Research and Policy: The Origins of the Common Core: Untold Stories

Discussions of the Common Core State Standards in most mainstream sources describe the Standards as having grown out of a coherent process of education reform over the past two decades. However, such accounts leave out the role played by global efforts to reshape public work, philanthropic foundations, and testing organizations. This article describes how Sir Michael Barber (a British reformer), the Gates Foundation, and ACT were involved in various phases of the development of the Common Core State Standards. They represent a set of new forces in the making of education policy—forces that are separate from the conventional district, state, and federal education authorities.