The Origins of the Common Core: How the Free Market Became Public Education Policy

How did a movement so contentious as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) become public education policy throughout the United States? Deborah Duncan Owens provides an insightful historical analysis of the CCSS, beginning with conservative criticism of public schools in the 1930s and culminating in a convergence of the interests of the right, the left, and corporate America in systemically reforming education based on free market principles. Through an in-depth tour of education policies and movements over thirty-five years, Owens clearly identifies the advocates, politicians, authors, and thinkers who paved the way for the dominant way of thinking about public education in the United States today.<p></p>