from what I understand of common core, the correct answer to your example would be &quot;They would walk 6 miles total.&quot;  There&#x27;s an emphasis on clear communication and complete sentences.  Many of the textbooks would even encourage the student to write out the sentence stem &quot;They would walk _____ miles total&quot; prior to performing any calculations, and then at the end of the problem to check that the number was actually measured in miles and that the sentence made sense and was a reasonable way to answer the initial question.<p>This seems to be what you&#x27;re encouraging in your final paragraph.  This brings up the question: why is the common perception of common core so different from what common core is designed to do?