Jump Start to College

At STRIDE, our ultimate goal is to prepare every child for college or schooling beyond high school. Post secondary schooling is proving to be essential in today's world economy. However, we cannot look past the importance of the early childhood years. I often find my self wandering the halls here at STRIDE seeking exciting instruction and actively engaged kids. One of my favorite visits includes the kindergarten wing. These classrooms guarantee numerous smiles, hellos and even hugs. Most excitedly is the love, curiosity and engagement. Last week I watched kindergarten students learn how to care for pets and in the same day learn the seven continents. The seven continents in kindergarten? Yes! I am so impressed with what kindergarten students can absorb, their natural curiosity and mostly, for the teachers that care and nurture their students. The free all day everyday kindergarten at STRIDE has been integral to jump starting our students towards college.

What is "Core Knowledge"?

STRIDE Academy uses the Core Knowledge Sequence as our curriculum for music, art, science and social studies. 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. After wide consultation, the content of this core curriculum has been outlined in two books — the Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence and the Core Knowledge Sequence, K–8 — that state explicitly what students should learn at each grade level. Currently, hundreds of schools and thousands of dedicated educators are participating in this school reform movement throughout the United States. from www.coreknowledge.org