Large numbers of faculty and staff have been directly involved with the initial evaluation of the core through a variety of committees and assignments. Faculty and administrative groups with a formal role in reviewing the DCCCD core have included:

The Core Evaluation Committee also proposed an evaluation plan which called for assessment of learning outcomes related to Intellectual Competencies and Exemplary Educational Objectives to be coordinated through the work of District Discipline Committees. The Report and Recommendations of the Core Evaluation Committee recommended "evaluation at three levels - classroom, discipline, and district." The District Office supported the work of the faculty committees with staff development activities on assessment methods and models. Continued refinements by curriculum committees led the DCCCD to diverge slightly from the Core Curriculum Committee’s recommendations. Some committees, such as the foreign language committee and speech communication committee, identified common assignments or test questions which linked to Exemplary Educational Objectives and Intellectual Competencies. Other committees discussed methods and agreed that college-based initiatives would be more effective in advancing student learning. A college-based approach to evaluation enabled faculty to strengthen interdisciplinary threads within the core curriculum.

During 2002-2003, while discipline committees worked diligently to identify ways to assess student learning across seven colleges, staff development activities that the administrative subcommittee on Professional Development in the Core had been recommended were under way. "Perspectives Awareness" workshops were held for faculty Discipline Committee chairs, adjunct faculty at several locations, members of the Counseling Advisory Committee comprised of lead counselors from the seven colleges, the SPAR Council comprised of student programming staff from the seven colleges. Additionally, the Institutional Research Group and Vice Presidents Council also participated in the awareness sessions. These workshops employed informal video footage with student responses to the questions about why they were required to take the courses in mathematics, science, the arts, and other core disciplines. A similar faculty/staff video revealed that faculty and staff were not as aware of the Substance and Purpose of the DCCCD Core as they should be. The videos set the stage for interdisciplinary discussions about the elements of the Core and for the subsequent recommendation from the Vice Presidents Council.

At the end of the 2002-2003 academic year, the Vice Presidents Council recommended to the Chancellor's Cabinet that the DCCCD approach the evaluation of the Core from a college-based, district-coordinated effort, especially with regards to learning outcomes. The Vice Presidents Council proposed that evaluation of student achievement of learning outcomes could best be conducted at the college level. One major goal of the evaluation of the core is to improve student learning. Ongoing evaluation should reveal any weaknesses in the curriculum, but more often the cause of lack of student achievement may be found in the implementation of the curriculum. Often evaluation of student learning indicates needed changes in advisement practices, instructional methodologies, or academic support. Such needed changes may be the result of college practices rather than curriculum patterns, and use of results to improve student learning can be implemented best at the college level. The Vice Presidents Council and Chancellor's Cabinet approved a proposal that each college should implement a plan to assess student achievement of learning outcomes. College plans to evaluate student learning were to be developed by committees of similar composition to the committee suggested below:

A district committee was formed to coordinate the college plans and to share results from assessment efforts, best practices in assessment, and examples of successful efforts to improve student learning. The District Core Curriculum Evaluation Coordinating Team is chaired by a district educational affairs administrator charged with responsibility for monitoring the evaluation of the DCCCD Core Curriculum. The committee membership includes faculty and administrative representatives from each of the seven colleges and administrators from the District Office: