Arlington Co. Schools receive sobering report on student literacy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh my goodness I love core knowledge!! I’ve been using it for my homeschool curriculum and it is so fun! DS and I had a blast with King Arthur this year. I really hope that APS does it.

PP who posted about CKLA. Glad I’m not the only one! I am critical of APS as well but I give credit when credit is due. I do think that this is a good indication that Dr Duran is serious about making some major changes to APS. For some reason I posted a reply to a post on AEM about the report saying that one good thing is that APS might be adopting amplify CKLA and my reply and the post was deleted. Have no idea why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is some good news too. Arlington is adopting amplify ckla as its ELA curriculum for k-5. It’s a knowledge based curriculum with a strong phonics curriculum. Natalie Wexler, author of The Knowledge Gap has written a lot about it. Super exciting news! Obviously the next step would be adequate teacher training on the new curriculum. I’m worried there isn’t enough time for that but I am not an educator so I don’t know how much time should be allocated to teacher training.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2020/08/how-show-kids-joy-reading/615109/

Unfortunately I don’t know much about math curriculums so I have no idea if the curriculum they adopted is a good one. Figures crossed that it is.

What a horrendous choice, don’t know why you’re excited about this.

What’s the deal with this curriculum?

This choice has been finalized already?

Did they look at Wilson?

Why is it horrendous? Ed reports has given it a favorable review. The Knowledge Matters Campaign has covered it in their school tour. Natalie Wexler has written favorably about it. It earned a tier 1 rating in Louisiana (which developed a rating system for curriculums that many districts now use). I am curious what issues you have with it.

As to the Wilsons, I thought we use it already? ATS does. My question would be is CKLA replacing Wilson’s since it already has a phonics component? Or will Wilson’s still be used as well.

I'm a different poster - no the "horrendous" one.

I was looking for an independent assessment of the ELA curriculum.

ATS might be the only ES to use Wilson. I haven't heard of any others.

I know and trust Wilson and wanted to hear more about this one before forming an opinion. Looks like it used to be owned by Murdoch though? Scary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is some good news too. Arlington is adopting amplify ckla as its ELA curriculum for k-5. It’s a knowledge based curriculum with a strong phonics curriculum. Natalie Wexler, author of The Knowledge Gap has written a lot about it. Super exciting news! Obviously the next step would be adequate teacher training on the new curriculum. I’m worried there isn’t enough time for that but I am not an educator so I don’t know how much time should be allocated to teacher training.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2020/08/how-show-kids-joy-reading/615109/

Unfortunately I don’t know much about math curriculums so I have no idea if the curriculum they adopted is a good one. Figures crossed that it is.

What a horrendous choice, don’t know why you’re excited about this.

What’s the deal with this curriculum?

This choice has been finalized already?

Did they look at Wilson?

Why is it horrendous? Ed reports has given it a favorable review. The Knowledge Matters Campaign has covered it in their school tour. Natalie Wexler has written favorably about it. It earned a tier 1 rating in Louisiana (which developed a rating system for curriculums that many districts now use). I am curious what issues you have with it.

As to the Wilsons, I thought we use it already? ATS does. My question would be is CKLA replacing Wilson’s since it already has a phonics component? Or will Wilson’s still be used as well.

I'm a different poster - no the "horrendous" one.

I was looking for an independent assessment of the ELA curriculum.

ATS might be the only ES to use Wilson. I haven't heard of any others.

I know and trust Wilson and wanted to hear more about this one before forming an opinion. Looks like it used to be owned by Murdoch though? Scary.

Oh I had no idea!

ATS uses Wilson’s Fundations which I believe is a tier 1 program. But then there are also tier 2 and tier 3 interventions. I don’t know if ATS uses those. I’m pretty sure it’s not only ATS that uses Fundations but I may be wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my goodness I love core knowledge!! I’ve been using it for my homeschool curriculum and it is so fun! DS and I had a blast with King Arthur this year. I really hope that APS does it.

PP who posted about CKLA. Glad I’m not the only one! I am critical of APS as well but I give credit when credit is due. I do think that this is a good indication that Dr Duran is serious about making some major changes to APS. For some reason I posted a reply to a post on AEM about the report saying that one good thing is that APS might be adopting amplify CKLA and my reply and the post was deleted. Have no idea why.

