Uncommon Sense: Core Knowledge in the Classroom

What Is Core Knowledge?

Core Knowledge is a curriculum, a systematic syllabus of topics to be studied by students in prekindergarten through 8th grades. It includes topics and subtopics in language arts, world history, American history, geography, visual arts, music, mathematics, and science. Core Knowledge balances the description of academic skills with a prescription for subject-content knowledge. The curriculum is designed to give educators a way of knowing what students have experienced in school and to give students a common foundation on which to build additional learning. Core Knowledge is different from other curriculums in that it describes what a student should know, not what a student should be able to do. Another important part of the Core Knowledge Sequence is that it is intended to be only half a school's curriculum content.

Core Knowledge is not a method of teaching, although it has been linked by some to rigid, teacher-directed instruction and labeled as a traditional, back-to-basics approach to teaching and learning. It has often been portrayed as an approach to education that depends exclusively on lecture and is accompanied by student memorization of names, dates, and facts. Core Knowledge has nothing to do with any of these things: It is a curriculum, not a teaching method. Teachers who use cooperative learning or other group work, independent research projects, literature-based instruction, multiple resources, authentic assessment, and other techniques find that Core Knowledge is compatible with these sorts of classroom activities. Core Knowledge teachers use these practices throughout the United States.

Core Knowledge is designed to promote equity in education by building a base of knowledge for all students in the early years of school. The knowledge base is intended to be extensive in scope, rather than intensive in application. In the tradition of a liberal arts education, Core Knowledge students learn a little about a lot, rather than a lot about a little. Core Knowledge, however, is not superficial. It is a rigorous survey of the subject matter in language arts, history and geography, visual arts, music, mathematics, and science that a well-educated student should know by the end of 8th grade. The Core Knowledge Sequence is intended to be only half a school's curriculum content, so there is time for a teacher to guide students into other topics.

How Core Knowledge Works

The Core Knowledge curriculum is meant to equip students with the background knowledge they will need as they enter the more specialized curriculum that characterizes the high school experience. Core Knowledge is intended to fill several significant gaps in school curriculum design.

Balances Skills and Knowledge

Core Knowledge balances the acquisition of skills with a corresponding acquisition of knowledge. Many educators believe that schools are good at teaching and testing facts, but that students are not prepared to apply those facts to solving problems. Courses of study are therefore filled with objectives designed to build students' problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. For example, a course of study might expect students studying history to “identify a sequence of events in history,” “group historical events on a time line,” or “identify cause-and-effect relationships in history.” But that same course of study does not require that students study specific historic events or consider the accomplishments and contributions of specific historic personalities. As a result, students must learn to apply prescribed thought processes to events that they may know little or nothing about. Core Knowledge remedies that circumstance by providing students a reliable knowledge base.

Core Knowledge does not oppose instruction in problem-solving strategies; however, it is based on the belief that to be able to solve meaningful problems, students must first be supplied with knowledge about the domain of study. Skills and knowledge complement each other. It is impossible to have strong problem-solving skills without a correspondingly strong knowledge base. The Core Knowledge Sequence identifies that knowledge base in the core subjects. For example, the American history portion of the Core Knowledge Sequence includes specific events and aspects of history such as the Boston Tea Party, the Louisiana Purchase, and the Underground Railroad; it does not include an objective such as “identify a sequence of events in history.” The Core Knowledge Sequence does indicate study of significant people, stories, and issues, including William Penn and the Quakers, Susan B. Anthony and the right to vote, Jackie Robinson and the integration of major league baseball, Cesar Chavez and the rights of migrant workers, Dorthea Dix and the treatment of the insane, Sojourner Truth and women's rights, and Chief Joseph and the ordeal of the Nez Perce Indians. The American history sequence does not include an objective such as “explain how various cultural groups have participated in the development of the United States.” As the students learn about specific people and events, teachers can guide them to deeper understanding and teach them to apply problem-solving and other analytical skills to what they have learned.

