Jelani Guzman, a fifth-grader at Silver Lake Elementary School in Middletown, Del., works on an English language arts lesson at school Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013. Silver Lake has begun implementing the national Common Core State Standards for academics. Remembering the plot of a short story is no longer good enough. Now, students are being asked to think more critically — what, for example, might a character say in an email to a friend. Welcome to a classroom using the Common Core State Standards, one of the most politicized and misunderstood changes in education for students and their teachers in grades kindergarten through high school. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)