The article quotes a teacher trainer saying:
"...to make sure all students are reading text that is at their grade level."
What I read in the linked material is:
"The standards call for a staircase of increasing complexity so that all students are ready for the demands of college- and career-level reading no later than the end of high school. The standards also outline a progressive development of reading comprehension so that students advancing through the grades are able to gain more from what they read."
"A progressive development of reading comprehension" is a pretty strong concept which wouldn't be satisfied by everyone reading the same material. Stairstepping isn't going to happen if a third of the class is at the bottom of the stairs and another third is at the top.
Just like the math discussion, it's the interpretation and the implementation. This article illustrates exactly the sort of mis-reading by a responsible party (the teacher trainer in this case) that muddies the waters.
