Our interviewee, Nonnie Cullipher, is Core Knowledge Foundation’s Implementation Support Manager. Sherlock Holmes is a legendary fictional detective created by Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. You can meet him in the Grade 5 Core Classics® Series, free to download here.
Sherlock Holmes: Good day, all. Sherlock Holmes, at your service! In my constant pursuit of facts, evidence, and the occasional elusive truth, I have invited one of the Core Knowledge Foundation team members, Nonnie Cullipher, to assist me in examining a curious modern classroom mystery. And so, as I am fond of saying, “The game is afoot.” *
Nonnie Cullipher: Hello, Mr. Holmes. I’m pleased to be here, and I hope I can provide a little insight.
Sherlock Holmes: “To a great mind, nothing is little.” ** Now then, I have heard the phrase “bringing books back to the classroom,” and it presents a most peculiar puzzle. Did the books vanish? Were they misplaced?
Nonnie Cullipher: Well… not exactly.
Sherlock Holmes: If so, I assure you I have some experience in recovering what others have overlooked!
Nonnie Cullipher: I’m glad to say books never disappeared. I think what you are referring to is a growing conversation in schools about the role of technology in classrooms.
Sherlock Holmes: “It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence.” *** And yet, in this instance, Miss Cullipher, your deduction is sound! Tell me, then: do schools now regret the use of these “screens,” as you Americans call them, within the classroom?
Nonnie Cullipher: I’d say it’s more complicated than that. Like most classroom decisions, it depends on the students, the lesson, and the purpose. I’m one educator, and there are experts studying this from many perspectives…
Sherlock Holmes interrupts: Precisely! Evidence first, conclusion second. Observe the facts, arrange them properly, and the truth will usually reveal itself!
Nonnie Cullipher: In general, the conversation seems to be shifting. It is not really about choosing books or screens. It is about using technology wisely, intentionally, and selectively. Computers can give students access to a wide range of resources, support collaboration, and provide accessibility tools. And of course, students need to be prepared to use technology beyond school.
Sherlock Holmes: Facts! Excellent. Well-ordered facts are as satisfying as a footprint in wet clay.
Nonnie Cullipher: But Mr. Holmes, didn’t you also say, “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact”? **** The obvious fact is that technology can be useful, but there are also concerns.
Sherlock Holmes: Go on!
Nonnie Cullipher: Too much screen time can affect attention, focus, sleep, social development, reading stamina, and mental and physical health. Students already spend a great deal of time on screens outside of school, so many educators are trying to protect and increase time for direct instruction, sustained reading, writing, discussion, and hands-on learning during the school day. It’s complicated, and educators and parents need to keep learning from research and classroom experience to make the best decisions for students today.
Sherlock Holmes: Quite right. As with any investigation, the answer is rarely as simple as it first appears.
Nonnie Cullipher: Precisely, and speaking of investigations, I’m afraid I must be on my way, Mr. Holmes. I just heard that a long-lost collection of stories about Sir Gus, a brave and honorable knight, has been found in the ruins of an old castle. There’s still so much we don’t know about him, and I, like you, can’t resist a good mystery!
Sherlock Holmes: The case is not closed; we must follow the evidence wherever it leads and attend closely to what enables students to think deeply, collaborate wisely, create with purpose, and communicate with clarity. Teachers and parents, your classrooms are laboratories of thought. May your observations be sharp, your evidence sound, and your conclusions worthy of the case!
How one Core Knowledge family keeps the learning going, without it feeling like school
School’s out! The backpacks are in the closet. And in a sunny Virginia home, Amy Hibshman‘s kids are still reading, because they want to.
Amy is part of the Core Knowledge Foundation team. This summer, she’s been reading with her kids, Coleson (11) and Kayla (7) most days, no schedule required.
Her children have been spending time each day with titles from the Core Knowledge Free Library, sometimes together, sometimes snuggled up with Mom.
“One of my favorite moments this summer,” Amy explains, “has been hearing both Coleson and Kayla say things like, ‘I learned about this in school!’ while reading their books. Those connections between what they were reading and what they had already learned helped reinforce the content and made it feel more connected.”
“The digital books are wonderful for traveling as a family,” she continues, “If you have a Wi-Fi hotspot, you can take your entire library with you instead of packing a stack of books.”
One memorable connection came after the family visited an old mining town in Georgia during their vacation. Inspired by the trip, they began reading Adventures in History: The Gold Rush together.
