An op-ed in the Los Angeles Times defends—kinda, sorta—the language in the Common Core State Standards requiring teachers to assign more nonfiction texts. But it disputes the notion that the nonfiction requirements can be handled across subject areas and thus not necessarily interfere with the traditional emphasis on fiction in English classes:

Yet despite what the core curriculum's fans say, it's clear that fiction will take a significant hit. The standards written for high school English courses—and not for science, history or math—include a set of 10 weighty skills that students must learn concerning nonfiction, as many as there are for fiction. Students aren't going to learn those by adding a few essays or one good biography to the academic year. A major portion of English classes will have to be devoted to nonfiction—at least a third, and perhaps as much as 40%. Some wonderful fiction is going to have to come out of the school year.

Meanwhile, Diane Ravitch questions how and why the common standards writers even came up with the specific percentages required for information...:

Whose wisdom decided on 50-50 [for elementary and middle grades] and 70-30 [for high school]? Who will police the classrooms? Where is the evidence that these ratios are better than some other ratio or none at all?

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