Over at Education Week, Catherine Gewertz has advance word on a big piece of upcoming news: After more than two decades of publishing and distributing its K-8 Core Knowledge Sequence exclusively to Core Knowledge schools, the Foundation is planning to make its proprietary curriculum available for free online.
The decision to publicly release the Sequence comes on the eve of the release of the Common Core State Standards, which are expected to call explicitly for increased attention to nonfiction reading and writing within its ELA standards—a linchpin of the Core Knowledge movement, which from Day One has centered on building literacy through a coherent and systematic build-up of language and content knowledge.
The move to common standards ”could be bigger than any other reform I can think of,” Core Knowledge founder E.D. Hirsch, Jr. tells Gewertz. “We’ve had a hell of an incoherent system. It’s been based on a how-to theory, and not enough attention has been paid to the build-up of knowledge. This is a moment when we really could change the direction.”
Understanding the connection between background knowledge and reading comprehension—and failing to address it instructionally–is almost certainly the weakest link in elementary education. While many reading programs and publishers include nonfiction selections within their reading programs, they tend to do so in a hit or miss fashion, mistakenly treating nonfiction reading as a transferable skill–as if any science passage will do, for example, whether or not it is connected to science passages read or studied in other grades. Hirsch and Core Knowledge have pointed out for decades the need for a coherent, sequential approach to avoid gaps and repetitions in curriculum–and that reading achievement must be addressed by systematically building up children’s background knowledge.
By acknowledging the content/comprehension connection and urging the use of a coherent curriculum, the Common Core Standards could go a long way toward cementing the connection between background knowledge and reading comprehension. “The Core Knowledge Foundation has made the decision to make available this tried and true set of curriculum guidelines at no cost in hopes that it will be of use to schools and publishers as they start searching for ways to infuse nonfiction into language arts,” says Foundation President Linda Bevilacqua.
First published in 1988, the Core Knowledge Sequence represents a systematic effort to identify the foundational knowledge that writers and speakers take for granted their readers know, and to teach it, grade-by-grade, year-by-year, in a coherent, age-appropriate sequence. It’s currently used in hundreds of schools–public, charter and private– in nearly every state.
More — much more — to come in a few weeks’ time.
Hallelujah! Thank you, Core Knowledge.
Comment by Ben — February 1, 2010 @ 3:34 pm
I’m so excited to see it! Thanks CK!
Comment by Miss Eyre — February 1, 2010 @ 4:40 pm
Well done!
(Will I be able to google it?)
Comment by Claus — February 1, 2010 @ 6:13 pm
Robert, say the Core Knowledge sequence will be adopted in a year, curriculum publishers will have their stuff aligned in two years, and Everyday Math and TERC Investigations are gone in three years. Once the extreme libertarian right and the extreme child centered left start to realize what happened and come again together against the common standards, we should be prepared for the real fight.
Comment by andrei radulescu-banu — February 1, 2010 @ 6:20 pm
This is awesome – a most welcome announcement. Looking forward to updates.
Comment by Matthew K. Tabor — February 1, 2010 @ 6:41 pm
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by rpondiscio: Core Knowledge to announce it will begin making its curriculum available for free online. http://bit.ly/cFykGc...
Trackback by uberVU - social comments — February 1, 2010 @ 11:49 pm
Hooray!!!!!
I am sooooo excited!
Comment by Tamara — February 2, 2010 @ 12:31 am
Define “proprietary curriculum.” Is this everything in the Sequence book alone?
Comment by tm willemse — February 2, 2010 @ 12:16 pm
WOOHOO! This will be a great supplement for my homeschool’s curriculum!
(I admit, we’ve been a bit scattershot with Kindergarten–especially with history– we tend to get ’stuck’ in certain eras because my daughter loves them so much! (currently it’s egypt, but somehow we’re slipping into vikings?)
Anyway, THANK YOU!
Comment by Deirdre Mundy — February 2, 2010 @ 12:36 pm
Let’s hope this core, sequenced curriculum keeps teachers in line. I’ve seen too many teachers adjust and adapt curriculum materials to suit the evolving needs of their students with little care to the gaps in knowledge created by such irresponsible curriculum detours. In the name of flexibility, creativity, and autonomy teachers change things up so that if we move across town and go to another school the whole sequence of learning could be destroyed.
My sister-in-law’s daughter was studying The Grapes of Wrath last Tuesday, January 10, in her junior English class. The next town over, in my son’s junior English class, the kids were studying Hamlet. I mean, what’s with that? How can teens be expected to tweet and IM about books if they aren’t even reading the same things at the same time? And what if the Russians all read the same book on the same day and we don’t? Don’t those so-called progressive teachers in this country know they could be helping create a something worse that a mine-shaft gap? They could create a book-reading gap and then it’s Sputnik all over again.
One world, one curriculum, one test!
Comment by Dan Sharkovitz — February 3, 2010 @ 11:55 pm
No, Dan, the “one world, one curriculum, one test” folks are the Trilateral Commission (or is it the Illuminati? I always forget). We’re the other guys.
Comment by Robert Pondiscio — February 4, 2010 @ 12:00 am
Great. My daughter was in the California Virtual Academy up until 1.5 years ago. This school used the core curriculum and it was fabulous. Now she is at a private highschool, with an excellent college prep reputation. It is a strong school, but I wish they would move to the core curriculum – it is stronger, more coherent and more consistent than what they are currently using.
