Core Knowledge

The goal of educators is to provide the most well rounded exposure to basic skills and knowledge.  We want to instill a content rich and responsible fund of knowledge that can be expanded upon throughout the grades.  Ideally, this curriculum would be nationwide, providing a consistent education for all students across the country.  If a child moved from California to New York,  the expectations would be that the educational process would pick up at the same place in New York, where it left off in California.

This is can be done, but only through very careful and if every school across the country adopted the same curriculum.   While this may not be realistic for the immediate future,  there is no better place to start than where you are now. Following mandated state minimum requirements and supplementing with missing specific shared content, schools can individually make their own leap to this end.

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My school,  P.S. 161,  has made tremendous strides to ccomplish this goal.  All the teachers on each grade level,  had conferences, pooled resources, and came up with core curriculums that strictly adhere to state mandates and further enhance the students fund of knowledge generally following E. D. Hirsch's What Your x-th Grader Needs To Know series.

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There are sites that offer solid advice, mailing discussion groups, literature, and lesson plans to assist educators in planning and implementing core knowledge. It is encouraging to see that so many schools are taking the initiative to adopt core knowledge.

I have found the links below to be VERY informative.  If you know of a site that you would like to see added here,please e-mail me with the information.  I will try to keep this page as current as possible!

Core Knowledge Information

Core Knowledge Web Site
This is the home of Core Knowledge Central- The Core Knowledge Foundation.   This is the main source of information from E. D. Hirsch.

 Trinity University Core Knowledge connections.
Here, you will find Trinity College "Core Knowledge" implementation

 The National Core Knowledge Coordinator of Colorado
offers technical support, Core Knowledge-related events, and many other services to promote and support the implementation of the Core Knowledge Sequence to beginning and experienced schools in Colorado.

 Baltimore Curriculum Project Lesson Plans
These lessons generally follow the grade-by-grade topics in the Core Knowledge® Sequence, but they have been developed independent of the Core Knowledge Foundation.

School Reform Networks
This is a resource guide to some of the nation's largest and best
known school-reform networks maintained by the students of the University of Texas Pan American and their Professor
Dr. Jos. R. Llanes. This link is directly related to the Core Knowledge Foundation.

Core Knowledge online articles:

NCPA - Education - Study Finds "Core Knowledge" Curriculum A Real Success
Core Knowledge gets 'promising' rating
About Core Knowledge - Articles by E. D. Hirsch, Jr.
Minneha Core Knowledge Magnet
CORE KNOWLEDGE CURRICULUM - Three-Year Analysis of Implementation and Effects in Five Schools
Students like what they see and here, Governor George W. Bush's visit to the Classical Charter School, October 6, 2000.
About Core Knowledge- Articles from our Newsletter, Common Knowledge