{"id":20372,"date":"2013-10-15T17:43:22","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T21:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=20372"},"modified":"2014-02-20T11:04:56","modified_gmt":"2014-02-20T16:04:56","slug":"whats-in-a-name-florida-board-of-education-wrestles-with-what-to-call-common-core","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/10\/15\/whats-in-a-name-florida-board-of-education-wrestles-with-what-to-call-common-core\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s In A Name? Florida Board Of Education Wrestles With What To Call \u201cCommon Core\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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stockimages \/ freedigitalphotos.net<\/p>

The Florida State Board of Education meeting took a turn for the theatrical on Tuesday.<\/p><\/div>\n

In all the attention surrounding the Common Core hearings<\/a> Florida is holding this week, it would have been easy to miss a curious exchange at Tuesday\u2019s State Board of Education meeting.<\/p>\n

Going into the meeting, some of the most-watched items included a vote on whether or not Florida should extend a safety-net<\/a> that prevents schools from dropping more than one letter grade at a time (it should, the board voted) and a decision on whether or not to include reading samples in the appendix<\/a> of the Common Core standards (Florida won\u2019t, said the board).<\/p>\n

But it was during a discussion of a communications strategy around the new standards that things took a turn. At one point, the board members and presenters got into a long debate about how to even use the phrase \u201cCommon Core.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tussle over language was reminiscent of a scene from Waiting for Godot<\/a><\/i>\u2014ambiguous, circular, full of heady themes. (Alternately, depending on your sense of humor, it had a whiff of Abbot and Costello\u2019s Who\u2019s on First<\/a><\/i> sketches.)<\/p>\n