The media and observers across the ideological spectrum were surprised and, in some cases, disconcerted in July 2014 when at the annual American Federation of Teachers (AFT) convention in Los Angeles, the union's leadership
team announced that its Innovation Fund grants of $ 20,000 to $ 30,000 were going to be made available to state and local
affiliates to critique the
Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the massive multistate effort to improve student achievement.