May 15, 2020
Chattanooga Charter School of Excellence (CCSE) is located in the heart of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was established in 2011. CCSE provides high quality, rigorous teaching, and learning several different tactics including single-gender classrooms and the Core Knowledge curriculum. CCSE was also designated a TN Reward School by the Tennessee Department of Education in 2019, which means they are improving in terms of achievement and growth for all students.
Read below from Tina Childers, Assistant Principal at CCSE, as she shares how the Core Knowledge curriculum is so effective while continuing to align to the Tennessee State Standards.
Chattanooga Charter School of Excellence is built around the implementation of the Core Knowledge Sequence. The mission of the Core Knowledge Foundation and its founder, E.D. Hirsch, Jr. is to ensure “Excellence and Equity for All Children.” The Core Knowledge Sequence (CKS) provides a detailed outline of specific content and skills that is partnered with State and local guidelines to ensure student success and a well-rounded educational experience.
The CKS provides distinct areas of content in language arts, history and geography, mathematics, science, and the fine arts. CCSE uses the CKS as the center around which our school’s instructional pacing guide is developed.
The CKS provides students with a solid foundation of content on which to build knowledge thus promoting student achievement. Knowledge builds on knowledge and to close the achievement gap among learners, they need a curriculum that is coherent and content rich. Knowledge is the key to reading comprehension and students need a broad, content-rich base of knowledge in order to understand what they read. This is particularly important in the inner city to ensure that a child’s life experience does not serve as a barrier to understanding various contexts and themes across history and literature.
The CKS was developed to ensure that the common knowledge that all learners need in order to communicate effectively and become successful citizens is available for all students, instructional equity by design. The Core Knowledge Foundation states that “only by specifying the knowledge that all children should share can we guarantee equal access to that knowledge.” The diversity of literature and history topics embrace the multicultural needs of CCSE.
In an era where many schools have opted out of music and art as an essential component of a child’s education, the CKS provides students with a diverse curriculum that exposes them to both visual arts and music to ensure that students receive a well-rounded education.
Learn more about CCSE at https://www.chattanoogacharter.com/.