“It was a great way to connect our travels with what they were learning,” Amy reflects.
What Is the Core Knowledge Free Library?
The Core Knowledge Free Library is a growing collection of free digital books for children in preschool through grade 8.
Titles span history, biography, world cultures, and literature, all connected to the Core Knowledge Sequence, the research-backed, grade-by-grade curriculum framework developed by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.
There are three main series:
CK Voices in History™ – narrative biographies of remarkable figures like Harriet Tubman, Marie Curie, Benjamin Franklin, and Jackie Robinson
CK Adventures in History™ – historical fiction following young protagonists through real events like the Gold Rush, the Trail of Tears, and World War II
CK Collection of Tales™ – folktales and stories from Latin America and the Caribbean, with more collections on the way
Titles are available at no cost, readable on any device. No subscriptions, no late fees.
For homeschooling families, the Free Library is especially useful because the titles align naturally with the Core Knowledge Sequence across grades K–8.
One of the things that makes Amy’s summer reading setup so replicable is how flexible it is.
Some evenings, she sits with Coleson and Kayla on the couch and reads together, a moment that’s as much about connection as it is about comprehension.
Other times, Kayla disappears into her reading nook, a little fort with fairy lights and a rainbow blanket. She has been learning about Helen Keller, and the glow of the screen on her face says everything: she is in it.
Coleson, a little older, has been working through Voices in History biographies on the laptop, including Thomas Edison and Benjamin Banneker, sometimes at his desk in the evening, sometimes at the kitchen table with the summer trees visible through the window behind him.
Why Read Alouds Still Matter (Even in Summer)
For younger readers, the research behind the Core Knowledge approach is clear: read alouds are one of the most effective literacy tools available today.
Thomas Sticht’s landmark analysis of listening and reading comprehension found that children’s ability to understand what they hear outpaces their ability to understand what they read independently, all the way through the middle school years.
That’s worth remembering even as kids get older: Coleson is past the age where read alouds might seem necessary, but the same research suggests his listening comprehension still outpaces his independent reading, which is part of why family read-aloud time stays worthwhile well beyond the picture-book years.
That means when Amy reads to Kayla, she isn’t just spending time with her daughter. She’s exposing her to richer vocabulary, more complex sentences, and deeper content knowledge than Kayla could yet access alone on the page.
According to the Core Knowledge Sequence, this kind of rich read aloud experience, followed by real conversation about the story, is foundational to building the listening comprehension and background knowledge that children need to become strong independent readers later.
The Knowledge That Opens Doors
E.D. Hirsch, Jr. spent decades making the case that reading comprehension isn’t just a skill; it depends on what you know.
A child who has heard stories about the Civil War, ancient civilizations, or famous scientists doesn’t just have interesting facts in their head. They have the background knowledge that makes future reading, and future learning, click into place in a way it simply can’t without that foundation.
Summer is a natural opportunity to build that knowledge base. Not through worksheets or test prep, but through good stories.
The Free Library titles are designed to do exactly that, to connect children to the big ideas, events, and people that the Core Knowledge Sequence identifies as essential building blocks for educated, engaged citizens.
Try It This Summer!
You don’t need a plan or a schedule, just fifteen minutes and a device.
The Core Knowledge Free Library is free, always open, and full of stories worth reading, whether your child curls up with a tablet in a reading fort or settles in at the kitchen table with an older sibling.
At the Public Library Association Conference in Minneapolis this spring, Core Knowledge Foundation’s Free Library team of Rosie McCormick and Sophie Nunnally experienced the same thing over and over again.
A librarian would stop at the Core Knowledge booth, start leafing through one of the books on display, and linger longer than they’d planned. The illustrations drew them in, but they quickly became immersed in the subjects and the writing.
Eventually, they would ask:
“Where can I access these books?”
And when they heard that everything was freely available online, no subscription, no login, no limited access, there was often a brief pause of genuine surprise, because resources like this rarely operate that way anymore.
What the Free Library actually is
The Core Knowledge Free Library is a curated digital collection of complete books for young readers: historical narratives from the War of 1812 to the Tang Dynasty, biographies of figures from Vincent van Gogh to Cleopatra, and stories connected to science, geography, and the wider world.
