The most important goals in education---reading comprehension, language competence, and critical thinking depend on broad knowledge through the implementation of coherent, cumulative, and content-specific grade-by-grade curricula infused into language arts and the other subjects” E.D. Hirsch.
Although current events and technology are constantly changing, there is a body of knowledge and skills that form the core of a strong Preschool through 8th grade curriculum. Explicit identification of what children should learn at each grade level ensures a coherent approach to building knowledge across all grade levels.
Every child should learn the fundamentals of science, basic principles of government, important events in history, essential elements of mathematics, widely acknowledged masterpieces of art and music from around the world and stories and poems passed down from generation to generation.
Core Knowledge offers orderly, research based, subject area studies from preschool through 8th grade. Our students acquire the specific core of shared knowledge that all children should learn in U.S. schools and that speakers and writers assume that their audience knows.
Core Knowledge believes that children deserve a coherent, cumulative and content-specific core curriculum that will enable them to be successful students and eventually successful citizens of a society united by bonds of common knowledge
The Core Knowledge Foundation
The Core Knowledge Foundation is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 1986 by E. D. Hirsch, Jr., professor emeritus at the University of Virginia and author of many acclaimed books on education including Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know,The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them, The Knowledge Deficit, and The Making of Americans. Based in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Foundation develops curricula, publishes educational books and materials, provides professional development for educators, and supports a growing network of Core Knowledge schools.
Curriculum, Publications, and Support for Knowledge-based Education
The Core Knowledge Foundation publishes and distributes a wide variety of education books and materials, including the Core Knowledge Sequence, a detailed outline of recommended curricular content to be taught in language arts, history and geography, mathematics, science, music, and the visual arts from preschool to grade eight. We support a growing nationwide network of Core Knowledge schools through instructional materials and professional development workshops.
The Foundation is also currently developing the Core Knowledge Language Arts Program, an ambitious effort to systematically teach and support the language skills and content knowledge children need to build reading comprehension. The program is currently being field tested in 17 cities, including a major pilot program in 10 New York City public schools.
More information can be obtained from the Core Knowledge Website.