Oh man. That’s really too bad. It’s unfortunate that the core knowledge foundation has a reputation as being more conservative and anti-teacher. I hope there isn’t a big bias against it that way. I mean, right now I’m doing an essay on Robin Hood with DS and he chose to write about how the story suggests that people should rebel against unjust power structures because Robin Hood’s actions were more ethical than those of the sheriff and a church leader! Plus the curriculum has a solid basis in the cognitive science of learning.

Anyway, my kids will miss out on this at school for sure but if it sticks I’ll be recommending APS much more than I do now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is some good news too. Arlington is adopting amplify ckla as its ELA curriculum for k-5. It’s a knowledge based curriculum with a strong phonics curriculum. Natalie Wexler, author of The Knowledge Gap has written a lot about it. Super exciting news! Obviously the next step would be adequate teacher training on the new curriculum. I’m worried there isn’t enough time for that but I am not an educator so I don’t know how much time should be allocated to teacher training.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2020/08/how-show-kids-joy-reading/615109/

Unfortunately I don’t know much about math curriculums so I have no idea if the curriculum they adopted is a good one. Figures crossed that it is.

What a horrendous choice, don’t know why you’re excited about this.

What’s the deal with this curriculum?

This choice has been finalized already?

Did they look at Wilson?

Why is it horrendous? Ed reports has given it a favorable review. The Knowledge Matters Campaign has covered it in their school tour. Natalie Wexler has written favorably about it. It earned a tier 1 rating in Louisiana (which developed a rating system for curriculums that many districts now use). I am curious what issues you have with it.

As to the Wilsons, I thought we use it already? ATS does. My question would be is CKLA replacing Wilson’s since it already has a phonics component? Or will Wilson’s still be used as well.

I'm a different poster - no the "horrendous" one.

I was looking for an independent assessment of the ELA curriculum.

ATS might be the only ES to use Wilson. I haven't heard of any others.

I know and trust Wilson and wanted to hear more about this one before forming an opinion. Looks like it used to be owned by Murdoch though? Scary.

As for an independent assessment of curriculums that’s basically what Louisiana does and most districts look at Louisiana and EdReports when assessing a curriculum. But with Ed reports you have to be careful - it doesn’t assess a curriculum based on the science of reading. Instead it assesses a curriculum based on whether it meets the standards of the common core. For exactly what you should be looking for when evaluating a curriculum for its alignment with the science of reading, see the Reading League’s Curriculum Assessment tool. Louisiana basically follows that method when assessing curriculums. Why do most districts use Louisiana’s assessments? I have no idea to be honest! I think it’s probably because they were the first ones who did it and the most comprehensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my goodness I love core knowledge!! I’ve been using it for my homeschool curriculum and it is so fun! DS and I had a blast with King Arthur this year. I really hope that APS does it.

PP who posted about CKLA. Glad I’m not the only one! I am critical of APS as well but I give credit when credit is due. I do think that this is a good indication that Dr Duran is serious about making some major changes to APS. For some reason I posted a reply to a post on AEM about the report saying that one good thing is that APS might be adopting amplify CKLA and my reply and the post was deleted. Have no idea why.

Oh man. That’s really too bad. It’s unfortunate that the core knowledge foundation has a reputation as being more conservative and anti-teacher. I hope there isn’t a big bias against it that way. I mean, right now I’m doing an essay on Robin Hood with DS and he chose to write about how the story suggests that people should rebel against unjust power structures because Robin Hood’s actions were more ethical than those of the sheriff and a church leader! Plus the curriculum has a solid basis in the cognitive science of learning.

Anyway, my kids will miss out on this at school for sure but if it sticks I’ll be recommending APS much more than I do now.

Oh interesting I’m foreign so I didn’t know about the history. I do remember reading that criticism that at some point it was too western centric. But my understanding is that they reviewed the curriculum and made a lot of changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my goodness I love core knowledge!! I’ve been using it for my homeschool curriculum and it is so fun! DS and I had a blast with King Arthur this year. I really hope that APS does it.

PP who posted about CKLA. Glad I’m not the only one! I am critical of APS as well but I give credit when credit is due. I do think that this is a good indication that Dr Duran is serious about making some major changes to APS. For some reason I posted a reply to a post on AEM about the report saying that one good thing is that APS might be adopting amplify CKLA and my reply and the post was deleted. Have no idea why.

