When the debate started heating up I took a course on common core. The amount of misconceptions surrounding it are surprising. My favorite probably being that the federal government is mandating it, when it was voluntarily adopted by 43 states. Another is that the images being passed around on Reddit and showing up in your search are the mandated way to teach math. They aren't. Nor are Khan Academy's lessons. It is more about landings than the individual stairs. By landing X student should be able to do Y. What stairs you took in between is your business. Lesson plans are still derived by the teachers, some are just awful at their jobs or themselves have misconceptions that they have to follow a hideous thing done by another teacher in another state.