The Core Knowledge American history sequence is not strictly chronological, but it is logically sequential, incorporating intentional repetition and review with presentation of new concepts and events. For example, 1st graders study Maya, Inca, and Aztec cultures. Then they move forward on the time line to colonization and settlement of North America, ending with the American Revolution. The next year, 2nd graders pick up with the Constitution and principles of U.S. government and look at the War of 1812, the Civil War, western expansion, immigration, and civil rights. The 3rd grade American history curriculum is largely a review of the two previous years, although the focus is slightly different. The 3rd graders' study of early Americans includes Indian tribes and early explorers, and more time is spent on colonial life prior to the Revolutionary War. In 4th grade, the American Revolution and the forming of the U.S. government are covered in greater depth. Students also spend time studying U.S. presidents and revisit civil rights through the study of various reformers. At grade 5, review topics include westward expansion and the Civil War; immigration and reform movements are studied in grade 6. World War I and World War II, the United States emergence as a world power, the civil rights movements of the 1960s, and the Vietnam era are among the topics covered in grades 7 and 8.

Builds a Strong Foundation of Knowledge

Core Knowledge builds a strong foundation from which students can learn, organize, evaluate, and apply new information as they proceed through school. Many educators believe that problem-solving skills can be acquired and then used by students in a widely applicable manner. For this reason, many curriculums use broad generalities whenever they address the use of knowledge. For example, objectives in mathematics might be to “sort or identify objects on multiple attributes,” “identify needed information to solve a problem,” or “explain or illustrate whether a problem is correct.” The assumption is that the detailed information that makes these skills possible will be more meaningful and more highly valued once students recognize and learn to apply mathematical problem-solving skills.

Core Knowledge does not object to the statement of knowledge-processing skills, but it is structured so that knowledge processing is dependent on knowledge acquisition, not the other way around. For students to think critically about the decision to drop an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, for example, they must have more than raw critical-thinking skills. They need to know many details about the issues, politics, world circumstances, and mitigating factors that were part of that decision. In other words, they need to know something about World War II. Likewise, to understand why the seasons change, students must have knowledge of the solar system, the orbit of the earth, the earth's relative position to the sun, and the angle of sunlight as the earth travels around the sun. These details are the foundation stones that support thought processes. Core Knowledge identifies and prescribes those details. It does not give generalities about thought processes; it specifically states what a student should know.

Organizes Academic Content

Most educators believe that teachers should know with precision what academic skills have been covered in a student's previous years of school instruction. To help teachers know what skills have been taught, typical curriculum guides include a description of desirable skills for each subject at each grade level. For example, an appropriate academic skill in science for 3rd graders might be to “explore motions of objects and organisms,” while an appropriate skill in science for 4th graders might be to “explore qualitative estimates of the rates of change” (e.g., speed, tone, brightness, loudness, temperature). But not many courses of study afford a similar importance to the sequential acquisition of knowledge. Core Knowledge does. The Core Knowledge Sequence presents content in an organized and systematic fashion.

Although Core Knowledge advocates do not oppose describing appropriate academic skills, they believe that subject knowledge should be described precisely at each grade level, with attention given to the content links between grades. For example, the Core Knowledge Sequence in science prescribes topics related to chemistry at every grade level. At grade 1 the science sequence includes the states of matter, the basic concepts of atoms, and the conventions of scientific measurement in both metric and English units. The science sequence for chemistry at grade 4 includes protons, neutrons, and electrons; positive and negative charges; the terms of observation and measurement such as mass, volume, and density; an introduction to the periodic table; and the basics of solutions, including such terms as solvent, solute, concentration, saturation, and crystallization. At grade 5 students are expected to learn many elements and their symbols; common compounds and their formulas; the properties of metals and nonmetals; the distinctions between chemical and physical changes, and the accompanying characteristics of those changes (e.g., expansion and contraction, condensation, freezing, melting, boiling, conduction, convection, radiation, and distillation). In 6th through 8th grades, students continue to study chemistry and are introduced to chemical bonds, chemical reactions, and chemical equations, as well as the work and contributions of Mendeleev, Dalton, Bohr, and Einstein.

