- Core Knowledge Foundation
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For the Australian student collective, see Core Knowledge.
Core Knowledge Foundation Founded 1986 by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. Headquarters Charlottesville, Virginia President Linda Bevilacqua The Core Knowledge Foundation is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan educational foundation founded in 1986 by E. D. Hirsch, Jr. The Foundation is dedicated to excellence and fairness in early education.
Contents
Ideals of Core Knowledge
Core Knowledge is an educational reform movement based on the premise that a grade-by-grade core of common learning is necessary to ensure a sound and fair elementary education. Based on a body of research in cognitive psychology and effective school systems worldwide, Core Knowledge posits that, in order to attain academic excellence, greater fairness, and higher literacy, early education curriculum should be solid, specific, shared, and sequenced. By teaching a body of specific, lasting knowledge in a way that allows children to succeed by gradually building on what they already know, the Core Knowledge mission is to provide all children, regardless of background, with the shared knowledge they need to be included in our national literate culture.
Two books—the Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence and the Core Knowledge Sequence, K-8—serve as the backbone of the Core Knowledge curriculum and outline the specific topics and skills to be covered in each subject area from grades PreK through 8.
The Impetus behind Core Knowledge
E. D. Hirsch was motivated to create the Core Knowledge curriculum upon working in a community college class in 1978.
“Hirsch's awakening began one day in 1978 in a community college English class in Richmond, Virginia. He had conducted most of his research on reading comprehension and writing at the University of Virginia. On this day, however, Hirsch was testing reading assignments at the community college. The community college students, most of them black, read with roughly the same fluency and comprehension as their UVA. peers. But to Hirsch's surprise, the students "became baffled when they had to read about Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox. That passage was as incomprehensible to them as a Hegel essay on philosophy was to the U-Va. students."
The students' puzzlement jolted Hirsch to a catharsis of sorts: Background knowledge, a common set of cultural facts and information mattered-not for the sake of knowing facts per se but because a shared intellectual landscape was all-important in empowering students to read and write richly.” [1]
The Role of the Core Knowledge Foundation
The Foundation staff serves as the support system for Core Knowledge schools, educators, and parents. The Foundation conducts research on curricula; develops books and other materials for students, parents, and teachers; and serves as a training and communications hub for schools using Core Knowledge.
The Foundation has developed a number of publications, including general information packets about Core Knowledge, the Sequences, textbooks, and other supplementary materials for use in conjunction with the Sequence.
The Core Knowledge Foundation also offers a variety of staff development workshops to facilitate the process of implementing the Core Knowledge program in schools and hosts an annual national conference, which focuses on the sharing of ideas between educators at every level and making connections across the Core Knowledge network.
Implementation of Core Knowledge in Schools
The Core Knowledge Curriculum begins in preschool and continues through eighth grade. A group that decides what is important for students to learn in able to consider them culturally literate and then forms the curriculum around those ideas.[2]
The three goals of implementation of the Core Knowledge Curriculum are to teach all of the topics included in the Core Knowledge Sequence, to teach the topics at the grade levels assigned by the Sequence, and to teach the topics to all students whenever possible.
Implementation of the Core Knowledge Curriculum and the process required necessitates cooperation between teachers, administrators, and parents. Implementation often occurs over a two- to three-year period, with schools phasing in topics subject-by-subject or adding additional grade levels each year.
There are three levels of Core Knowledge schools based on the level of implementation and excellence achieved by the school—Friends of Core Knowledge, Official Core Knowledge Schools, and Official Core Knowledge Visitation Sites. Friends of Core Knowledge are schools implementing Core Knowledge at any level, beginning on the first day of implementation. Official Core Knowledge Schools implement 80% or more of the Core Knowledge Sequence and have an eventual goal of 100% implementation. They submit curriculum plans, alignment with state standards, and sample lessons for review by the Foundation. Official Core Knowledge Visitation Sites are schools visited by representatives of the Foundation deemed to be model schools for Core Knowledge implementation.
As of April 2006, Core Knowledge schools were 44% public, 35% charter, 15% private, and 6% parochial. Additionally, they were 39% urban, 39% suburban, and 22% rural.
Criticisms
Some see the cultural literacy approach of the Core Knowledge Curriculum as just a means for students to memorize trivia. The curriculum has also received criticism because one group has decided what is “best” for all students which could end up leaving minorities at a disadvantage (Oliva, 2009).
References
Oliva, P.F. (2009). Developing the curriculum, (7th edition). New York: Pearson Allyn and Bacon.
External links
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Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
