Common Core Dilemma—Who Owns Our Schools?

In her new book, bestselling author Mercedes Schneider provides little-known details about the history of the Common Core State Standards. She lifts the veil on the development of the Common Core, the individuals present in the back room, the push to copyright it so that test-makers could profit, and the urgency for governors to sign commitments before the standards were even completed. CCSS is publicized as being a state-led, teacher-developed approach guaranteed to ensure that all students are college- and career-ready. By the end of this eye-opening book, readers will come to understand the CCSS and its attendant assessments as something very different. Common Core Dilemma will appeal to readers across the political spectrum who want to better understand the role of corporations, nonprofits, big donors with strings attached, and the federal government in exercising control in our schools. It is essential reading for courses on education and government, and education and special interests.

Mercedes K. Schneider is a secondary school teacher in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, an education blogger, author of A Chronicle of Echoes: Who's Who in the Implosion of American Public Education, and holds advanced degrees in education and statistics. Visit her blog at deutsch29.wordpress.com.

“Education reform has many goals and results, including weakening unions, deskilling and de-professionalizing teachers, and wresting away popular control of education.”

—Against the Current

" Common Core Dilemma will appeal to readers across the political spectrum who want to better understand the role of corporations, nonprofits, big donors with strings attached, and the federal government in exercising control in our schools ."

—AAUP

"Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through professionals and practitioners; general readers."

—Choice

“Schneider makes the case that it is time to 'turn the page' on this ill-begotten educational experiment. And as readers turn the pages of this fascinating and meticulously prepared account, they will be compelled to agree.”
—From the Foreword by Carol Corbett Burris, South Side High School, Rockville Centre, New York

“Mercedes Schneider is the right person to take a close look at the controversies around the Common Core. She is not only a high school teacher, but also holds a Ph.D. in research methods and statistics. No one digs deeper than she to understand the politics, money, and personalities behind big issues.”
—Diane Ravitch, professor of education at New York University, historian of education and bestselling author, author of Reign of Error

“The Common Core ‘State’ Standards swept the nation in an educational coup d'etat 6 years ago. The campaign was so swift that most Americans—indeed most educators—had never even heard of the standards when they were adopted. Mercedes Schneider has become the nation's leading detective investigating this ‘whodunnit’ mystery, and here she tells the tale, from the beginning.”
—Anthony Cody, educator, writer, and public speaker