Core Knowledge Foundation

10/07/2026

New on the Core Knowledge Free Library: listen-and-read audiobooks 🎧

If your child loves being read to (or if you've ever lost your voice halfway through a chapter), this one's for you.

The Core Knowledge Free Library just added audio narration across 11 titles in the library, with more planned in the coming weeks! The text highlights as the narrator reads, so kids can follow along word by word.

Here's why that matters: following along while listening is one of the most effective ways to build reading fluency. It's the kind of read-aloud practice teachers have always recommended, and now it's available for free at home.

No login. No subscription. Just open, read, and listen at coreknowledgefreelibrary.org.

Try it tonight. Your kid picks the book, the narrator does the reading, and everybody wins!

09/22/2026

📣 Announcing the 2027 Core Knowledge Conference Call for Proposals

Forty years ago, E.D. Hirsch, Jr. made a simple and radical argument: every child deserves access to the knowledge that makes learning possible. That idea sparked a movement. And the movement is still going.

We are celebrating in Scottsdale. You're invited.

Next June, the Core Knowledge community is coming together to mark 40 years of that work. The 2027 Core Knowledge Conference is bringing the community together for two days of real conversation about what works, what we are still figuring out, and where knowledge-rich education goes from here. Researchers, classroom teachers, school leaders, homeschool families, and everyone in between.

If you have been part of this for years, this is your reunion. If you are new to the community, this is the room you have been looking for.

The Call for Proposals is now open. If you have something to share, we want to hear it.

👉 Learn more: https://www.coreknowledge.org/2027-conference-call-for-proposals/

June 24-25, 2027. Scottsdale, Arizona. 40 years of knowledge-building education. See you there!

09/21/2026

📚 Free reading list by grade, aligned to your fall history units.

Every title below comes straight from the Voices in History and Adventures in History cross-curriculum connections guides, matched to a real fall unit.

Elementary

🔹 Grade 2: Harriet Tubman: The Day of Jubilee (Civil War)
🔹 Grade 3: Cleopatra: The Goddess Queen (Ancient Rome)
🔹 Grade 4: Alexander Hamilton: Building a Nation (The United States Constitution)
🔹 Grade 5: Federico Fernández Cavada: The Spy in the Hot-Air Balloon (The Civil War)

Middle School

🔹 Grade 6: The Gilded Age: Stone by Stone (The Making of America)
🔹 Grade 7: Benjamin Franklin: Let the Experiment Be Made (Civics and Economics in U.S. History)
🔹 Grade 8: Cleopatra: The Goddess Queen (The Ancient World to the Medieval Era)

All free on the Core Knowledge Free Library. No login, no subscription.

👉 Head to coreknowledgefreelibrary.org to start reading tonight.

09/18/2026

🌍 Every two years, the Core Knowledge community comes together. In June 2027, we're heading to Scottsdale, Arizona.

And this conference will be especially meaningful as we celebrate 40 years of the Core Knowledge Foundation and four decades of working to make high-quality instructional materials accessible to learners everywhere.

What can you expect?

🌍 Educators and education professionals from around the world
📚 Inspiring keynotes and practical workshops
💡 Thought-provoking discussions and new ideas
🤝 Meaningful connections with colleagues who share our passion for knowledge-rich education

📅 June 24-25, 2027
📍 Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S.A.

Whether you're a teacher, researcher, curriculum designer, homeschooling parent, or part of the wider Core Knowledge community, we hope you'll join us.

And if you've ever thought, “I'd love to share what we're learning,” or “I know someone who would be an amazing presenter…”

Keep an eye on our socials over the next few days.

Our Call for Proposals is coming soon. 🎤

09/17/2026

To every teacher with a classroom that still needs stocking, a roster that just changed, and a curriculum plan that isn't quite done yet: you're not behind. You're right on time. 🍎

The Core Knowledge free tools library has everything you need to walk in ready this fall:

🔹 Scope and sequence documents for every grade
🔹 Pacing guides to map your year
🔹 Implementation resources for new CK schools
🔹 Free read-alouds from the CK Free Library tied directly to your units

Whether you're teaching Ancient Rome in third grade or westward expansion in fifth, there's a free resource ready for you. No budget required.

👉 coreknowledge.org/tools-resources

If you know a teacher who could use a head start, share this post. They deserve it.

07/27/2026

Dr. Hirsch wrote this for the CK Core Classics edition of The Iliad and the Odyssey, years before Christopher Nolan turned it into the biggest movie of the summer.

The story is 3,000 years old and still landing.

Hospitality as a moral code. The cost of getting home. What it means to live a life worth remembering. These aren't just plot points. They're ideas young readers carry with them.

Use this moment to explore the everlasting themes of the Odyssey with your kid

👉 Download the Core Classics edition, written for young readers: https://www.coreknowledge.org/free-resource/ckla-unit-4-the-iliad-and-the-odyssey-and-other-greek-stories/

07/20/2026

Ever notice how a kid can sound out every word perfectly and still have no idea what they just read?

Cognitive scientist Dr. Daniel Willingham (also a Core Knowledge board member!) digs into why on a new podcast episode: comprehension depends heavily on what a reader already knows about the world, not just their phonics skills.

The classic example: give two readers the same passage about a baseball game. The one who knows the sport understands it. The one who doesn't can pronounce every word and still couldn’t tell you what happened on the field.

That's the difference background knowledge makes. That’s why we do what we do at Core Knowledge.

How much of reading comprehension depends on what students already ...

07/01/2026

History isn’t a stack of dates. It’s a story told through specific people doing specific things at specific moments.

Take Elizabeth Freeman. In 1781, she sued for her freedom in a Massachusetts courtroom and won.

Her case helped end slavery in the state decades before the Civil War.

Or the War of 1812, a conflict most adults vaguely remember, but one that shaped American sovereignty, the national anthem, and the country that emerged from it.

When kids study these specific stories, through the Voices in History biographies and the CKHG curriculum, they don’t just memorize.

They understand.

That’s what knowledge-building actually looks like.

Explore the CKHG history curriculum and Voices in History biographies: https://www.coreknowledge.org/download-free-curriculum/

06/30/2026

What if every child, every single one, were taught real, substantive knowledge from kindergarten on?

That’s the question at the heart of a new piece from the Core Knowledge Foundation.

And the answer is more powerful than most people realize.

When kids build broad, coherent background knowledge early, they don’t just become better readers. They become more confident thinkers.

More curious learners. More capable participants in the world.

This isn’t a luxury for kids in well-funded schools. This is what every child deserves, in every classroom, regardless of zip code.

Read the full piece (and share it with someone who needs to read it).

Beth Anderson  5 min read · Apr 23, 2026 In March, I walked into a classroom in Lake Havasu Unified School District knowing this wasn’t a typical school system.  It’s one of the only districts in the country to fully adopt the Core Knowledge curriculum, district-wide.  But even so, I wasn....

06/28/2026

One artist. One painting. One story your kids will remember forever. 🎨

Meet Henry Ossawa Tanner, the first African American painter to gain international acclaim.

Born in 1859, the son of a minister, Tanner used his brush to tell deeply human stories that broke barriers and reshaped what American art could look like.

His paintings are featured in the Core Knowledge Visual Arts (CKVA) curriculum, alongside artists from across cultures and centuries.

CKVA brings these stories, and the works themselves, into K–8 classrooms with ready-made discussion prompts and creative activities.

No art degree required. Just one painting and one good question.

Explore CKVA and meet the artists who shaped art history: coreknowledge.org/visual-arts/