Can Readers Really Stay Within the Standards Lines?

By Maja Wilson & Thomas Newkirk

Forty-six states and the District of Columbia have already signed on to the common-core standards, acting before the ink on them was even dry. But most of those states have done so without reading the small print, spelled out in the recently released guidelines for publishers and curriculum developers.

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the document moves beyond the standards' generalities to lay out the view of reading at the heart of the common core and to specify practices that need to be in place to foster it. It is a consequential and revealing document that really shows us what we're being asked to buy.

At one level, we find some of what is in this document appealing and timely. We like the focus on deep sustained reading—and rereading. We like the idea of giving a central place to challenging texts that are not cluttered by distracting headnotes, sidenotes, and endnotes that give so many reading selections a People ...