Common Knowledge^™
The Newsletter of the Core Knowledge Foundation

Liberty Common School Celebrates
10 Years of Core Knowledge

By Barbara Garvin-Kester, President

From left to right: Bob Schaffer (member of the Colorado State Board of Education), Dr. Barbara Gavin-Kester (President of the National Core Knowledge Foundation), Russ Spicer (Headmaster of Liberty Common School), and Larry Neal (member of the Poudre School District Board of Education)

Over five hundred parents and special guests attended Liberty Common School’s ten-year anniversary celebration on August 17, 2006, in Fort Collins, Colorado. Dr. Barbara Garvin-Kester, President of the Core Knowledge Foundation, received a warm welcome as the keynote speaker. She presented the school with an award commemorating their tenth anniversary and recognizing Liberty Common as a pioneering Core Knowledge school. 

The model set by Liberty Common was replicated by all the other charter schools in the Fort Collins area. It all began in the ’90s when a number of brave community leaders faced fierce resistance as they worked to secure for their schools a structured curriculum that was rooted in common knowledge, common virtues, and common sense. Their struggle was so intense that our Founder, E. D. Hirsch, Jr., acknowledged their courage in his well-known book on education reform, The Schools We Need and Why We Don’t Have Them.

Liberty Common is the first Core Knowledge school to receive a U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Award. That alone is a remarkable achievement and one worth celebrating. Principal Russ Spicer believes the Core Knowledge Curriculum played a significant role in their Blue Ribbon selection and in their sustained success over the past ten years. It is also important to mention that Liberty Common has enhanced the Core Knowledge curriculum with a wonderful character education program; a foreign language program; an extended science program; terrific band, orchestra, choir, arts, and sports programs; and a highly active parent volunteer program. 

Liberty Common is one of the schools leading the way for education reform in this country. We could not be prouder of the faculty, staff, students, and parents of Liberty Common and we wish them continued success in their second decade delivering excellence and fairness in education. 

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