The collection currently includes forty titles written and illustrated by respected children’s authors and illustrators, among them Nancy Churnin, Kathryn Erskine, Glenda Armand, Anne Marie Pace, Christopher Thornock, and Adam Gustavson. All titles are complete, carefully commissioned works — not abridged excerpts or leveled fragments – explicitly designed to help children strengthen both reading habits and knowledge of the world around them.
Later this summer, several titles will be available as audiobooks, alongside a redesigned, more user-friendly website, expanding access in ways that matter especially for families without books readily at home. Most titles are also available in affordable print editions for libraries, classrooms, and families who want physical books.
What PLA revealed
The Public Library Association Conference drew over 6,000 attendees and focused heavily on questions of access, equity, outreach, and the evolving role of libraries in public life.
Rosie and Sophie attended alongside educator and CK Implementation Support Manager Nonnie Cullipher, displaying the Free Library interactive website alongside physical copies of several titles and selections from Core Knowledge’s Core Classics collection.
Some school librarians recognized the curricular connections quickly as many of the books align directly with historical periods and topics students encounter in class, especially for those using Core Knowledge History and Geography (CKHG) or Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA).
But public librarians saw something broader.
Repeatedly, conversations turned toward:
homeschool communities
summer reading initiatives
English language learners
rural outreach
underserved urban communities
family literacy programs
adult learners rebuilding reading confidence
Several librarians described digital licensing costs as one of the defining pressures facing public libraries today, particularly for ebooks and audio resources.
More than one person said a high-quality digital library that placed no restrictions on access was something distinctive and invaluable that they’d genuinely been looking for, or wished they had been.
Reading with something to recognize
The idea that comprehension depends not only on reading skill, but on sustained exposure to language and knowledge over time, has long been central to the thinking behind Core Knowledge.
Core Knowledge Founder Dr. E. D. Hirsch Jr. has written often about what’s at stake when children aren’t given sustained exposure to language and ideas:
“If we do not spend large amounts of time reading aloud and discussing challenging material with children, material that is well beyond their ability to decode with understanding, we miss a critical opportunity to increase their knowledge of language and of the world, the kind of knowledge that will prove decisive for reading in later years.”
The forthcoming audiobooks reflect that principle directly, built for exactly the kind of read-along and read-aloud use Hirsch describes. But librarians, teachers, family members, and friends can play that role, too.
Teachers see the effect in practice. When students encounter a topic they’ve come across before – a historical figure, an event, a place – comprehension improves, but so does something harder to measure: confidence. A child who already knows something about Vincent van Gogh reads about him, and art history, differently than a child who doesn’t.
Quiet growth worth noting
In early 2025, the Free Library had several hundred users. In the same period this year, that number exceeded 7,000, an increase of nearly 1,000 percent.
And yet, throughout the PLA conference, librarians encountering the collection for the first time kept asking the same question:
“How have I not heard about this before?”
A new partnership and a resource for all
One concrete outcome from Minneapolis: after a conversation at the Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL) booth, the Core Knowledge Foundation has become an ARSL member. The two organizations will begin exploring collaborative work, particularly in underserved communities where free, high-quality educational resources are most needed.
That conversation reflected something that animated so many of the conversations at PLA. Attendees moved quickly from discovery to excitement to practical application. Summer reading programs. Home-school read-aloud routines. Classroom extensions and independent learning. Family access for students without books at home.
For schools already using CKLA or CKHG, the collection is a natural complement, with science titles to supplement CKSci coming next year. But it also stands on its own for anyone who believes children benefit from reading substantial, engaging books connected to history, science, culture, and the wider world – freely available, and affordable in print.
Our interviewer, Rosie McCormick, is the author of Sir Gus and the Director of the Core Knowledge Free Library. Sir Gus is a fictional knight of the realm. You can meet him in the CKLA Grade 2 Student Book, free to download here.
Rosie McCormick: Thank you, Sir Gus, for agreeing to talk with me today.
Sir Gus: You are most welcome. Besides, the king insisted!
Rosie McCormick: I hear you are a great lover of books.
Sir Gus: Indeed, I am! You see, ever since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, books have become more widely available. The king himself has a well-stocked library. I will confess, I sometimes hide in the library rather than participate in the jousts.
Rosie McCormick: You do?
Sir Gus: I do. I have found a special spot in the astronomy and natural philosophy section of the library that is quite secluded. I even sat out the last battle with the Monsters from the Deep there. But I did learn a thing or two about navigation and was able to teach my fellow knights how to use the night sky to guide their way.
