What is Core Knowledge?
Core Knowledge is an idea, that for
the sake of academic excellence, greater fairness, and higher literacy,
elementary and middle schools need a solid, specific, shared core curriculum in order to
help children establish strong foundations of knowledge, grade by grade. It is a
school reform movement that is taking shape in hundreds of schools where educators
have committed themselves to teaching important skills and the Core Knowledge content they
share within grade levels, across districts, and with other Core Knowledge schools across
the country.
The Core Knowledge Sequence is
the result of research into the content and structure of the highest performing elementary
school systems around the world, as well as extensive consensus-building among diverse
groups and interests, including parents, teachers, scientists, professional curriculum
organizations, and experts from the Core Knowledge Foundation's advisory board on
multicultural traditions. Provisional versions of the Sequence were reviewed and revised
by panels of teachers, and in 1990 a national conference was convened at which twenty-four
working groups hammered out a draft sequence. This draft was fine-tuned during a year of
implementation at Three Oaks Elementary in Ft. Myers, Florida. As more elementary schools
adopt Core Knowledge, the Foundation seeks their suggestions based on experience in order
to update the Sequence.
The Four
S's.
Core
Knowledge Is:
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Solid
Many people say that knowledge is changing so fast that what students learn today will
soon be outdated. While current events and technology are constantly changing, there is
nevertheless a body of lasting knowledge that should form the core of a Preschool-Grade 8
curriculum. Such solid knowledge includes, for example, the basic principles of
constitutional government, important events of world history, essential elements of
mathematics and of oral and written expression, widely acknowledged masterpieces of art
and music, and stories and poems passed down from generation to generation.
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Sequenced
Knowledge builds on knowledge. Children learn new knowledge by building on what they
already know. Only a school system that clearly defines the knowledge and skills required
to participate in each successive grade can be excellent and fair for all students. For
this reason, the Core Knowledge Sequence provides a clear outline of content to be
learned grade by grade. This sequential building of knowledge not only helps ensure that
children enter each new grade ready to learn, but also helps prevent the many repetitions
and gaps that characterize much current schooling (repeated units, for example, on pioneer
days or the rain forest, but little or no attention to the Bill of Rights, or to adding
fractions with unlike denominators).
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Specific
A typical state or district curriculum says, "Students will demonstrate knowledge of
people, events, ideas, and movements that contributed to the development of the United
States." But which people and events? What ideas and movements? In contrast, the Core
Knowledge Sequence is distinguished by its specificity. By clearly specifying
important knowledge in language arts, history and geography, math, science, and the fine
arts, the Core Knowledge Sequence presents a practical answer to the question,
"What do our children need to know?"
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Shared
Literacy depends on shared knowledge. To be literate means, in part, to be familiar with a
broad range of knowledge taken for granted by speakers and writers. For example, when
sportscasters refer to an upset victory as "David knocking off Goliath," or when
reporters refer to a "threatened presidential veto," they are assuming that
their audience shares certain knowledge. One goal of the Core Knowledge Foundation is to
provide all children, regardless of background, with the shared knowledge they need to be
included in our national literate culture.
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Knowledge Builds on Knowledge
We learn new knowledge by building on what
we already know. Students in Core Knowledge schools know a lot, because they are offered a
coherent sequence of specific knowledge that builds year by year. For example, in sixth
grade they should be ready to grasp the law of the conservation of energy because they
have been building the knowledge that prepares them for it, as shown in this selection
from the physical science strand of the Core Knowledge Sequence:
Kindergarten:
Magnetism, the idea of forces we cannot see. Classify materials
according to whether they are attracted to a magnet.
First Grade:
Basic concept of atoms. Names and common examples of the three states
of matter. Examine water as an example of changing states of matter in a single substance.
Properties of matter: measurement.
Second Grade:
Lodestones: naturally occurring magnets. Magnetic poles:
north-seeking and south-seeking poles. Magnetic fields (strongest at the poles). Law of
attraction: unlike poles attract, like poles repel.
Fourth Grade:
Atoms: all matter is made up of particles too small to see. Atoms are
made up of even smaller particles: protons, neutrons, electrons. Concept of electrical
charge: proton has positive charge; electron has negative charge; neutron has no charge.
"Unlike charges attract, like charges repel" (relate to magnetic attraction).
Properties of matter: mass, volume and density. The elements: basic kinds of matter.
Fifth Grade:
Atoms are constantly in motion; electrons move around the nucleus in
paths called shells (or energy levels). Atoms form molecules and compounds. The Periodic
Table: organizes elements with common properties.
Sixth Grade:
Kinetic and potential energy: types of each. Energy is conserved in a
system. Heat and temperature. Three ways energy is transferred: conduction, convection,
and radiation. Energy transfer: matter changes phase by adding or removing energy.
Expansion and contraction.
Benefits of Core Knowledge:
For Students
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Provides
a broad base of knowledge and a rich vocabulary
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Motivates
students to learn and creates a strong desire to learn more
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Provides
the knowledge necessary for higher levels of learning and helps build confidence
For the School
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Provides
an academic focus and encourages consistency in instruction
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Provides
a plan for coherent, sequenced learning from grade to grade
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Promotes
a community of learners -- adults and children
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Becomes
an effective tool for lesson planning and communication among teachers and with parents
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Guides
thoughtful purchases of school resources
For Parents and the Community
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Provides
a clear outline of what children are expected to learn in school
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Encourages
parents to participate in their children's education both at home and in school
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Provides
opportunities for community members to help obtain and provide instructional resources
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*For more information on Core
Knowledge visit these web sites:
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