Comment by Laurie — February 5, 2010 @ 5:05 pm
This will be available when and where?
Comment by Lesa — February 5, 2010 @ 5:43 pm
There will be a formal announcement within the next week or so, but the Sequence will be available when the Core Knowledge website is relaunched at the end of February.
Comment by Robert Pondiscio — February 5, 2010 @ 5:52 pm
I just wrote a letter to the newspaper here on Kauai basically BEGGING the Hawaii Dept. of Education to consider adopting the Core Knowledge curriculum to help our public schools. Maybe, when they see that it is not just inexpensive, but free, they will give go for it! I’m praying, praying as my first grandchild is being born today or tomorrow and she will be a CK kid!
Comment by Cindy — February 5, 2010 @ 7:30 pm
This is great news for everyone!
Comment by Richard — February 5, 2010 @ 8:43 pm
Thank you! Thank you! I am a board of eduction member in Missouri. I am soon going to propose that our district embrace Core Curriculum.
Comment by John Lilly — February 5, 2010 @ 9:16 pm
Way to go CK. I already teach it and love it!!!!!
Comment by Alenia Scism — February 5, 2010 @ 10:28 pm
So excited to hear about your decision….I’ve always found your website extremely helpful in preparing my lessons.
a Heart Felt thank-you!!
Comment by Geetika D'Rozario — February 5, 2010 @ 10:52 pm
Thank you! As soon as you get this done, we’ll put a link on our school’s Web site. This will be a great help for teachers and parents to have the Core Knowledge Sequence available whenever they are at a computer or have a question about what we’re doing.
Comment by Rick Winter — February 6, 2010 @ 10:39 am
Sorry, I’m not on this bandwagon; um, where is the critcal thinking piece???? Um, why does every student have to be learning the same thing at the same point in time? Um, this is not a real democratic model….my children are getting a great education about their world and how to function in it without this curriculum. Yes, there are great ideas in Hirsch’s original book, which I eagerly read when it came out over 20 years ago. As an educator, I think it’s a fine thing to adapt to the needs of the children in our communities; if anyone looks, most state curriculum are very similar. I’m not opposed to national standards but I’m not sold on Core Knowledge as the only way to achieve this.
Comment by Lee — February 6, 2010 @ 11:44 am
Wonderful! I don’t teach at a core school, but I use some core for writing my lesson plans. I do use core for my son and will be delighted to see your curriculum available online.
Comment by Kenda Willey — February 6, 2010 @ 3:13 pm
When and where will the Sequence be available to download?
Comment by Francesca Dixon — February 7, 2010 @ 9:19 am
Robert,
Thank you for your Feb. 4 post above. It helps clarify my message posted in a moment of perhaps overly exuberant disdain.
Dan
Comment by Dan Sharkovitz — February 7, 2010 @ 12:05 pm
Bravo!!! It’s a dream come true. I’ve always wanted you to open
it up FREE to all the children in the USA and you’ve done it. I am very happy, since it will help a lot of children, especially in Memphis, the Delta region of Mississippi, the Black Belt of Alabama and everywhere else in the USA where we need to improve
our ELEMENTARY EDUCATION.
Now how do you get the US Dept. of Education to get behind it
and push the Core Curriculum? I hope and pray that Sec. Duncan
will help. It’s an exciting, wonderful event.
I never thought I would live to see this day. Thank you
VERY MUCH.
Comment by Frank Clarke — February 8, 2010 @ 4:28 pm
Technically, the Sequence hsn’t been exclusive to CK schools–homeschoolers have been buying it for years from the CK Foundation website. This will be a boon to the homeschooling community, of course, and a generator of renewed interest, but a grant for the Foundation to write 7th and 8th grade Need to Know books would be even better!
Janice
List Moderator/Owner: Yahoogroup ckhomeschoolers
Yahoogroups ckhomeschoolers
Comment by Janice — February 10, 2010 @ 11:14 am
doing the happy dance! woot!!
Comment by amy — February 13, 2010 @ 6:28 pm
Interesting. I am looking forward to seeing this. Thank you for the free availability. That alone says alot that you believe in your goal. As a teacher, I am very open to a structure and uniform concepts- our state keeps changing the standards that the kids are definitely showing gaps… but my strength is the “creativity/flexibility” with using “core knowledge” in my classroom. Why can’t kids blog comparisons among the different classics they read across town or the world? I guess I’ll have to see. I am not for a cookie cutter method. My students aren’t cookie cutter kids either. Thanks for commenting, Lee.
Comment by Christine — February 20, 2010 @ 11:45 am
[...] generally, I was enthused to learn this evening (thanks to a tweet by Bud Hunt) the outstanding Core Knowledge Curriculum is being released / published free to the world: Over at Education Week, Catherine Gewertz has advance word on a big piece of upcoming news: After [...]
Pingback by First MIT, now Core Knowledge – Free, High Quality Curriculum Abounds « Moving at the Speed of Creativity — April 11, 2010 @ 12:28 am
We just today learned that the Core Knowledge Curriculum will be made freely available. Is there any date set for that release? Or, if it’s been released already, where can we find it? We’re eager to learn more. Many thanks!
Celia
Comment by Anonymous — September 9, 2010 @ 6:26 pm
It’s right here:
http://books.coreknowledge.org/home.php?cat=314
Comment by Robert Pondiscio — September 9, 2010 @ 6:29 pm