Rosie McCormick: I see! I imagine that you think reading is important?
Sir Gus: Oh, most important. One can learn SO much from books; they are truly wonderful companions. A good book can transport readers to faraway places, or teach them about the heavens, or anatomy, or poetry! And of course, there are the wonderful tales of Ancient Greece and Rome.
Rosie McCormick: You are a learned knight, Sir Gus!
Sir Gus: Thank you, good lady! I will add that summertime is perhaps my favorite time of year to enjoy a good book. There’s nothing better than sipping a goblet of pear juice on a warm summer’s day, while reading a good book. An adventure tale, not a scary one of course, makes for the very best kind of day!
Sir Gus: And for that I am glad! Ay me, is that the time? Alas, I can tarry no longer. I hear my fellow knights, their armor rattling and clattering as they dress for battle. I must take up my spot in the king’s library, and hope that no one finds me there. Good day to you, Rosie!
Rosie McCormick: Thank you, Sir Gus! It’s been a real pleasure. And for the young readers among us, I happen to know that the Core Knowledge Foundation has a wonderful Free Library online full of compelling biographies, gripping historical stories filled with adventure and intrigue, and tales from Latin America.
Step into the pages of these fabulous books and allow them to whisk you away! A summer reading journey awaits you.
“AI has the potential to solve the last mile problem of putting learning science into practice.” – Melina Uncapher, SETA-ED
That line, heard at the ASU+GSV Summitlast month in San Diego, has stayed with me.
At an event dominated by claims of what AI will do for education, this one stood out because it named a problem in K-12 education that is older than AI itself: the persistent gap between what learning science suggests and what systems reward, markets sell, and classrooms can realistically implement consistently.
But the framing carries a hidden premise. AI doesn’t solve the last mile in the abstract. It encodes a theory of learning and scales it. Which means the question we must ask first is, which theory?
That was the question on my mind as I left San Diego and headed to the United Kingdom to visit schools implementing knowledge-rich curriculum,two of which use Core Knowledge.
These were schools where technology was not the centerpiece. In some classrooms, tech was absent entirely. AI was barely part of the conversation, yet these UK schools answered that question more clearly than any conference panel could.
The “last mile” problem is not new but still unsolved
In K–12 education, there have long been significant gaps between what the science of learning suggests is most likely to produce durable learning and what schools, systems, curriculum publishers, and edtech providers are incentivized to prioritize, develop, adopt, and measure.
Teachers operate within systems that prioritize standards alignment, differentiation, engagement, and test performance. Publishers and edtech companies respond to those same incentives. The result is a marketplace flooded with standards-aligned materials and time-saving tools that may or may not reflect how students actually learn and retain knowledge over time.
A curriculum can be standards-aligned yet still lack coherence, cumulative knowledge-building, explicit sequencing, meaningful retrieval practice, or attention to cognitive load. In many systems,“alignment” has become a proxy for quality, even though alignment alone does not guarantee coherent instruction or durable learning.
A similar tension shapes “personalization.” Meeting students where they are matters, but when personalization fragments the shared knowledge base itself and sends each student down a different path, it can undermine the deep learning it aims to support, especially for students who struggle or start with less prior knowledge.
Yet in pockets across the system, this “last mile” problem is already being addressed — not primarily through software or platforms, but through people, practice, and sustained instructional leadership.
School and system leaders like Gareth Rein in Wales and former Louisiana State Superintendent John White have helped create conditions where coherent curriculum, teacher development, and high expectations reinforce one another.
Educators such as Olivia Mullins, Lauren Brown, Sean Morrissey, and many more are deeply engaging with cognitive science and translating it into daily classroom practice.
Practitioners, advisers, and trainers like Meg Lee and Kristen McQuillan are helping bridge the gap between research and instruction in practical, actionable ways.
At the same time, researchers like Tim Surma and his team in Belgium are partnering directly with schools and systems to demonstrate how coherent, knowledge-rich curriculum and evidence-informed instruction can support strong learning outcomes for students.
These efforts are not theoretical. They are operational. They are happening in real schools with real students.
But they are not yet consistent, sustained, or scaled in ways that make them the norm rather than the exception.
That is the gap Melina Uncapher is pointing to. And it is the gap where AI is now poised to enter. Not as a neutral tool, but as a system that will encode and scale a theory of learning whether we are intentional about which one or not.
