Common Core Standards FAQ
There are two sources of information on the Core Standards that are easy to confuse.
CoreStandards.org is the organization that initiated this push toward standards and their standards are what many state department of educations have adopted. The Appendix B lists “exemplar texts” and explains how to evaluate other possible texts. Usually Exemplar Texts are not required or recommended; they are merely example of what is considered exemplar. As the Core Standards are implemented, however, a state or local districts may “require” them, but that isn’t the case, as of now.
CommonCore.org is an organization partly funded by the the Bill Gates Foundation. They have written suggested curriculum maps based on the standards. They state: “The maps do not comprise a complete curriculum, nor do they prescribe how teachers are to teach the material included in the maps. The maps are curriculum planning documents that teachers can use as a resource for making their own more detailed curricula and lesson plans.” They state that the curriculum maps use most of the exemplar texts, but takes an additional interesting step. Authors with texts on the list are referred to as “exemplar authors” and other books by them are suggested.