Oh man. That’s really too bad. It’s unfortunate that the core knowledge foundation has a reputation as being more conservative and anti-teacher. I hope there isn’t a big bias against it that way. I mean, right now I’m doing an essay on Robin Hood with DS and he chose to write about how the story suggests that people should rebel against unjust power structures because Robin Hood’s actions were more ethical than those of the sheriff and a church leader! Plus the curriculum has a solid basis in the cognitive science of learning.

Anyway, my kids will miss out on this at school for sure but if it sticks I’ll be recommending APS much more than I do now.

Oh interesting I’m foreign so I didn’t know about the history. I do remember reading that criticism that at some point it was too western centric. But my understanding is that they reviewed the curriculum and made a lot of changes.

I think it is western-centric but a) with good reason—we live in the west and it’s important for kids to learn where we stand in history and b) it’s not nearly as western-centric as the curriculum I had in school. In our history class we have spent a long time on the European Middle Ages but we are also doing Islamic Middle Ages and African kingdoms during the same time period. And then there is a big unit on china and then you get to the history of the United States. Lots of kids in the US leave high school thinking Africa is a country where there are lots of lions and zebras. But kids who do core knowledge should know about the powerful and advanced civilizations of Western Africa, and how they were decimated by the trans Atlantic slave trade. So Africa is a *continent* with an diverse history and advanced civilizations. Maybe that’s relatively new though.

Anyway sorry to go on this tangent, but I just really like this curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is some good news too. Arlington is adopting amplify ckla as its ELA curriculum for k-5. It’s a knowledge based curriculum with a strong phonics curriculum. Natalie Wexler, author of The Knowledge Gap has written a lot about it. Super exciting news! Obviously the next step would be adequate teacher training on the new curriculum. I’m worried there isn’t enough time for that but I am not an educator so I don’t know how much time should be allocated to teacher training.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2020/08/how-show-kids-joy-reading/615109/

Unfortunately I don’t know much about math curriculums so I have no idea if the curriculum they adopted is a good one. Figures crossed that it is.

What a horrendous choice, don’t know why you’re excited about this.

What’s the deal with this curriculum?

This choice has been finalized already?

Did they look at Wilson?

Why is it horrendous? Ed reports has given it a favorable review. The Knowledge Matters Campaign has covered it in their school tour. Natalie Wexler has written favorably about it. It earned a tier 1 rating in Louisiana (which developed a rating system for curriculums that many districts now use). I am curious what issues you have with it.

As to the Wilsons, I thought we use it already? ATS does. My question would be is CKLA replacing Wilson’s since it already has a phonics component? Or will Wilson’s still be used as well.

I'm a different poster - no the "horrendous" one.

I was looking for an independent assessment of the ELA curriculum.

ATS might be the only ES to use Wilson. I haven't heard of any others.

I know and trust Wilson and wanted to hear more about this one before forming an opinion. Looks like it used to be owned by Murdoch though? Scary.

As for an independent assessment of curriculums that’s basically what Louisiana does and most districts look at Louisiana and EdReports when assessing a curriculum. But with Ed reports you have to be careful - it doesn’t assess a curriculum based on the science of reading. Instead it assesses a curriculum based on whether it meets the standards of the common core. For exactly what you should be looking for when evaluating a curriculum for its alignment with the science of reading, see the Reading League’s Curriculum Assessment tool. Louisiana basically follows that method when assessing curriculums. Why do most districts use Louisiana’s assessments? I have no idea to be honest! I think it’s probably because they were the first ones who did it and the most comprehensive.

I’m hoping a local org with science of reading knowledge will chime in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my goodness I love core knowledge!! I’ve been using it for my homeschool curriculum and it is so fun! DS and I had a blast with King Arthur this year. I really hope that APS does it.

PP who posted about CKLA. Glad I’m not the only one! I am critical of APS as well but I give credit when credit is due. I do think that this is a good indication that Dr Duran is serious about making some major changes to APS. For some reason I posted a reply to a post on AEM about the report saying that one good thing is that APS might be adopting amplify CKLA and my reply and the post was deleted. Have no idea why.

Oh man. That’s really too bad. It’s unfortunate that the core knowledge foundation has a reputation as being more conservative and anti-teacher. I hope there isn’t a big bias against it that way. I mean, right now I’m doing an essay on Robin Hood with DS and he chose to write about how the story suggests that people should rebel against unjust power structures because Robin Hood’s actions were more ethical than those of the sheriff and a church leader! Plus the curriculum has a solid basis in the cognitive science of learning.

