The Core Knowledge Leadership School Curriculum was developed by renowned educator Dr. E.D. Hirsch, Jr., professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia. Dr. Hirsch is the author of several acclaimed books on education and his curriculum is used in over 1,000 schools in the U.S. and around the globe. Core Knowledge’s positive learning outcomes are well established by research, and have been widely praised and documented in numerous studies. In fact, a Portuguese version of the curriculum has been widely credited with substantial improvements in the Portuguese national education system over the last 10 years.
Core Knowledge is a guide to content from grade to grade, designed to encourage steady academic growth and progress as children build knowledge and develop skills. Knowledge, language, and skills build cumulatively from year to year. This cumulative building of knowledge helps ensure that children enter each new grade ready to learn.
The curriculum is organized to build and deepen students’ knowledge grade by grade, as they make cross-curricular connections across subjects. For example, fifth graders studying the Renaissance can confidently build on their prior learning about ancient Greece and Rome (2nd and 3rd grades) and the Middle Ages (4th grade). Teachers can connect their historical studies to topics in visual arts (masterworks by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and others) and in language arts (from Shakespeare’s "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" to Cervantes’s "Don Quixote").
