I read an interesting article in the ASCD website called "How to Survive Education Reform Without Losing Your Job, Your Ideals, or Your Mind" by Gary Rubinstein (linked here http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/jun13/vol70/num09/How-to-Survive-Education-Reform-Without-Losing-Your-Job,-Your-Ideals,-or-Your-Mind.aspx ).  As a teacher who has seen a number of reforms and mandates come and go over the years, I appreciate the encouragement this author had to offer.

He starts by noting that he has seen many reforms over the years, and then talks about the Common Core and new "performance-based" teacher assessments to decide if we are doing a good job teaching.

"But this latest onslaught feels more ominous. For example, we keep hearing that teachers are finally going to be held accountable for their "sins." When we hear it enough, we begin to wonder whether we really are a bunch of lazy sloths whiling away the hours until our big fat pensions become ripe. I want to reassure teachers, particularly veterans (particularly myself!), that we will survive this latest epidemic, just as we survived the bird flu and Y2K."

I myself have had this feeling of being under attack in the last couple of years, being asked to account for every last standard of the Common Core in mathematics.  At the high school level, we have over 180 standards to be covered before students take the SAT's their Junior Year. (Students are not required to take a 4th year of math.)  As a department, we thought about this deeply this last year.  Technically, students have 60+ standards a year to cover.  That means they should be showing "proficiency" of a new standard about every 3 days!  We decided this was next to impossible, but have had no direction from above at this point.  So I appreciate his comments below.

"We are told that the old state standards were "a mile wide and an inch deep," implying that we were all racing through every topic without savoring any of them. Although it is true that a lack of time requires me to cover some topics only superficially, I have covered some topics in extreme depth. It's a matter of prioritizing to fit a nearly unlimited set of topics into a limited amount of time.

The Common Core standards have not eliminated the need to choose how much time to spend on this lesson or that one. There are still too many topics to cover, so we'll have to continue setting priorities and covering some topics in more depth than others, just as we've always done."

Having had similar experiences, I greatly appreciate his candor here.

His last warning:   "The gravest threat posed by all these reforms is that they encourage teachers to forego real teaching for test prep. This will, ultimately, hurt students. As teachers, we cannot fall into this trap. "  

I agree wholeheartedly!  I can see the pitfalls ahead in the coming years, but have feel encouraged that others, who have seen much more than I have, see a light at the end of the tunnel (and it's not a train!)