Anyway, my kids will miss out on this at school for sure but if it sticks I’ll be recommending APS much more than I do now.

Oh interesting I’m foreign so I didn’t know about the history. I do remember reading that criticism that at some point it was too western centric. But my understanding is that they reviewed the curriculum and made a lot of changes.

I think it is western-centric but a) with good reason—we live in the west and it’s important for kids to learn where we stand in history and b) it’s not nearly as western-centric as the curriculum I had in school. In our history class we have spent a long time on the European Middle Ages but we are also doing Islamic Middle Ages and African kingdoms during the same time period. And then there is a big unit on china and then you get to the history of the United States. Lots of kids in the US leave high school thinking Africa is a country where there are lots of lions and zebras. But kids who do core knowledge should know about the powerful and advanced civilizations of Western Africa, and how they were decimated by the trans Atlantic slave trade. So Africa is a *continent* with an diverse history and advanced civilizations. Maybe that’s relatively new though.

Anyway sorry to go on this tangent, but I just really like this curriculum.

This is not a tangent, but really valuable, info, PP. Any core-knowledge curriculum is going to be vulnerable to criticisms of Western-centrism, so it's better to have this info out there now before people accusations begin to fly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is some good news too. Arlington is adopting amplify ckla as its ELA curriculum for k-5. It’s a knowledge based curriculum with a strong phonics curriculum. Natalie Wexler, author of The Knowledge Gap has written a lot about it. Super exciting news! Obviously the next step would be adequate teacher training on the new curriculum. I’m worried there isn’t enough time for that but I am not an educator so I don’t know how much time should be allocated to teacher training.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2020/08/how-show-kids-joy-reading/615109/

Unfortunately I don’t know much about math curriculums so I have no idea if the curriculum they adopted is a good one. Figures crossed that it is.

What a horrendous choice, don’t know why you’re excited about this.

What’s the deal with this curriculum?

This choice has been finalized already?

Did they look at Wilson?

Why is it horrendous? Ed reports has given it a favorable review. The Knowledge Matters Campaign has covered it in their school tour. Natalie Wexler has written favorably about it. It earned a tier 1 rating in Louisiana (which developed a rating system for curriculums that many districts now use). I am curious what issues you have with it.

As to the Wilsons, I thought we use it already? ATS does. My question would be is CKLA replacing Wilson’s since it already has a phonics component? Or will Wilson’s still be used as well.

I'm a different poster - no the "horrendous" one.

I was looking for an independent assessment of the ELA curriculum.

ATS might be the only ES to use Wilson. I haven't heard of any others.

I know and trust Wilson and wanted to hear more about this one before forming an opinion. Looks like it used to be owned by Murdoch though? Scary.

As for an independent assessment of curriculums that’s basically what Louisiana does and most districts look at Louisiana and EdReports when assessing a curriculum. But with Ed reports you have to be careful - it doesn’t assess a curriculum based on the science of reading. Instead it assesses a curriculum based on whether it meets the standards of the common core. For exactly what you should be looking for when evaluating a curriculum for its alignment with the science of reading, see the Reading League’s Curriculum Assessment tool. Louisiana basically follows that method when assessing curriculums. Why do most districts use Louisiana’s assessments? I have no idea to be honest! I think it’s probably because they were the first ones who did it and the most comprehensive.

I’m hoping a local org with science of reading knowledge will chime in.

That’s a good point. I don’t have the slides in front of me now but I believe that the advisory council had input. I know NAACP Arlington has been actively pushing for a curriculum based on the science of reading. It would be great if they weighed in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my goodness I love core knowledge!! I’ve been using it for my homeschool curriculum and it is so fun! DS and I had a blast with King Arthur this year. I really hope that APS does it.

PP who posted about CKLA. Glad I’m not the only one! I am critical of APS as well but I give credit when credit is due. I do think that this is a good indication that Dr Duran is serious about making some major changes to APS. For some reason I posted a reply to a post on AEM about the report saying that one good thing is that APS might be adopting amplify CKLA and my reply and the post was deleted. Have no idea why.

