Content vs. Standards

The Common Core State Standards, according to the CCSS Initiative, help teachers ensure their students have the skills and knowledge they need to be successful, by providing clear goals for student learning. Though, to a small degree, the standards offer methodology for implementation (e.g., read-alouds should be used in the early grades, there should be a balance of fiction and non-fiction), they do not offer specific curricular alignments (e.g., what books should be read, what math problems need to be solved) to achieve their goals. The standards place a larger focus on what skills should be demonstrated (e.g., the ability to speak in coherent, complete sentences, or the ability to recognize the topic sentence in a paragraph).

To correctly and fully implement the Common Core State Standards, schools require a robust curriculum that meets the goals of the standards while laying out the expected learning in the core domains of math, literature, science, history, civics, and the arts. It is here that Core Knowledge's Sequence and CKLA programs rise to the challenge. Both programs offer distinct curricula that is aligned with—and goes beyond the bounds of—the Common Core.