Focuses on Topics of Study

Core Knowledge describes topics of study, not student performance objectives. Proponents of Core Knowledge agree that it is useful to describe what students should know and to define curriculum goals in relation to students' knowledge about a topic or subject of study, rather than in relation to academic skills. Academic skills in language arts, for example, are often described using words such as summarize, identify, interpret, predict, respond, demonstrate, infer, choose, or analyze (e.g., the student will summarize the text, or the student will analyze actions of characters).

Core Knowledge does not oppose describing desirable student behaviors and skills, but it does require that general processes and skills be grounded in a specific domain of inquiry. For example, the Core Knowledge Sequence prescribes specific stories, poems, fables, myths, tall tales, speeches, plays, and novels for each grade level. Kindergartners are assigned 4 of Aesop's fables, including “The Lion and the Mouse” and “The Grasshopper and the Ant,” and 18 specific stories, including The Bremen Town Musicians and The Velveteen Rabbit. In the 8th grade, students are expected to read 17 specified poems, including “Chicago” by Carl Sandburg, and “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas. 8th graders must also read 5 short stories whose authors range from Nathaniel Hawthorne to Leo Tolstoy; and 2 novels (Animal Farm and The Good Earth). In addition, the curriculum specifies 4 essays whose authors include Rachel Carson and Martin Luther King Jr.; 1 autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou; and Shakespeare's As You Like It.

Specifying titles does not preclude an emphasis on processing skills. In fact, the works prescribed enhance opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate proficiency in language arts and other disciplines. A curriculum defined exclusively in terms of academic processes leaves important questions unanswered. Students are expected to “summarize the text,” but no attempt is made to identify an appropriate text. They are expected to “demonstrate knowledge of and ability to think about the relationship among historic events,” but there is often no indication of which historic events. Students are required to “use a simple key to classify objects, organisms, and phenomena,” but no guidance is provided about which organisms should be studied.

Gives Stakeholders Access to the Curriculum

Core Knowledge is clear, unambiguous, and reasonably free of specialized vocabulary. Too often, educators use jargon such as test-taking mechanics, item formulas, performance assessment tasks, norm-referenced information, open-ended assessments, summative activities, and authentic instruction. Core Knowledge understands that every profession needs some specialized vocabulary, but the Core Knowledge Sequence does not require much interpretation. It is a curriculum that can be understood by parents, teachers, and administrators. The Sequence is a detailed listing of the stories, events, works of art, musical selections, scientific discoveries, and mathematical principles that students should know as a result of their experience in school.

Values Local and Teacher Input

Core Knowledge regulates content in a way that permits local control and encourages individual teacher initiatives. Some people feel that regulation of content restricts teachers' professional autonomy and violates the principle of local control. Neither individual teachers nor school communities readily accept externally created and externally imposed curriculum. Local control is a precious concept deeply ingrained in the U.S. education system. Allegiance to that concept means that educators are likely to resist any curriculum that looks like an official state or bureaucratically mandated document.

Core Knowledge does not interfere with local control. Schools that adopt Core Knowledge as a component of their curriculum retain local control because they use Core Knowledge voluntarily, believing that the topics it prescribes are necessary to a well-rounded education. The Core Knowledge Sequence is intended to represent only half the subject-matter content that a school district includes in its curriculum. The other half of the curriculum is for teacher preferences and topics of local importance. Almost every state, for instance, requires that state history be part of the curriculum. State and local histories and traditions are part of what teachers and local initiatives must add to the curriculum.

Regulation of classroom content is not an imposition on the professional discretion of teachers. Just as most teachers need and readily accept some structure as they learn how to teach, most teachers welcome some structure about what to teach. Leaving teachers without guidance about classroom content is as irresponsible as leaving them without guidance about effective methodology. To leave individual teachers alone and unsupported places each in a position of overwhelming responsibility. Through various professional development activities, school districts routinely provide guidance about the best teaching methods. School districts should also provide guidance about the topics of study for each grade level.

