Educational policies and initiatives significantly influence instruction in classrooms across the nation. This article presents data from a larger critical ethnographic study in an urban school in the United States during the school's first year implementing the Common Core State Standards. In this article, the author shares data from three teachers. The findings indicate a significant reliance of teachers on outside factors--in this case, the Common Core Standards and related Publishers' Criteria--for planning and instruction in literacy. The teachers' own professional knowledge base became eroded in the process of "policy cascades," and as a result, the teachers developed a learned dependency on outside influences for instructional decision making in the classroom.