Oh man. That’s really too bad. It’s unfortunate that the core knowledge foundation has a reputation as being more conservative and anti-teacher. I hope there isn’t a big bias against it that way. I mean, right now I’m doing an essay on Robin Hood with DS and he chose to write about how the story suggests that people should rebel against unjust power structures because Robin Hood’s actions were more ethical than those of the sheriff and a church leader! Plus the curriculum has a solid basis in the cognitive science of learning.

Anyway, my kids will miss out on this at school for sure but if it sticks I’ll be recommending APS much more than I do now.

Oh interesting I’m foreign so I didn’t know about the history. I do remember reading that criticism that at some point it was too western centric. But my understanding is that they reviewed the curriculum and made a lot of changes.

I think it is western-centric but a) with good reason—we live in the west and it’s important for kids to learn where we stand in history and b) it’s not nearly as western-centric as the curriculum I had in school. In our history class we have spent a long time on the European Middle Ages but we are also doing Islamic Middle Ages and African kingdoms during the same time period. And then there is a big unit on china and then you get to the history of the United States. Lots of kids in the US leave high school thinking Africa is a country where there are lots of lions and zebras. But kids who do core knowledge should know about the powerful and advanced civilizations of Western Africa, and how they were decimated by the trans Atlantic slave trade. So Africa is a *continent* with an diverse history and advanced civilizations. Maybe that’s relatively new though.

Anyway sorry to go on this tangent, but I just really like this curriculum.

Thanks so much PP. That sounds great! Like I said I have a foreign background and have this impression that Americans don’t know much about the rest of the world 😀 But it seems that CKLA is actually teaching a lot about the rest of the world which is great. Obviously like you said it will be western centric because well we are in a Western country. I believe the criticism was that it was “too” western centric. Based on what you are saying and what I heard, that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

I have a question for you. What is the difference between CKLA and Amplify CKLA? My understanding is E.D. Hirsch developed CKLA and it’s free. What Amplify does is package it for schools, provide teacher training, the materials and the foundational skills component (phonics etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my goodness I love core knowledge!! I’ve been using it for my homeschool curriculum and it is so fun! DS and I had a blast with King Arthur this year. I really hope that APS does it.

PP who posted about CKLA. Glad I’m not the only one! I am critical of APS as well but I give credit when credit is due. I do think that this is a good indication that Dr Duran is serious about making some major changes to APS. For some reason I posted a reply to a post on AEM about the report saying that one good thing is that APS might be adopting amplify CKLA and my reply and the post was deleted. Have no idea why.

Oh man. That’s really too bad. It’s unfortunate that the core knowledge foundation has a reputation as being more conservative and anti-teacher. I hope there isn’t a big bias against it that way. I mean, right now I’m doing an essay on Robin Hood with DS and he chose to write about how the story suggests that people should rebel against unjust power structures because Robin Hood’s actions were more ethical than those of the sheriff and a church leader! Plus the curriculum has a solid basis in the cognitive science of learning.

Anyway, my kids will miss out on this at school for sure but if it sticks I’ll be recommending APS much more than I do now.

Oh interesting I’m foreign so I didn’t know about the history. I do remember reading that criticism that at some point it was too western centric. But my understanding is that they reviewed the curriculum and made a lot of changes.

I think it is western-centric but a) with good reason—we live in the west and it’s important for kids to learn where we stand in history and b) it’s not nearly as western-centric as the curriculum I had in school. In our history class we have spent a long time on the European Middle Ages but we are also doing Islamic Middle Ages and African kingdoms during the same time period. And then there is a big unit on china and then you get to the history of the United States. Lots of kids in the US leave high school thinking Africa is a country where there are lots of lions and zebras. But kids who do core knowledge should know about the powerful and advanced civilizations of Western Africa, and how they were decimated by the trans Atlantic slave trade. So Africa is a *continent* with an diverse history and advanced civilizations. Maybe that’s relatively new though.

Anyway sorry to go on this tangent, but I just really like this curriculum.

This is not a tangent, but really valuable, info, PP. Any core-knowledge curriculum is going to be vulnerable to criticisms of Western-centrism, so it's better to have this info out there now before people accusations begin to fly.