Three Schools, Three Contexts, One Clear Pattern
In the United Kingdom, I visited three very different schools:
St. Peter’s Primary School in Cardiff, Wales
TASIS England in Surrey, England
Michaela Community School in Wembley, England
Different student populations. Different models. Different leadership styles. Different cultures.
And yet the pattern across them was strikingly consistent.
What stood out was not just performance data or inspection outcomes, though all three perform strongly by relevant measures.
It was the students.
Students who engage actively and speak with clarity, curiosity, and confidence.
Students who take visible pride in what they know.
At St. Peter’s, one parent described the impact of leadership change in a way that has stayed with me:
“It has raised both the floor and the ceiling for all students.”
That is not a slogan. It is a description of what happens when expectations, curriculum, and teaching quality align.
Across all three schools, two things were consistently present:
Leadership with clarity and conviction
Strong leadership is not just managerial. It is cultural.
It sets direction, aligns adults, makes expectations explicit, and creates consistency across classrooms.
In these schools, the curriculum, pedagogy, teacher training, classroom routines, and leadership language all reinforced one another. There was coherence between what students were learning, how teachers were teaching, and what each school valued and supported.
A knowledge-building curriculum, taught with precision
When curriculum is structured, sequenced, and intentionally knowledge-rich, and when teachers are supported in delivering it well, the effects are visible:
Students don’t just accumulate information. They build understanding.
And more importantly, they develop expectations about themselves:
“I can actually understand this.”
“I can explain this.”
“I am expected to know this.”
That shift in expectation is one of the most powerful, and least discussed, drivers of educational equity.
Because once students begin to expect success, to see themselves as capable of understanding demanding content,the ceiling changes.
Not just for the highest attainers, but across the entire distribution.
The Instructional Architecture Underneath
If AI is going to encode a theory of learning, the question is which theory. The educators and leaders walking the last mile are drawing on a body of work that has been remarkably aligned for decades.
St. Peter’s head Gareth Rein jokingly calls it the “Four D’s”– four thinkers whose work has shaped much of the knowledge-rich curriculum movement, and where he often directs educators beginning to explore the connection between curriculum, instruction, and learning science.
Don (E.D. Hirsch, Founder of Core Knowledge) has spent decades arguing that coherent shared knowledge is foundational to literacy, equity, and democratic participation. From Cultural Literacy to Why Knowledge Matters, his work reframed knowledge and curriculum as a matter of justice, not preference.
Daniel Willingham has helped translate cognitive science into practical insights for educators. His core message is deceptively simple: thinking depends on knowledge. Memory is not a flaw in learning; it is the mechanism that enables it. Without prior knowledge stored in memory, new learning becomes dramatically harder, because new ideas connect to existing ones in the brain.
Daisy Christodoulou, a former teacher turned author and edtech leader, has been an influential voice in challenging misconceptions about assessment, skills, and “learning styles,” particularly in the UK context.Her work consistently returns to a central idea: we often overestimate the value of generic skills and underestimate the role of domain knowledge.
Doug Lemov brings something different but essential: a relentless focus on teacher practice.Through thousands of classroom observations, his work examines what effective teaching looks like in practice, down to the routines, questions, and techniques that shape learning moment by moment.
This is not a fringe or random collection. It is a coherent, decades-old body of work about how humans learn, what curriculum should do, and what teaching looks like when it respects both. It is the foundation underneath what I saw in Cardiff, Surrey, and Wembley. And it is the underlying architecture AI would need to encode if it is going to amplify the last mile rather than route around it.
Where This Leaves Us
The excitement around AI in education is real. So is the risk of overestimating what it can do in isolation.
What feels more grounded, and more urgent, is this:
The biggest constraint in education is not access to tools or information.
It is the consistent implementation of what we already know about how learning works.
Learning science is not new. Knowledge-rich curriculum is not new. Cognitive psychology is not new.
The challenge has always been the same: getting it into every classroom, every day, for every student.
If AI has a role worth paying attention to, it is not in replacing that work, but in helping close the gap between knowing and doing.
So can AI help bridge the divide between what learning science suggests and what classrooms can realistically implement at scale?
Or will AI simply amplify the incentives already driving the system — optimizing for engagement, speed, and hyper-personalized experiences rather than coherence, shared knowledge, memory, and long-term learning?
AI will not eliminate theories of learning. It will encode and scale one.
