All kinds of minds--not just the “best and brightest.” We believe that academic success leads to career success and that many, many kids can get there. But we also recognize that there is more than one way of learning — that not all kids learn in the same way. Given the right mix of tools and approaches, mastery should be for everyone.
Our curriculum is provided in a way that allows you to adjust to the pace, schedule, and learning style that works best for your child — which could vary day by day and subject by subject. We’ve set out very clear lesson objectives for you, and our assessments are designed to help you and your teacher gauge when your child has mastered each objective. We’ve also included a variety of activities; the type and amount of activity needed to master each lesson objective will vary by subject and child. Your teacher will work with you to make sure you know if your child can move on, or needs to slow things down and do more to cement a concept or skill.
We also know how to match the right learning tool to the task. We use rich digital media and animations when a lesson is best taught using interactivity. We use beautiful illustrations and words that make stories and ideas jump off the page when print works best. And we use paint, rocks, dirt and other messy stuff when the best approach is to get their hands dirty. These approaches help engage young minds in the right ways.
It doesn’t matter whether your child is used to being the head of the class, feeling left behind, or somewhere in between — we will set you on the right path, we will give you the best tools and we will support you as you guide your child through some of the best educational experiences ever created.
It won’t be easy. But it will be exhilarating as you watch your child’s mind grow, month by month, year by year.
Building a solid foundation
To succeed in modern society, you have to know a lot. And you have to have this knowledge instantly accessible at your mental fingertips. So how do we get all this important knowledge? Well, you might think schools would teach it. But that’s not always the case. Schools vary widely in the depth and breadth of what they teach.
Faced with such variation, how can we be sure our children are learning what they need to know? To address this question, the curriculum experts at K12 have consulted with many experts in various fields to gain insights into what experts know and how they structure their knowledge. We’ve also examined many state standards, research reports, and model curriculum programs. In our judgment, one of the strongest, most thoroughly researched models comes from the non-profit Core Knowledge Foundation, founded in 1986 by University of Virginia professor E. D. Hirsch, Jr.
Professor Hirsch set in motion a long process of research and consensus-building that led to the publication of the Core Knowledge Sequence. Core Knowledge offers specific content guidelines, grade by grade, in history, geography, mathematics, science, language arts, visual arts, and music. It explicitly and concretely lays out the important knowledge and skills our children need.
In its first years, the Core Knowledge Sequence was tested in a range of schools: private and public, rural, urban, and suburban, some serving the privileged and others the disadvantaged. The sequence was then revised based on this practical experience. The Core Knowledge Sequence has helped inspire and guide K12 as we developed our curriculum for the elementary and middle grades. We’ve adapted, varied, and added to the Core Knowledge recommendations based upon our own continuing research into how children learn, how technology can enhance learning, and the best materials to support learning.
The K12 curriculum offers rich, challenging, and engaging content. Moreover, this content is carefully sequenced so that, from one grade to the next, students build new knowledge on the strong foundations of what they’ve already learned. We’ve been careful to ensure that students of our curriculum won’t suffer from the repetitions and gaps that afflict many classrooms. Our curriculum is designed to make sure that kids get the core knowledge they need—that they learn what they need to know to succeed and thrive.