I would like to urge a bit of caution when looking at this issue because there is a lot of hype and fear going around right now. Unfortunately, there are those who stand to gain from fear mongering, which makes matters worse.
First. let me be clear that SCM’s materials are not CC aligned and we have no intentions of making them so. In fact, some of the CC standards are incompatible with the order in which Charlotte Mason built layers of skills and concepts upon one another.
It’s important to separate CC’s standards from the political wrangling and things that have been tacked on in implementation. The CC standards basically say what particular topics and skills a child should know by each grade level. CC does not specify particular textbooks or curriculum and it does not say anything about data mining or tracking children. Now, because of the politics of implementation, those other things are being tacked on and we all sort of refer to CC as the whole package.
But the difference between standards and implementation shenanigans becomes important when evaluating a curriculum or publisher. Let’s look at Math-U-See as an example.
Before CC, MUS was a solid math program that exceeded any government standards. CC came along and MUS added a couple enrichment pages with extra practice to each chapter. Now MUS is a solid math program that still exceeds government standards.
Notice what’s not there. They did not change the vast majority of the content. They did not change how MUS works as a mastery-based curriculum. They did not dumb down the materials. They did not fill the books with indoctrination. They did not endorse data mining, tracking our children, or a federal takeover of local education standards.
It would be more accurate to say that CC aligned with MUS, but didn’t go far enough. 
Yet those simple changes have made MUS evil incarnate in the eyes of some. Seriously, they’ve had their Christian salvation questioned over this—extra practice problems! That’s sad.
So how should we proceed?
1. Educate yourself. There are currently CC standards for math and language arts. Go read them and see what they actually contain. Figure out what you agree and don’t agree with and incorporate that into your decision making. Also find out what your particular state is doing with implementation and act accordingly, if needed.
2. Take the time to research any curriculum’s changes or alignment and find out why rather than assume the all-evil worst.
It’s possible for materials to be unintentionally aligned. For example, we’ve seen some good living books now sporting a CC aligned logo on the cover. It doesn’t stop being a good living book (assuming it’s not abridged or altered) but the publisher thinks the logo will help market the book to schools.
Back to the example of MUS, they have published exactly what they did and why near the end of their parents FAQ page. (It starts at the topic “Why is there a new discussion of state standards?”) They also have PDFs showing exactly what and where CC grade topics are covered in their materials. For example, here’s grade 2. Study those kinds of things and see if there are aspects you disagree with or not.
In response to a recent Facebook question on CC, MUS explained that they cover most CC topics but are not fully aligned because they are not grade based. They also pointed out that the changes should make homeschool students better prepared for changes in standardized tests, where required.
3. Give grace to homeschool publishers and don’t always trust the lists. If you look online, you’ll see that there are many lists of publisher and their stance on CC. We are on several of those lists as not supporting CC, which is good and accurate. But let me tell you how that sometimes works behind the scenes.
We’ve been contacted several times for our official stance on CC. In some cases, we were asked open-ended questions. Someone took what we said and decided which list to put us on and our comments were not included with our listing. That’s an error-prone process that could easily put good publishers on the “bad list” through simple misunderstandings.
I’ve heard small homeschool publishers express how they’re walking on egg shells with concern that they might unintentionally be aligned or have a comment misunderstood, and that it would cost them their entire livelihood.
I know that was a bit of a long rant, but there is so much at stake for our families that I thought it worth the time to dig into the details. I hope it was helpful.