Ha good! Those units are from the history and geography part of the curriculum, and I doubt APS will ever adopt that. The language arts curriculum from 4th grade is definitely western-centric, but it’s still pretty good. It starts out with a memoir called Brown Girl Dreaming, and The kids learn a lot about the civil rights movement and how slavery impacts identity for generations. Then there is a unit on the Middle Ages in Europe, then King Arthur, then geography, then poetry, which had poems from Langston Hughes and maya Angelou and other Black Americans. So it is western but I’m assuming it’s better than the current 4th grade curriculum?

[Anonymous]

It's been a very rough past few years for APS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my goodness I love core knowledge!! I’ve been using it for my homeschool curriculum and it is so fun! DS and I had a blast with King Arthur this year. I really hope that APS does it.

PP who posted about CKLA. Glad I’m not the only one! I am critical of APS as well but I give credit when credit is due. I do think that this is a good indication that Dr Duran is serious about making some major changes to APS. For some reason I posted a reply to a post on AEM about the report saying that one good thing is that APS might be adopting amplify CKLA and my reply and the post was deleted. Have no idea why.

Oh man. That’s really too bad. It’s unfortunate that the core knowledge foundation has a reputation as being more conservative and anti-teacher. I hope there isn’t a big bias against it that way. I mean, right now I’m doing an essay on Robin Hood with DS and he chose to write about how the story suggests that people should rebel against unjust power structures because Robin Hood’s actions were more ethical than those of the sheriff and a church leader! Plus the curriculum has a solid basis in the cognitive science of learning.

Anyway, my kids will miss out on this at school for sure but if it sticks I’ll be recommending APS much more than I do now.

Oh interesting I’m foreign so I didn’t know about the history. I do remember reading that criticism that at some point it was too western centric. But my understanding is that they reviewed the curriculum and made a lot of changes.

I think it is western-centric but a) with good reason—we live in the west and it’s important for kids to learn where we stand in history and b) it’s not nearly as western-centric as the curriculum I had in school. In our history class we have spent a long time on the European Middle Ages but we are also doing Islamic Middle Ages and African kingdoms during the same time period. And then there is a big unit on china and then you get to the history of the United States. Lots of kids in the US leave high school thinking Africa is a country where there are lots of lions and zebras. But kids who do core knowledge should know about the powerful and advanced civilizations of Western Africa, and how they were decimated by the trans Atlantic slave trade. So Africa is a *continent* with an diverse history and advanced civilizations. Maybe that’s relatively new though.

Anyway sorry to go on this tangent, but I just really like this curriculum.

Thanks so much PP. That sounds great! Like I said I have a foreign background and have this impression that Americans don’t know much about the rest of the world 😀 But it seems that CKLA is actually teaching a lot about the rest of the world which is great. Obviously like you said it will be western centric because well we are in a Western country. I believe the criticism was that it was “too” western centric. Based on what you are saying and what I heard, that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

I have a question for you. What is the difference between CKLA and Amplify CKLA? My understanding is E.D. Hirsch developed CKLA and it’s free. What Amplify does is package it for schools, provide teacher training, the materials and the foundational skills component (phonics etc).

I’m sorry I have no idea! I am just sort of flying by the seat of my pants here. There is a lot of emphasis about phonics in the materials I have, which is surprising since it is for 4th grade, and I think that the core knowledge foundation is really firm on the necessity of phonics. But other than that I have no idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my goodness I love core knowledge!! I’ve been using it for my homeschool curriculum and it is so fun! DS and I had a blast with King Arthur this year. I really hope that APS does it.

PP who posted about CKLA. Glad I’m not the only one! I am critical of APS as well but I give credit when credit is due. I do think that this is a good indication that Dr Duran is serious about making some major changes to APS. For some reason I posted a reply to a post on AEM about the report saying that one good thing is that APS might be adopting amplify CKLA and my reply and the post was deleted. Have no idea why.

Oh man. That’s really too bad. It’s unfortunate that the core knowledge foundation has a reputation as being more conservative and anti-teacher. I hope there isn’t a big bias against it that way. I mean, right now I’m doing an essay on Robin Hood with DS and he chose to write about how the story suggests that people should rebel against unjust power structures because Robin Hood’s actions were more ethical than those of the sheriff and a church leader! Plus the curriculum has a solid basis in the cognitive science of learning.

Anyway, my kids will miss out on this at school for sure but if it sticks I’ll be recommending APS much more than I do now.

well, I’m sure many many people base their school choices on your recommendation- so fandillytastic! ;0