Press Release
March 4, 2020
Liberty Common School Wins Coveted Core Knowledge School of Distinction Designation
Fort Collins – Liberty Common School, a parent-led public charter school in the Poudre School District, has been named a Core Knowledge School of Distinction for the second time by the Core Knowledge Foundation. Additionally, it received "Special recognition for outstanding professional learning communities and planning with Core Knowledge content."
Core Knowledge is the curriculum taught from kindergarten through eighth grade at Liberty Common. According to the Core Knowledge Foundation website, there are currently about 625 Core Knowledge Schools in the country, and only 9 have been awarded this high honor. In Colorado, there are 91 Core Knowledge schools - six of which are in PSD - and Liberty Common School is the lone recipient for the state. Liberty Common was the first school to be awarded this accolade in 2012 and has just successfully completed the renewal process to maintain the sought-after status.
According to Christina Eland, the Director of School Support at the Core Knowledge Foundation, "We were incredibly impressed with the attention to planning, quality of implementation, and level of support provided to students."
Due to this designation, educators from across the country seek out Liberty Common School as a destination for observation and learning. Headmaster of the K-12 school, Bob Schaffer says, “For decades, the Core Knowledge curriculum has proven to be ‘the great equalizer’ it was designed to be by lifting all students, regardless of family income, to high levels of academic achievement, and future prosperity. The School of Distinction designation establishes Fort Collins as a beacon – on a global scale – of educational learning equity, public-school egalitarianism, and classical-instructional leadership.”
Casey Churchill, Principal of the elementary school adds “Liberty Common School is honored to receive this School of Distinction from the Core Knowledge Foundation. Year after year, Liberty Common opens our doors to visitors all across the country to showcase the effects of the Core Knowledge curriculum on our students. The ticket to our success? We teach a rich, coherent, and contextual body of content knowledge as outlined in the Core Knowledge Sequence. Our students come to school every day eager to learn more about the world around them. It is exciting to share with visitors how staying true to the fidelity of this curriculum pays off in the long run.”
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Liberty Common School is a tuition free, publicly-funded K-12 charter school located in Fort Collins, Colorado. LCS educates approximately 1,100 students in grades K-12 from across Northern Colorado.
1725 Sharp Point Drive • Fort Collins, CO. 80525 • (P) 970-482-9800 • libertycommon.org