On Sunday, Washington Post columnist Valerie Strauss published a blog post by Seton Hall University Assistant Professor of Educational Studies Daniel Katz, who noticed a questionable spike in education reform groups rooting for the Common Core State Standards, charter schools, high-stakes testing, and student data use —​ all of which are among the most divisive and talked-about policy issues in education today.  

Wrapping your head around these complex issues can take some work, but there's a plethora of great coverage out there to help. Below, we've compiled some of our favorite coverage of these topics. 

Common Core

1. How Bill Gates Pulled Off the Swift Common Core Revolution

Lyndsey Layton, for The Washington Post  

In this article Layton carefully dissects the makings of the Common Core and, specifically, the influence of billionaire Bill Gates. In many ways, the Common Core State Standards feel mythological — they just suddenly existed and everyone was using them or fighting about them — so taking a more historical look at their genesis is incredibly helpful. Specifically, the article deals with the speed and haste in which the standards were created and implemented, as well as the lack of a trial period.  

2. 50-state look at how Common Core playing out in US

The Associated Press, reprinted in Salon

Published last month, this article breaks down where the Common Core stands in each state. While there are tons of heady articles for and against the standards, sometimes it's easy to forget the actual day-to-day details. More specifically, while Common Core is meant to cross state lines, the standards are really in different phases of implementation depending on where you are. This handy guide allows readers to better grasp the greater acceptance (or lack thereof) of the standards, as of September 2014.

Charter Schools

3. The Battle for New York Schools: Eva Moskowitz vs. Mayor Bill de Blasio 

Daniel Bergner, for The New York Times

In many ways, New York City is the epicenter of charter school debates. There are fierce charter advocates, and then there are those who are skeptical about their achievement and eager to place money in traditional public schools. Perhaps that's why this article is a great starting point for understanding the current charter wars. Daniel Bergner focuses his attention on Eva Moskowitz, the polarizing founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools. The article is a pretty glowing review of charter schools, so to temper out the reviews and come to your own conclusion, it wouldn't hurt to read New York University education historian Diane Ravitch's response.  Less of a profile and more of a column, Ravitch pushes against Success Academy's, well, success, arguing that the charter network has high attrition rates and high teacher turnover.  

4. How School Choice Became An Explosive Issue

Kevin Carey, for The Atlantic 

There may be a theme in many of the articles on this list — before picking a side, they attempt to highlight the historical context that has brought the debate to where it is today. Kevin Carey's 2012 piece for The Atlantic looks at the humble start of charter schools and their growth in popularity to the polarizing reality of today. The article particularly delves into how charter schools have become synonymous with free markets and an ideology that may not have been there when they first started.  

High-Stakes Testing

5. Wrong Answer

Rachel Aviv, for the New Yorker

While there are numerous articles about standardized tests, Rachel Aviv's piece on the Atlanta cheating scandal really shines an illuminating light on the pressures of the United States' current testing culture. Aviv documents the reasons why one district decided to cheat on a state standardized test and details how rising expectations paired with little support for other factors like poverty could drive a school to cheat. The piece also makes steps to see how poverty, another big education topic these days, factors into all of this.  

Arizona State University's former dean of education, David Berliner, told Aviv, “The people who say poverty is no excuse for low performance are now using teacher accountability as an excuse for doing nothing about poverty.” While cheating is the big story, testing and poverty are what make it universal.  

6. How High Stakes Testing Led to the Atlanta Cheating Scandal

Dana Goldstein, for Slate

This 2011 article gives more evidence and thought into how an emphasis on testing can lead educators to cheat. While the aforementioned piece by Aviv focuses on Atlanta and really delves into the characters involved in one specific district, Goldstein walks the reader through examples of cheating in Los Angeles, the District of Columbia, and Houston, as well. The high rate of cheating makes one question the reason why. Hint: It's not because the administrators or teachers are bad people. Rather, it is the evaluations — and, really, the job security -- the test scores threaten.

As Goldstein explains at the end of her article, "When laws incentivize bad behavior, it's a good time to reconsider public policy, not to double down on it. In a way, Arne Duncan and the New York Times are right: The problem isn't the tests. But the problem is the carrots and sticks tied to them, which put too much emphasis on judging teachers and schools, and not enough on offering kids better instruction." 

Student Data Use

7. What Parents Need To Know About Big Data And Student Privacy

Anya Kamenetz, for NPR

While it may be students who are most affected by the use of data and analytics, parents are the ones who are most worried about the repercussions. The fears are expansive: college admissions having access to minor infractions in 6th grade, or marketers surreptitiously using the data for advertising (though the latter is prohibited by federal law). Kamenetz thoroughly breaks down the hoopla over 'Big Data' in schools while also providing a look at its evolution.

8. Privacy Concerns Force InBloom, a Data Repository for Schools, to Shut Down

Ainsley O'Connell, for Fast Company

InBloom, a cloud-based student data service supported by the Gates Foundation, is probably one of the most well-known examples of how privacy concerns have impacted the use of big data in schools. Whether or not the company was mining data is irrelevant to the fact that it was heavily protested to the point that it eventually had to close. O'Connell walks readers through the company's rise and fall, a story that helps illuminate some of today's more common concerns (valid or not) about digital data companies.