All schools regulate content to some degree through course titles and textbooks. A course in biology, for example, is not intended to include a study of plate tectonics, the solar system, photosynthesis, electricity, or natural resources; but it would likely include a study of reproduction, heredity, cells, life cycles, and organisms. Content regulation by course description or title is accepted without question. Textbooks also significantly influence the order in which topics are presented, the relative emphasis that each topic will receive, and the kinds of activities that students will pursue. Yet textbooks continue to be a fundamental and desirable teaching resource in most school districts.

One problem with depending exclusively on the course title and textbook for content regulation is that neither is a common part of instruction in the elementary school, especially in the primary grades. Course titles in the elementary school usually include science, but not biology; social studies, but not U.S. history; language arts, but not British literature; math, but not geometry. Even at the middle school level, it is unusual for a school to offer courses with specific, tightly focused titles. Textbooks are not a dependable regulating factor either, because the content is usually as broad as the course titles for which it is intended and teachers are left to figure out what portion of the text to cover. In the early years of school, when the acquisition of subject knowledge is most important and focused textbooks almost nonexistent, Core Knowledge systemically structures knowledge acquisition. It also provides guidance about what to teach when teachers most need it. Without such guidance, gaps and unintended repetition are certain to occur in the content of the school curriculum. Gaps will ultimately appear as weaknesses in student knowledge.

Ideas About Adopting Core Knowledge

A school district is not compelled to adopt the Sequence in its entirety; some schools look to the Core Knowledge Sequence as a model for creating their own content curriculum. Using the Core Knowledge Sequence without modification, however, has distinct advantages. The Core Knowledge Sequence was developed from the recommendations of many educators and other professionals. The first sequence, created in 1990, was a consensus product of more than 100 parents, teachers, administrators, professors, historians, scientists, multicultural specialists, and curriculum experts from across the country. No individual school district could match the ethnic diversity or professional breadth that was part of the initial effort to devise this content-specific curriculum. In addition, the Core Knowledge Sequence has been revised and refined over the last several years, based on the advice of the teachers who are using it in more than 750 schools throughout the United States. If your school district prefers to redo this work and to develop a content-specific curriculum of your own, you may be a step ahead of school districts that adopt a traditional curriculum; however, wholesale adoption of the Core Knowledge Sequence requires fewer resources than developing a custom program. Using the Sequence without alteration also allows continuity from school to school, as well as from district to district.

Using the Sequence in its published form opens up wonderful possibilities for communication between and among Core Knowledge teachers and students. For example, all 3rd grade teachers in Core Knowledge schools teach about ancient Rome. These teachers need good books and other resources about the Romans that are appealing to 3rd grade students. They also need ideas about activities that will reinforce their students' understanding of Roman society and incorporate the skills prescribed in their course of study for history and language arts. Teachers who have these common needs also have a common source of information in their Core Knowledge colleagues.

Students also benefit from the consistency that the Core Knowledge Sequence creates. The problem of student mobility is one that E. D. Hirsch Jr. details convincingly in The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them. He describes the plight of a young girl who must enroll in a new school and finds that her classmates, because of their previous year of study in that school, have a different base of knowledge. Her lack of background knowledge puts her at an immediate disadvantage, and she begins to fall behind.

In contrast, a student withdrawing from a Core Knowledge school could move to another Core Knowledge school in a different state and still find familiarity in the educational experience. Even across great distances, schools that use the Core Knowledge Sequence as the basis for their subject content have a great deal in common. Locally developed content sequences may provide continuity for students who transfer within the same school district, but they cannot help students who cross district borders.

Although Core Knowledge schools have much in common, they are not carbon copies of each other. Core Knowledge schools are more like shoes than like socks. One size does not fit all, but it does make sense to standardize certain characteristics to ensure consistent quality and a good fit. Local control is not forfeited by a school district's decision to structure its content through the use of the Core Knowledge Sequence. Core Knowledge furnishes only about half a school's content emphasis and does not displace any locally mandated skill objectives. Local school districts must tailor the delivery of that content, just as they tailor their delivery of skills. The Core Knowledge Sequence simply replaces fragmented and haphazard approaches to identifying content and gives the subject matter the kind of attention that most schools devote to the description of academic skills.

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