Used well, AI could ease one of education’s greatest challenges: the translation burden between research and practice. It could support curriculum coherence (Hirsch), retrieval practice (Willingham), assessment that measures durable knowledge rather than generic skill (Christodoulou), and feedback on teacher practice (Lemov) — while allowing teachers to focus more deeply on relationships, instruction, and student thinking.
Most concretely, an AI built on this foundation would build knowledge cumulatively across a shared curriculum, with personalization layered on top rather than as a substitute for it. And it would know when to stop helping — letting students work through productive difficulty rather than smoothing every friction point in the name of engagement. Those two design choices would distinguish it from much of the edtech on the market today.
The question is whether we will be intentional enough about the instructional architecture underneath AI before it scales and accelerates the system we already have.
What stood out most in Lake Havasu wasn’t any single initiative. It was coherence.
Students, teachers, and leaders all operating from the same idea: that knowledge is not something to sprinkle in.
Knowledge is the foundation everything else builds on.
If that feels like a conversation your school is already having, or should be having, we’d love to stay connected.
Subscribing to our newsletter keeps you equipped with the latest resources to confidently build knowledge in your young learners.
Core Knowledge is rolling out new and updated resources this spring to help schools deepen content knowledge, expand access to the arts, and make history and civics come alive for students nationwide.
New Arts Curriculum: Music and Visual Arts
The new Core Knowledge Music and Visual Arts curricula for grades K–8 give students rich opportunities to listen, sing, play, move, and create while building knowledge of music theory, notation, art concepts, and art history. These programs spotlight classic and contemporary artists, architecture, and diverse musical genres, and are designed for joyful, knowledge-building classroom experiences.
CK in Your State History
This spring, Core Knowledge is also introducing “CK in Your State History” resources for Arizona, California, Colorado, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Utah. These materials connect Core Knowledge’s content-rich approach with each state’s unique historical figures, events, and civic institutions, helping teachers integrate local history into a coherent K–8 knowledge sequence.
Free Library: New Titles
The Core Knowledge Free Library will expand with new titles that provide ready-to-use, content-rich texts for classroom instruction and independent reading. These additions give teachers more flexibility to support background knowledge, vocabulary, and reading comprehension across subjects.
New Louisiana History Curriculum
Land of Liberty is a new high school U.S. history curriculum developed with the Louisiana Department of Education to support the 2022 Louisiana Student Standards for Social Studies. Its units integrate history, geography, economics, and civics to help students build broad, deep knowledge of the United States. The six units, published in two volumes, cover U.S. history from Jamestown through the 2008 election of Barack Obama.
Declaration of Independence Activities
This year marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, offering a powerful opportunity to highlight its ideas and legacy with students all year long. New Declaration of Independence activities provide teachers with flexible, ready-to-use resources to explore the document’s language, historical context, and enduring principles through close reading, discussion, and writing. These materials are designed so educators can weave meaningful, age-appropriate celebrations of the Semiquincentennial into their instruction throughout the year, helping students connect the founding ideals to their own lives and communities.
To explore these upcoming releases and download free materials as they become available, visit our website or follow us on our social media channels.
For decades, the Science of Reading has shown how children learn to read. The research is clear: reading is not a natural process. It must be explicitly taught with systematic instruction in phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, morphology, and comprehension.
Long before the term became a national movement, Core Knowledge Language Arts® (CKLA) was built on this science.
Built on Research from the Start
Development began in 2010
Multiple pilot phases with schools nationwide
Full first edition released in 2014
CKLA was one of the first comprehensive curricula explicitly created from the findings of the Science of Reading—making it a true leader in the movement.
What Sets CKLA Apart
1. Systematic Phonics
The Skills Strand provides daily, sequenced phonics lessons starting in Kindergarten. Students learn to decode step by step, aligned with decades of research.
2. Morphology Matters
Older students dive into roots, prefixes, and suffixes to unlock vocabulary and confidently tackle complex texts.
3. Building Knowledge for Comprehension
Starting in Kindergarten, the Knowledge Strand immerses students in history, science, literature, and the arts. Research shows that this background knowledge is critical for comprehension.
4. Oral Language and Writing
From early read-aloud discussions to daily writing tied to content, CKLA reinforces the connection between speaking, reading, and writing.
