Parent Driven Education - Parents are the customers of education; they have the right to choose the best education for their children; and they have the right to demand performance from their selected schools.

Core Learning - An educational curriculum emphasizing mastery of the basic building blocks of learning. Reading, Writing, and Mathematics

(Founding principles: (1) Children are driven learners;  (2) Knowledge begets knowledge; (3) Knowledge builds self-esteem; (4) Critical thinking is developed through analysis).

 

Core Knowledge Schools Shine in Recent Study

"There is a significant difference between Core Knowledge schools and their counterparts in the national school system," commented Dr. John Wedman of the University of Missouri on the study that he and his colleague, Dr. Alex Waigandt, recently completed. The two researchers evaluated test score data from twenty-two Core Knowledge schools in thirteen states to identify trends in student performance. Working with national rankings from 1998 through 2003 in six content areas — reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies, environmental studies, and science — Wedman and Waigandt found that schools supported by Core Knowledge performed “well above the national average.” This performance advantage appeared across every content area and across schools of different sizes and different socioeconomic and ethnic compositions. Based on their findings, Wedman and Waigandt concluded that “there appears to be a strong relationship between student performance and the Core Knowledge curriculum.”

When we asked Dr. Wedman if something unique in the student population in Core Knowledge schools accounted for this finding, he replied in the negative, saying, “The important factor is the Core Knowledge Sequence itself, which rests on a firm empirical foundation. The data-driven research that informs the Core Knowledge program puts schools way ahead of the curve in many respects."

In the Wedman and Waigandt school study, performance data were examined to achieve the following five goals:

Findings of the study were as follows:

Overall Outcome Trends over Time

While collectively the Core Knowledge schools were well above the 50th percentile in 1998, a strong upward trend spanning the six-year period is evident, with the most recent test year (2003) showing an overall national ranking near the 80th percentile. The gradual flattening of the upward trend is to be expected as a "ceiling effect" comes into play.

Equally important, the minimum percentile score at Core Knowledge schools also showed a significant increase over the period studied while the standard deviation decreased. Therefore, according to the study, “it appears that the twenty-six Core Knowledge schools may be achieving the dual goals of . . . increasing student performance and decreasing the variability in student performance outcomes.”

Outcome Trends for Selected Content Areas over Time

Gains in student performance over time were evident in all major content areas studied. In each of the six content areas studied, the mean percentile in 2002 and 2003 exceeded the overall mean for the period, and in five of the six, gains were shown in every year.

School Performance Based on Ethnic Profiles

In keeping with national results, Core Knowledge schools showed a performance gap related to ethnicity. However, Core Knowledge schools with higher percentages of non-Caucasian students consistently scored “well above the national average, at or above the 60th percentile.

School Performance Based on Economic Profiles

Based on national statistics, one would expect to find a performance gap between affluent and less affluent schools as defined by participation in the National School Lunch Program. Significantly, in the Core Knowledge schools studied, this performance gap “narrowed considerably” in 2002 and “essentially disappeared” in 2003.

School Performance Based on School Size

As with the economic profile data, the data on school size was positive. Based on national data, one would expect to see a performance gap, with medium-sized schools tending to outperform small and large schools. Again, however, over time, this gap narrowed in the Core Knowledge schools.

The report concluded by recommending that Core Knowledge develop a more automated data reporting mechanism, allowing for real time monitoring and for strategic adjustments of the curriculum and its implementation

 

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