Here’s a piece well worth reading by Laurie H. Rodgers (author of “Betrayed”) about the ‘reform mathematics curricula’ in the USA. For ‘maths’ you could substitute ‘reading and spelling’, and for ‘administrators’ read ‘head teachers, local education authority advisors and government education department mandarins’.
Thanks to Yvonne Meyer for posting this on the RRF and alerting me to it.