends, it may be possible to negotiate an arrangement with her school to attend only part of the day so she can attend art, music, P.E. and other "elective" courses so that the school will still get their check from the state for her attendance, she will get to be with her friends, and she will be able to learn without the distraction of the nontraditional students in every classroom, who tend to disrupt things. I used to be a vigorous proponent of public school. Now, not so much, and I spent 30 years in the system. But things have changed SO much it's no fun anymore for the teachers OR the students. Meanwhile the taxpayers stand by scratching their heads and wondering what they're paying for when 50% of kids graduate without being able to read or do a simple math problem. I also encourage you to enroll her in extra curricular activities (art classes at the Institute, acting, dance, sports) for the social and creative exposure she needs. I imagine in the LA area there are many to choose from that cost less than private school tuition. If all else fails, move to Missouri where we stopped Common Core in its tracks and still offer gifted classes for kids who qualify in most districts. Good luck!

As someone who was where she is, I know this story well. In my case, it has a mostly happy ending. But I have some questions, if you don't mind.
What does it mean when you say she is in the top 1%? Certainly not that she can do the most situps! How was this measured, and by whom?
I will caution you that sometimes the way statistics lie about students is to measure performance rather than ability. In many circumstances, a student who works like the dickens and is not that smart will test well. Zenphamy's question was great. How, _of your own knowledge_, do you know that she cannot do long division or multiplication, and what does that say about her general intelligence?
Until I know more [I taught brilliant students, some her age, fun stuff for 20+ years], I have something for you to consider. If we're talking about IQ, even leaving aside the fact that the tests become less accurate the further one goes from the center, Mensa [the high IQ organization] starts giving you membership at IQ 125, or 25 points off the norm - the top 2%.
If you were dealing with a student who was 35 points off the norm the other way [that is, an IQ score, if you could get one, of 65] they would have specialists crawling all over them to "Help them function in the real world" - and kids like your daughter are, at best, ignored. Why? Because everybody knows they'll "make it". They'll "manage". They can help the slower students. gag.
Start looking into your options NOW. Online schools, charter schools [if your state has them], private schools, homeschooling.
I believe that public schools destroy every single thing they touch - students, teachers, parents, taxpayers, everything. I really want to say "Grab you daughter and RUN!!!!"

It's like the public schools are teaching that computers and politicians solve problems for you.

Have you given her 'tests' requiring long x or div to see how she solves such a problem?

I'll have to disagree with you (pun), just listen to these professionals. What they are doing is criminal to say the least. This is one of my favorite videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QBv2CFT...

This is not new.It just wasn't as focused as Common Core. When my kids were young they experienced what I called "anti-teaching." Stick to the plan no matter what and if you showed a spark of ingenuity, you had to be "fixed." Can I give you an example? I'll try to abbreviate it as much as possible.

I was thinking of a teaching career in what was then called "special education." These were what today we would call special needs kids. I quickly realized that teaching them the three R's wasn't going to work. Instead I worked on how to make change from a dollar. How and when to get off and on a bus. How to be polite. The principle wrote me up for not following the lesson plan. There's more to the story, but that's the essence of it. I never became a teacher. In later years I did a little research on public schools and was appalled by what I discovered Common Core is merely the government supporting that principle so long ago.

A dumbed down citizenry is a more easily controlled citizenry. Past dumbing down has already produced socialist fruit. Obama was not only elected but reelected president.
What has this proven to our socialist elite? It would be really beneficial to their cause (of control) if more of us were dumbed down some more.
Hence such nifty tools as Common Core.

The problem with home school, of course, is that my husband and I both have good day jobs. Frankly, it would be ...less impossible... to pay for private school than for one of us to give up our jobs.

Please confront her teacher, principal, school board...ALL of them. They will get away with mind murder if we don't start making demands. And don't let them convince you otherwise. Please.

