One of the biggest challenges California's 1,000 or so school districts face -- the implementation of transformational new Common Core standards, curriculum and testing over the next two years -- may be about to get a lot easier. Gov. Jerry Brown announced Tuesday that he wants to give $1 billion in one-time surplus revenue to schools to help them with this massive project, to be used for essential teacher training and technology.
We can imagine few better uses for the money; the Legislature should approve it. Common Core implementation has far-reaching implications for kids and the future of California. Getting it right isn't optional.
Common Core will transform just about everything that happens in schools except recess. The internationally benchmarked standards are designed to teach kids how to think, to encourage exploration, experimentation and analysis, and to make greater connections to real life. In other words, they will help students master the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century.
New standardized tests -- rolling out in two years -- should truly measure students' learning, not just whether they can guess which bubble to fill in. In the math portion, for example, students might have to solve a multi-step word problem and explain how they did it. In language arts, they'll have to write narratives demonstrating comprehension of assigned texts.
Before this proposal, districts were on their own to implement the curriculum to meet the standards, which the state board of education adopted in 2010. The situation was viewed as so dire locally that the Silicon Valley Community Foundation got involved. This spring it launched the Common Core Initiative, an attempt to encourage San Mateo and Santa Clara counties' 54 school districts to collaborate, and to take advantage of economies of scale and best practices.
The transition is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to improve the way schools prepare students for college or a career. The foundation wants to ensure the chance isn't wasted.
It's silly for Silicon Valley to have 54 training programs and 54 teams buying computers for standardized tests. So the foundation has raised more than $1 million -- and counting -- to distribute to districts that have great ideas for working together and cutting costs.
The foundation has also helped raise community awareness of this issue, which can seem so wonky and complicated that it's tempting to ignore.
That can't happen. The transition to Common Core represents a big change and an even bigger challenge. With the help of Brown's proposal, the Common Core Initiative and the community at large, Silicon Valley's schools can be prepared to meet it.