dr. hilaria bauer returns, stay with us. of the alum rock school district in san jose. with me once again is dr. hilaria bauer. welcome back to the show. hilaria bauer: thank you so much for having me. damian: well, give us a progress report on common core, if you will. how has that been going? has it been a success so far? i think as parents, some of us are still a little confused, but as long as the kids know what they're doing, i think that's the important part. but how is that going so far? hilaria: i think it's fantastic. i think it's a good thing for our students because it's going to prepare them for the career world. and like anything new, it's going to take us a little while to get it right, so don't panic. you know, don't go around saying, "oh my gosh, we need to redo this," because anything that is worth doing is going to take time, and common core is not different from that. so, the best part of that is that it will prepare our students for college and careers. it is what they need to learn, it is the way--the new way of teaching that we need to implement. it

damian: we're going to have dr. bauer with us, the superintendent of the alum rock school district here. you're not sending your students to her per se, but talk about the quality of the students, as young as they might be, that you're sending off to kindergarten and to the elementary school levels. santiago: so, most of our children who enter kindergarten are 5 years or older. and you know, i'm proud to say that most of the feedback that we receive from either charter schools or the public school system at large is that they can tell the difference between a head start child and a child who has not attended head start. there are a number of letters that we have received that identify that children who have attended head start come into the classroom knowing their numbers, knowing their letters, and bilingually. damian: maybe they can give a class to some of our producers here at nbc bay area. if you'd like more information on what's happening here, this is happening here in san francisco. any final thoughts that you migh

dr. hilaria bauer is back on our show, plus the innocence project on your "comunidad del valle," male announcer: nbc bay area presents "comunidad del valle" with damian trujillo. damian: we begin today with the mission neighborhood centers out of san francisco. with me is the executive director and i'm presuming founder of it, sam ruiz, who spent over 30 years working in the community in san francisco. welcome to the show. santiago ruiz: thank you very much. damian: now, we have video from--that y'all sent us, but what a great endeavor. what was it that made you say we need to do something here in our neighborhoods? santiago: well, the reality is that we want to be able to prepare children to succeed in school, to enter college, and to graduate from college. and in order to do that, we realize that there's a certain level of steps that we need to take in order to make sure