The education reform known as Common Core, which decides what every student should know and be able to do by each grade, remains a stubbornly gray eminence this morning, seven years after Common Core standards evolved as a nationally uniform concept.
“Common” and “Core” are fighting words in some school districts – 70 percent of students at a Calabasas school opted out of testing and 50 percent at a Palos Verdes school.
Emphatically, not, though, in Culver City.
Going into the final month of the school year, Asst. Supt, Dr. Katie Krumpe responded yesterday with a vigorous “very successful” when asked about the School District’s maiden voyage with the occasionally controversial national Common Core curriculum.
By what metrics?
“By my many observations in classroom visits,” she said.
“We don’t have any test results yet. Everything we have at this point is more formative than summative because this is just our first year of implementation.”
If the body of students catches even a wisp of Dr. Krumpe’s glowing, infectious enthusiasm for the still-amorphous experimental plan, Common Core will surge into the hottest tool in public education.
An inquiring reporter required a reminder regarding which grades in Culver City schools are participating in Common Core.
“Grades seven, eight and nine?” asked the reporter.
That sparked an answer more complicated than had been anticipated.
“We have to separate the standards of K-12,” said Dr. Krumpe. “Are you talking about the task?”
“Maybe I am confusing some dimensions,” the reporter said.
“You are,” Dr. Krumpe replied. “That is really common, though. A lot of people are combining the fact we actually have national standards for the first time that say ‘every third-grader will learn this.’
“At the same time, a new assessment system is being rolled out. The assessment system really has nothing to do with Common Core except that it is measuring the standards.”
This development leads to a new-fangled form of testing, apparently at the heart of Common Core.
(To be continued)