What is Core Knowledge?
The “Core Knowledge” movement is an educational reform based on the premise that a grade-by-grade core of common learning is necessary to ensure a sound and fair elementary education. The movement was started by Dr. E.D. Hirsch, Jr., author of Cultural Literacy and The Schools We Need, and is based on a large body of research in cognitive psychology and comparative research on the world’s fairest and most effective school systems. Dr. Hirsch has argued that for the sake of academic excellence, greater fairness, and higher literacy, early schooling should provide a solid, specific, sequenced, and shared core curriculum in order to help children establish a strong language and knowledge base. After wide consultation, the content of this core curriculum has been outlined in grade-by-grade guides – the Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence and the Core Knowledge Sequence, K-8 – that state explicitly the knowledge to be presented at each level. Currently, hundreds of schools and thousands of de
The “Core Knowledge” (CK) movement is an educational reform based on the premise that a grade-by-grade core of common learning is necessary to ensure a sound and fair elementary education. The movement was started by Professor E. D. Hirsch, Jr., author of Cultural Literacy and The Schools We Need , and is based on a large body of research in cognitive psychology, as well as a careful examination of several of the world’s fairest and most effective school systems. Professor Hirsch has argued that, for the sake of academic excellence, greater fairness, and higher literacy, early schooling should provide a solid, specific, shared core curriculum in order to help children establish strong foundations of knowledge. After wide consultation, the content of this core curriculum has been outlined in two books – the Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence and the Core Knowledge Sequence, K-8 – that state explicitly what students should learn at each grade level.
