The issue comes about when teacher metrics and quality are tied to the tests that they have to teach for. When one company is creating the tests, and making available study guides, human nature is naturally going to suggest using the study guides to help prepare for the tests.
This coupled with the fact that some of these tests are truly abhorrent in their presentation of the information exacerbates the problem. What alternative do teachers have for creating material tailored to their students, when they will be penalized unless they teach the material in a way that the student will be likely to do well on the test? Or put another way, if the testing company creates a test that utilizes difficult language to represent a scenario, the teacher doesn't only have to focus on teaching the material but also how to interpret the presentation of the subject by a given test maker.
For example, read this article about a standardized test given to a first grader in New York.
A ridiculous common core test for first graders.
The test in question was created by Pearson, which is just one purveyor of tests that support the common core. If your state adopted CCWS and chooses to use Pearson as their materials supplier, do you really think your state is going to pay to have Pearson make a different test to make your state's teachers happy? Especially when CCWS was touted as a way to lower the cost of education in states that adopt CCWS.
Now I don't think its necessarily fair to put all of this on the test creators. Just because they use nomenclature contrary to what is actually common, or at least common in my experience, doesn't mean that its a bad test.
Some examples of the bad nomenclature/language in the example test on that article:
part I know/whole Used to briefly describe a subtraction problem, however without context seems difficult to comprehend.
Use cubes to solve Expectation of methodology that can only be utilized if student has been exposed, thereby limiting the flexibility you expect the teachers to use.
Number Sentence Basically a standard equation describing addition or subtraction.
Subtraction Sentence Apparently same as above, seems synonymous. Examples are 4 + 3 = 7 and 6 - 4 = 2 So apparently has nothing do so with the operation in the actual "sentence".
I gave the examples above mainly because while they are not necessarily hard things to teach, they do imply some context specific language that the teachers cannot avoid. Additionally they dictate methodology if the teachers have any hope of their students doing well on the test. This takes away from the time available for the actual teaching of the subject, much less the freedom to teach how it would best suit the students as you would have to tie everything up in the end to ensure the custom way has a translation for the test way.
I am personally on the fence about CCSS. The idea is great, the implementation is pretty poor. I have done enough research to believe that the big selling point that states can customize to their hearts desire is marketing and BS made to make the teachers and school systems look like lazy, uncaring, stuck in the mud crankypants. CCSS is not nearly as malleable as they want you to believe, and the companies and foundations behind it have spent far more money advertising and selling CCSS than they have in developing the standard and garnering constructive feedback.
In the end it comes down to how active a parent is in their kids education. If we choose public education, it is my responsibility that my child is as prepared as I can make them. If that includes learning new ways to do old things, I am perfectly willing to learn the new way in the hopes that I can engender a love of learning in my child. While I may not be crazy about how they are doing it, whether the school system used CCWS or the old way, the success of my child was going to require attentiveness in any measure.
My biggest beef with the whole CCWS thing is that they don't really seem interested in listening to anyone who is actually in the teaching field and hasn't already been sold on the great miracle that CCWS will perform to make all of our children geniuses. That and the federal government tying education dollars to an unproven, untested, experiment on our children.
