COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Cooing and cuddling weren’t the only things on my mind when I became a mom. Call me obsessive if you must, but when my first child was born, one of the first things I did was put him on the waiting list at our dream school.

The dream school, for our family, was The Classical Academy (TCA), a public charter school in Colorado Springs. The school had everything we were looking for – exemplary test scores, an environment where graduation and college is almost a given, small class sizes prioritized over technological gadgetry, and character education woven into the curriculum.

Education is of paramount importance to me. And this mom, for one, is not happy that the enforced mediocrity of the Common Core curriculum is now knocking on the door of my local schoolhouse.

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Colorado is one of 45 states to adopt the cookie-cutter education approach of Common Core. The local school officials I have come to trust are worried that government meddling will compromise their autonomy and stifle innovation.

“We would welcome rollback of much of the unfunded, philosophically and pedagogically troubling, mandates,” Wesley R. Jolly, director of Academic Services at TCA, told me. “But we are also realistic and will push for lessening the impact in any area feasible.”

This school has been uncommonly successful

Now we have four kiddos at TCA, and we haven’t regretted our choice. I’m not going to pretend that our school is perfect. But, overall, it is a great school.

TCA is the top high school in the state, according to the Colorado School Grades coalition. It is the No. 60 charter school in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report. And only 8.8 percent of TCA graduates needed remedial education when going to college, compared to a state average of 40 percent, giving TCA the lowest remediation rate in Colorado.

Interestingly, improving remediation rates is one of Common Core’s stated goals – yet instead of asking the most successful school in the state for advice, the government is forcing changes that those innovative educators think are wrongheaded. Who would you trust?

Besides empirical data, our school just feels right. My four very different children all feel safe, happy and challenged in this environment.

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There are 16 kids in most elementary classes, often with a teacher, a tutor, and a parent volunteer working with them. The teachers and parents are partners in the task of educating students and building better human beings, and I am lucky enough to volunteer in each of my children’s classrooms every week.

I say lucky, because at this school the parents vie with each other for volunteer slots. This is an uncommon school.

And then came Common Core

But it’s about to be saddled with common curriculum demands.

I had heard of Common Core, but hadn’t paid close attention…until our school board passed a resolution asking the state to hold off on forcing innovative and successful charter schools to adopt Common Core and join the herd.

“Ultimately, content standards at a national level will drive conformity instead of innovation,” the resolution warned, “and mediocrity instead of excellence.”

Jolly said TCA leaders want to raise awareness of what Common Core is doing to schools, especially charter schools. He hopes that awareness gives lawmakers pause – ideally they will halt implementation of Common Core, but even some flexibility in the mandates would help. At the same time, TCA is launching a series of town hall meetings with parents, seeking ways to lessen the destructive impact of the coming storm.

Common Core threatens to disrupt some of the elements that make The Classical Academy so successful.

One problem is that Common Core demands computerized testing, even in the early grades. The classical model, in contrast, deemphasizes technology education in favor of building a foundation of classical knowledge in the early grades.

The testing method creates a financial problem and a curriculum problem. The financial problem is that our school faces an unfunded mandate to buy and maintain an estimated 167 computers that we don’t want. Jolly said the unwanted computers could come at the cost of teacher compensation and needed building upgrades.

The curriculum problem is that we must carve out time to teach first graders keyboarding skills instead of substance. As the education professionals put it, this is developmentally inappropriate. As I put it, I would much rather have my first grader learning to read and add than wasting his time on secretarial skills that he will pick up later anyway.

“The testing methodology should not drive curriculum decisions and in this case the Common Core testing methodology is doing just that and therefore this is one of the areas of TCA’s strongest opposition,” Jolly said.

The curriculum-related problems don’t end there. Unless a school has a 1:1 ratio of computers to students, the testing must be staggered, thereby creating more disruption and stealing more time that could be spent on actual learning.

Cato Institute analyst Jason Bedrick predicted that Common Core tests will soon be dictating the content taught in the classroom, especially at the high school level. TCA has found success by pursuing a meaty curriculum that gives students a real education, and that preparation is reflected in excellent testing scores.

But when the test becomes so specific that it controls what’s happening in the classroom, then the tail is wagging the dog. Especially when a successful school’s choices are being usurped by a national education system that is consistent only in its systematic failure.

Jolly underscored that TCA does not “fear” the testing or the standards.

TCA’s success is a good example of how the charter school movement is maturing, and these living laboratories are beginning to yield innovations that should be driving education reform. Inevitably, some charter school ideas will fail. However, thriving schools should be gaining more autonomy.

Instead, national and state governments are shackling great schools with Common Core’s mandated mediocrity. This mom wishes they would leave my school alone. We can do better.