1997 Denver Post Article on Core Knowledge

Still purging my old charter school files...

In 1997 Janet Bingham did a three-part series in the Denver Post about charter schools. The second piece in the series was about the prevalence of Core Knowledge charter schools in Colorado. Since the beginning, Core Knowledge charter schools have typically comprised at least 40% of the state's charters.

Dr. E.D. Hirsch, the originator of the Core Knowledge curriculum, has repeatedly expressed surprise that his culturally-based curriculum appealed to conservatives. In the Denver Post article, he says, "I'm a political liberal. My agenda is a social justice agenda. The core curriculum, he said, assures that all children have access to the same foundation of knowledge. If you want social and economic justice, yo've got to give children a rigorous education."

The article also quotes Mike Munier, Principal at Jefferson Academy, as saying about 40% of students initially arrived below grade level when the school opened in 1994. At the end of the second year of JA, only 18% were below grade level.