A reader in Indiana makes a prediction about the Common Core standards:
The common core standards will not fundamentally change teaching and learning in this country. If improving instruction COULD ever be accomplished by handing out a new set of standards, wouldn’t we have already seen great improvements in teaching and learning? Traditions in schooling are not changed that easily. Another way to think about this– We have some really difficult set of standards in Indiana. Does it mean that our little Hoosiers are getting a superior education because our standard are more rigorous? Nope. Ask any Indiana teacher to list the concepts that nobody ever understands, no matter what she tries. When those standards are tested, a small percent get it correct and the rest do not. I WISH that the problems that are coming as a result of implementing the CC could be headed off by simply piloting the standards. That won’t work. The real problem is how students will be assessed on CC standards and how those results will subsequently be used to judge teachers, schools, teacher prep programs, etc. Don’t we already have a pretty good idea what is going to happen? It is not going to be pretty.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I agree that CC standards alone aren’t the game changer. These types of efforts to rename, reframe, polish, market and sell new initiatives from the top down have a temporary success when some grant-style funding and enthusiasm accompanies it. In the end, though, you are attempting to sculpt whatever clay comes to you with the tools you are allowed. Imagine a baker thrown into a kitchen and told their career will live or die based on some baking standards and evaluations for pies, cakes, cookies, and various pastries. What if that kitchen has little or no flour? A true master might know that there are options (gluten-free), but the results are not typical-they just get the job done. Imagine missing even more of the vital ingredients like sugar, eggs, butter…Again, the job can get done, but if standards, expectations and evaluations (along with state test results) don’t consider how the kitchen is stocked to begin with, then it isn’t an honest system-even if the standards alone are useful. As a teacher, I can make up for the difference a missing “pinch of salt” might make. I can figure out a way to substitute some “ingredients” to help students arrive at a decent final product, that demonstrates their best.
The missing ingredient in most CCLS/reform/evaluation discussion is the fact that not all students come to school “ready”. Even some that do have disruptions in their life that impact how ready they are, temporarily, short term, or maybe long term. There is not much you can do about unforeseen accident or tragedy. But when we have policy that panders to wealthy private interests, feeding a society that promotes self-interest and consumerism, erodes the employment opportunities of the middle class…well, the conversation needs to change. Instead of “Teachers aren’t doing their job”, it needs to be “We need to ask teachers how we can help them and their students cope with an economy we aren’t ready to reform.”
Multi-national corporations’ profit margins require a standardized market. CC standards created a national, scalable K-12 market for curriculum, technology and testing products.
Also governors and mayors want a cheaper work force. And the wealthy don’t want higher taxes.
So now teachers will be judged by student test results, at a time when 22% of American children live in poverty. And poverty rates in major cities is even higher. This is an easy way to force higher turnover and cull the numbers of union teachers.
None of this is forst and foremost about helping children. It is about creating a national and international market.