We often feature articles and news about the Common Core State Standards, also called the College and Career Readiness Standards in Maryland.  Vox Media’s politics site recently posted a primer on the Common Core to provide some background to ongoing debates regarding its implementation.

Vox begins with some history,

The Common Core State Standards are a new set of academic standards adopted by 43 states. The standards are meant to prepare students for college and careers and to make the US more competitive academically. They’re benchmarks for what students should know and be able to do in math and language arts from kindergarten through senior year of high school.

The complete tutorial includes cards on the following subjects:

1. What is the Common Core?
2. Who created the Common Core?
3. What problems is the Common Core trying to solve?
4. What’s actually in the Common Core?
5. Why do Common Core math problems look so weird?
6. What is the federal government’s role in Common Core?
7. What’s the case against the Common Core?
8. How are national standards different from a national curriculum?
9. What is a Common Core assessment consortium?
10. What kind of questions might be on Common Core tests?
11. How are students doing so far on Common Core tests?
12. What do these tests have to do with No Child Left Behind?
13. How many states have adopted the Common Core?
14. How many states have abandoned the Common Core?
15. What does the Common Core have to do with college?
16. You didn’t answer my question!
17. Where can I learn more about the Common Core?
18. How have these cards changed?
19. Explore

For more information, read Everything you need to know about the Common Core on Vox.