The Simple View of Reading in Action
Reading requires both:
Word Recognition → phonics, decoding, spelling, fluency
Language Comprehension → vocabulary, knowledge, oral understanding
CKLA is unique in systematically addressing both sides of this equation.
Why It Matters
As schools across the country embrace the Science of Reading, CKLA stands out as a program leading the way for more than a decade.
Research-based
Classroom-proven
Comprehensive and coherent
CKLA doesn’t just align with the Science of Reading—it embodies it.
CKLA was one of the first Science of Reading curricula. Today, it remains one of the strongest.
It equips teachers.
It empowers students.
It delivers results.
In the ongoing discussions about what children should be learning in school, it is crucial to consider whether the curriculum resonates with the diverse world our students live in. This is where the Core Knowledge curriculum demonstrates its strength, often more comprehensively than many realize.
The Core Knowledge approach, pioneered by E.D. Hirsch Jr., is founded on the belief that a shared body of knowledge supports students in becoming proficient readers, critical thinkers, and informed citizens. It encompasses a meticulously organized array of subjects, including literature, history, science, and the arts, starting in kindergarten and extending through 8th grade.
While some may associate Core Knowledge predominantly with classic Western content, a closer examination reveals an intentional commitment to inclusivity, global perspective, and representation of a wide range of cultures and histories.
A Global Perspective from the Start
From the outset, Core Knowledge introduces children to stories and traditions from diverse regions around the world. In the early elementary grades, students are exposed to folktales from China, Africa, South America, and Native American communities. These narratives are presented as equally valuable components of the world’s literary heritage and help students see themselves and the broader world reflected in their learning experiences.
In history, students explore ancient civilizations extending well beyond Europe, encompassing Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, and the empires of West Africa. As early as 1st grade, students delve into early American cultures like the Maya Inca, and Aztec. Subsequent grades cover global empires such as the Kingdoms of Africa, feudal Japan, the Dynasties of China, and early Islamic Empires. These lessons emphasize the complexity and achievements of non-Western societies, underlining the shared human narrative.
Inclusive Voices in Literature and Speeches
Throughout the curriculum, students engage with the works of authors and poets from a wide range of backgrounds. In addition to classic Western authors, students examine the works of Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, and a host of other African writers. They explore the speeches of Ida B. Wells, Zitkala-Sa, and Mabel Ping-Hua Lee. This body of work encourages students to engage with diverse perspectives, fostering empathy, curiosity, and critical thinking skills.
Science and the Arts for Everyone
In Core Knowledge’s approach to science, there is an emphasis on foundational knowledge alongside vibrant depictions of the contributions of scientists from around the globe. Students learn about historical figures such as George Washington Carver, Mae Jemison, Hypatia of Alexandria, and Ibn al-Haytham, alongside familiar figures like Newton and Darwin, underscoring the global and human nature of scientific discovery.
The curriculum also embraces a diverse exploration of musical styles from West Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America, as well as visual art traditions from Japan, the Middle East, and Indigenous North American cultures. This approach ensures that students study artists like Diego Rivera, Augusta Savage, and Romare Bearden, reinforcing that creativity and innovation exist in every corner of the world.
Addressing Hard Histories and Social Movements
Core Knowledge does not shy away from the complex realities of history. Students engage with lessons on slavery in the United States, the Civil Rights Movement, the Holocaust, apartheid in South Africa, and global human rights efforts. These units are taught with sensitivity and depth, introducing students to the voices and experiences of those who lived through and challenged injustice.
Through these lessons, students gain an understanding of not only of what happened in the past but also of how people have challenged systems, altered societies, and shaped our world.
Building Knowledge to Build Equity
Most significantly, Core Knowledge is committed to closing knowledge gaps disproportionately affecting under-resourced students. Offering a content-rich and intentionally sequenced curriculum ensures that all students, regardless of their background, have access to the knowledge that supports reading comprehension, academic achievement, and civic participation.
In addition to being inclusive in what it teaches, Core Knowledge is inclusive in why it teaches it. By exposing students to a diverse foundation of content, from folktales of Ghana to the poetry of Langston Hughes to the scientific advances of ancient Baghdad, it enables all learners to see themselves in their studies while acquiring a deeper understanding of the wider world.
At a time when students require both a strong academic foundation and a sense of global belonging, Core Knowledge fulfills both needs. The Core Knowledge Sequence and its curricula are more than a list of topics; they are thoughtfully designed, inclusive program that empower all students to thrive.
