[snowwrestler]

Common Core actually does not stipulate any particular implementation in terms of curriculum or testing. It is simply a set of standards for educational achievement that the states have agreed upon. So for example it would say that a high school graduate should be capable of solving a particular equation. It is up to each state (or district) to figure out how to teach that knowledge, and how to measure it.

Most states have not even really started to do that yet. What we have now are a few commercial companies who are rushing shit products out the door with a "Common Core" sticker slapped on them, and the world is judging the entire concept based on these crappy products. See for example:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/06/03/318228023/the-common-...

> An increased emphasis on tests sadly tends to lead to teaching to the test.

This is not a dependent relationship; it is a choice. It is up to administrators and teachers to decide how curricula are designed and teachers teach.

The idea that setting standards automatically results in worse performance would not make sense in any other context; yet it's taken as a given in education.