I know we've kind of gotten off the subject, but I had to add that I discovered yesterday that they are teaching her to put a , before and. (ie yellow, gray, and blue...). Not the end of the world, I know, but still WRONG

I teach my kids their math. I don't rely on the school to do it. Not enough teachers know math well enough to teach it. That's one reason Common Core took hold so easily. Many teachers, it seems to me, were looking for a lifeline - something to grab onto, even if it sucks.

I write homework assignments for my kids using mathematics in subjects they are interested in. It is working well.

surprised, you shouldn't be. the education system that exists in the usa IS simply dumbing down each generation so each generation is taught (?) by the previously dumbed down generation.

Khan Academy! Lessons on all sorts of things (particularly math, from basic addition all the way through super advanced stuff) You can sign you kid up, they play the lessons like games, and you can get a coach account to tract the progress.

Oh, did I mention it's free? (Bill Gates dumped a bunch of money on them, so not free as in lunch, more like free as in a producer willfully gave because it made him happy to do so)

Common Core standard 4.NBT.B.5 states in part, "Multiply a whole number of up to four digits by a one-digit whole number, and multiply two two-digit numbers, using strategies based on place value and the properties of operations." In other words how to do long multiplication.

Common Core standard 4.NBT.B.6 states in part, "Find whole-number quotients and remainders with up to four-digit dividends and one-digit divisors, using strategies based on place value," or in other words know how to do long division.

The 4 at the beginning of the references means that these are a 4th grade level standards.

If students haven't been taught how to do long multiplication and division by the end of the 4th grade, then it is because the school is NOT following the Common Core standards.

If she is in the top 1% then the school is too easy for her, she needs to be challenged. High schools are WAY too easy these days. I was in her same situation in the 10th grade. My state had a post secondary option where you could attend the university of your choice (provided you got accepted of course) instead of high school. I did not have to pay tuition or books because I was a public school student. By the time I was 18 I was halfway done with my bachelors degree. My parents didn't have money to pay to send me to private school, but they did pay taxes as business owners so I took advantage of the program. Its just an idea for you, but I truly think that she needs to be challenged more. Let her take a graduate level course and get a B or C.. she will probably freak out but she will still be miles ahead of her peers and she will really need to give her brain a workout and use all the critical thinking skills she has.

I also ask why is marine corp boot camp run like kintergarten? Why are we brainwashing kids to take orders and micro managing them from day one?

Where the government falls short is trying to solve a problem through paternalism. The key to improving society is through entertainment. It is no secret that children are addicted to videogames and have 4 seconed attention spans. The result is the student cannot learn because they are too distracted and teachers are unable to keep students from being bored. That said we should shift to practical education and less theoretical. Kids naturaly want to learn but our soceity devalues education hence the riddicule of nerds. Show them math and let them build a virtual building with their theory instead of multiple choice testing. There are home schooled children who are capable of handling college theory by freshman year. Reading a text book and regurgitating its conents is not learning. Teaching children to follow orders is not learning. Give them problems with ability to freely solve them. I played chess all through high school because i was philosophical in nature and new highschool was nonsense i had friends go to college by taking their ged and dropping out their junior year. One of the students was already a reporter for our city news paper while going to high school. Its our soceities lack of respect and honor of education that is the problem. Its the inibility for teachers to teach that is the problem.

My second-oldest daughter just started high school and is in an advanced algebra class (think pre-trig). We looked at one of her assignments and had to really struggle to figure out that the question just wanted her to find Greatest Common Factors because the wording they were using was so round-about as to be completely obtuse.

Mathematics is only as complicated as you want to make it, people. The best mathematics teachers and professors I ever had were those who explained things in the simplest terms. Intentionally obfuscating the meanings of simple principles by couching them in other terms is reprehensible to the knowledge seeker.

Living in LA has to be interesting at best.
Perhaps you can allow her to flee to the middle of the country for a summer or two in one of our "gulches" when she is a bit older.
The experience will teach her life skills that she won't get elsewhere.

its the livng embodiment of turn for de wurst

I actually agree with Common Core since it teaches practical math, as opposed to useless math like long division.