Corruption and the Common Core: Follow the Money 
by Vicki Cobb
When I first read the Common Core State Standards, I liked them. I didn’t see anything controversial in the descriptions of the behaviors of speaking, listening, reading, and writing that are obvious in an educated person. I really liked the requirement that students increase their reading of nonfiction, hoping that the CCSS would be an opening for us authors of children’s nonfiction to see our books finally utilized for classroom work. Also, it was clear that we authors are masters of the CCSS skills ourselves. They perfectly describe what we do every day. If you’re wondering just how we do it, check out our group blog of top children’s nonfiction authors, Interesting Nonfiction for Kids or I.N.K. We are devoting the month of October to discussing how we exhibit the Common Core State Standards in our craft and our books. It is a fascinating overview of the CCSS in action and shows how these overarching standards can be manifested though many individual approaches, the same way great teachers also incorporate them into the art of teaching.
I am also a great admirer of Diane Ravitch. If you want evidence that our public school system is better than the reformers say it is, that our test scores are not so terrible compared to other countries, that test scores themselves are poor indicators of achievement