Abstract
Critical discourse analysis, utilizing the discourse-historical approach (DHA), of the high school to college writing continuum discourse helps us to examine the implications of the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). This analysis examines the CCSS English language arts and literacy standards (ELA/literacy) and the Writing Program Administrators Outcomes Statement for First Year Composition (WPA Outcomes), which represent educational and political discourses as they converge to establish educational aims. Through DHA, these texts are analyzed for language, intertextual and discursive relationships, social and institutional variables outside of the texts, and the broader sociopolitical and historical contexts. Examining instances of perspectivization, argumentation, nomination, and predication in educational aims lead to important insights into the writing continuum. This is knowledge that can be leveraged in a time of reform and transition. I conclude that the CCSS ELA/Literacy and the WPA Outcomes are fundamentally different due to the perspectives that frame them, but these differences do not imply incompatibility. Instruction aligned to both sets of educational aims can add coherence to, and foster transfer of knowledge along, the high school to college writing continuum, but this progress can be hindered by high-stakes assessment. Educators must continue to involve themselves in public policy discourse, as it constantly converges with English education discourse, to advocate for sound policy decisions.