The Preschool Sequence

Excellence and Fairness | Age Groupings | Coherent Content | Teaching Approaches | Language-Rich Curriculum | Development of the Preschool Sequence | Correlation of the Preschool Sequence to the K–8 Sequence

Excellence and Fairness

The Preschool Sequence is offered as another practical step toward the Core Knowledge Foundation's goal of promoting greater excellence and fairness in early education. Internationally, the most successful educational systems teach a core of knowledge in the early grades. Only by explicitly specifying the competencies and knowledge that all children should share can we guarantee equal access to those competencies and knowledge. In our current system, disadvantaged children especially suffer from low expectations that often translate into "waiting until they are ready" and watered-down curricula.

When expectations are made explicit, however, disadvantaged children, like all children, are exposed to a coherent core of challenging, interesting competencies and knowledge. This background not only provides a foundation for later learning, but also makes up the common ground for communication in a diverse society.

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Coherent Content

With a strong focus on challenging but appropriate content, the Preschool Sequence is unique among early childhood programs. It outlines a comprehensive and coherent progression of knowledge and skills in all developmental areas. (See the Preschool Sequence at a Glance for an overview of these areas.)

The Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence starts with the premise that children are always "ready to learn," as long as the teacher knows where to start with each child. Preschoolers build new knowledge and skills based on what they have already learned. A specific, explicit sequence of skills and knowledge, such as the Preschool Sequence, allows teachers to guide a young child's development in an apprentice-like fashion. Taking into account the child's particular competencies, a teacher can then offer those experiences that most closely match a student's present level, while providing the stepping stones needed to advance to higher levels of understanding and competence.

To sum up, the content of the Preschool Sequence is:

• Solid — It is a comprehensive preschool curriculum that addresses all facets of early childhood development.
• Specific — It identifies explicit skills and knowledge that are critical to a young child's development, in terms of "readiness to learn".
• Sequenced — It presents skills and knowledge that progress from very basic to more challenging, so that children build new knowledge and skills based on what they have already learned.
• Shared — It represents shared knowledge. Only by explicitly specifying the competencies and knowledge that all children should share can we ensure access to an excellent and fair education for all.

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Language-Rich Curriculum

It is almost impossible to overemphasize the significance of early language development during the preschool years and its impact upon nearly all other aspects of development, as well as later academic achievement. The challenging, coherent content of the Preschool Sequence presents the perfect context in which to build strong receptive and expressive language skills.

In addition to the very comprehensive and specific "Language" chapters of the Preschool Sequence, language skills are interwoven throughout the curriculum. A special feature called the "Language of Instruction" in each content area identifies essential vocabulary that knowledgeable and competent individuals use in talking about particular subjects. It is important to stress that these word lists are not intended for use in isolated drill or memorization. Rather, they are provided so that teachers can expose children to such vocabulary in meaningful contexts. While not exhaustive, the vocabulary listing provides a starting point, a suggested sampling of the language that we hope all young children will hear.

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Age Levels

The Preschool Sequence organizes knowledge and competencies into two age groupings: Level I for 3-4 year-old children and Level II for 4-5 year-old children. These age groupings are not rigid directives but approximate guidelines based on research that, within a given area, suggests a progression of skills and knowledge. Because young children do learn at different rates, no child should be unduly rushed or held back solely based on the age groupings specified in the Preschool Sequence. The child's existing competencies in relation to the skills and knowledge of the Preschool Sequence are the best indicators of where to begin.

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Teaching Approaches

Teachers are encouraged to use a wide variety of teaching strategies, groupings, and materials to help children learn the knowledge and skills specified in the Preschool Sequence. Core Knowledge Preschool Professional Development provides teachers with many options for teaching each area of the Preschool Sequence, including planning activities for large and small group instruction, incorporating learning into center play, and so on. It is important not to confuse or equate the precision and specificity of the knowledge and skills of the Preschool Sequence with ineffective teaching methods, such as rote learning and isolated drill or the copious use of ditto sheets.

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Development of the Preschool Sequence

The Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence is the result of a long process of research and critical review undertaken by the non-profit Core Knowledge Foundation. The resulting Preschool Sequence represents a synthesis of exemplary practice and experience, both in the United States and abroad.

We studied the many reports that have been issued in recent years describing the current nature of early childhood experiences for most American children; we examined important new research in cognitive development and how children learn; we looked at specific preschool practices in the U.S., including well-known models like Montessori, High/Scope, and Creative Curriculum; and we surveyed the preschool practices of several other countries, including France, Japan, Korea, and Italy. This wealth of information served as the basis for the development of an initial draft version of the Preschool Sequence. The programs and practices on which this draft was modeled have been empirically validated with millions of young children elsewhere in the world.

The first draft of the Preschool Sequence was submitted for review to nationally recognized experts in the area of early childhood development, as well as content area experts in language, emerging literacy, and math. Based on this expert review, portions of the Preschool Sequence were revised and a new draft was field tested in 1996-1997 in several preschool settings. The draft was also distributed to early childhood specialists, administrators, and preschool and kindergarten teachers throughout the U.S. for review.

Based on the feedback from these many sources, further refinements were made, resulting in the present version of the Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence.

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Correlation of the Preschool Sequence to the K-8 Sequence

The skills and knowledge in the Preschool Sequence are designed to correlate with the existing Core Knowledge Sequence for grades K-8. The Preschool Sequence provides a solid, coherent foundation for the content that children will encounter in kindergarten in a school following the Core Knowledge Sequence.

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Last updated: Fri, May 23 2008