There will be lots more to say about this shortly, but the New York Times this morning has word of promising results from a three-year study of the experimental Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) program, which has been piloted for the last several years in 10 New York City schools.
“For three years, a pilot program tracked the reading ability of approximately 1,000 students at 20 New York City schools, following them from kindergarten through second grade. Half of the schools adopted a curriculum designed by the education theorist E. D. Hirsch Jr.’s Core Knowledge Foundation. The other 10 used a variety of methods, but most fell under the definition of “balanced literacy,” an approach that was spread citywide by former Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, beginning in 2003.
“The study found that second graders who were taught to read using the Core Knowledge program scored significantly higher on reading comprehension tests than did those in the comparison schools.”
A web page on the Core Knowledge website links to the the NYC Department of Ed’s data, background on the program, a presentation on the research underpinnings and how the curriculum works with Common Core State Standards.
I am a believer in Core Knowledge, but unfortunately reading scores from kindergarten through second grade are kind of meaningless. The big jump in reading usually occurs in third or fourth grade, or it did for my kids.
Comment by Harold — March 12, 2012 @ 5:37 pm
Congratulations! It’s wonderful to see the Core Knowledge curriculum get the recognition it deserves. It has been a invaluable part of our school for the last 6 years.
Comment by Susan Pavane — March 13, 2012 @ 9:46 am
Congrats, and I really hope this means more public schools will adopt the CKLA curriculum as well as the rest of the CK sequence.
Comment by Crimson Wife — March 13, 2012 @ 1:21 pm
Where does this research go from here? Will the schools using the CK curriculum continue? Will there be longer term studies that evaluate how these kids fare, 4,6,8 years down the road? What did these schools find in terms of resources and professional development to be easier or more difficult to implement? Like Harold above I like the CK system and lament its lack of availability in DC, but know a lot more research is going to need to be published to validate value and understand challenges of implementation.
Comment by DC Parent — March 14, 2012 @ 2:50 am
And good for you all for having a well-designed study (or good for whoever in NYC that insisted on it).
Comment by Morgan — March 14, 2012 @ 8:22 pm
Well that kind of good news are just good when applied to many schools. Let’s hope that more public schools will adopt CKLA curriculum and the rest of the CK sequence.
Comment by Debbie — April 20, 2012 @ 11:46 pm
Is there a balance with fiction and nonfiction text? Is the focus only on nonfiction text?
Comment by Anonymous — June 6, 2012 @ 10:09 pm