Arizona's first three Official Core Knowledge® Schools and
Visitation Sites
Pinnacle Peak and Wildire Elementary Schools are now Official Core Knowledge® Schools and Visitation Sites as designated by the Core Knowledge Foundation.
Pinnacle Peak and Wildfire are the second and third public schools in the state to achieve this status, following Grayhawk Elementary School which was awarded in January, 2005.
According to the Core Knowledge Website, "Official Core Knowledge School and Visitation Sites are schools that have been personally visited by our staff or consultants and been deemed exemplary according to the criteria set forth by the Core Knowledge Foundation. In addition to meeting the requirements to be an Official Core Knowledge School, these schools are implementing 100% of the sequence and have been designated as model schools for interested parties to visit and see Core Knowledge fully implemented." |
The Core Knowledge Sequence is the result of a lengthy research process taken on by the Core Knowledge Foundation. The Sequence was put together by a group of educational professionals who consulted with academic organizations and studied different countries with successful educational systems. Students are exposed to integrated studies in world and American geography and history, science, visual arts, music, math and language arts.
The Paradise
Valley Unified School District was the first K-12
district in Arizona to implement the Core Knowledge
curriculum |
The Core Knowledge movement is an educational
reform based on the premise that a grade-by-grade core of
common learning is necessary to ensure a sound and fair elementary
education. The movement was started by Professor E. D. Hirsch,
Jr., author of Cultural Literacy and The Schools
We Need, and is based on a large body of research in
cognitive psychology, as well as a careful examination of
several of the world's fairest and most effective school
systems. Professor Hirsch has argued that, for the sake of
academic excellence, greater fairness and higher literacy,
early schooling should provide a solid, specific, shared
core curriculum in order to help children establish strong
foundations of knowledge. Currently, hundreds of schools
and thousands of dedicated educators are participating in
this school reform movement throughout the United States.
At a Core Knowledge school, the Core Knowledge Sequence
represents the common ground upon which a faculty meets and
collaborates to teach a sequenced, coherent curriculum. In
this cumulative curriculum, the knowledge and skills learned
each year become the students' foundation for learning in
subsequent years. (Source: The Core Knowledge Foundation)
The program is now offered at these PVUSD schools:
- Boulder Creek Elementary School
- Campo Bello Elementary School
- Eagle Ridge Elementary School
- Grayhawk Elementary School**
- Pinnacle Peak Elementary School**
- Sunset Canyon Elementary School
- Wildfire Elementary School**
- Mountain Trail Middle School
**Official Core Knowledge® Schools and Visitation Sites |
