Academics
Woodbury Leadership Academy uses the research-based, academically rigorous Core Knowledge Sequence to ensure that students meet and exceed the Minnesota Academic Standards. Core Knowledge is a solid, sequential, and specific curriculum, based on the principles of establishing a national cultural literacy, or broad common knowledge base.
How WLA Fosters Academic Success:
- Rigorous content organized by "Domains of Study"
- High expectations
- Inquiry-based learning
- Complementing knowledge and skills
- Family & community involvement
- Cross-curricular connections
- Specialist classes, including: Music, P.E., Art & Media
Many educators believe that schools are good at teaching and testing facts, but that students are not prepared to apply those facts to solving problems. Core Knowledge believes that for students to solve meaningful problems, they must first be supplied with knowledge about the domain of study. Skills and knowledge should complement each other.
The subject matter covered in Core Knowledge Sequence is rigorous. Students are exposed to multiple "Domains of Study" and content-rich vocabulary. Additionally, students are expected to move at a fast pace, as there are many "Domains of Study" in each grade level that must be covered. For students to be successful in this rigorous environment, families must be involved in their child's education.
What is Core Knowledge?
The mission of the Core Knowledge Foundation is to advance excellence and equity in education for all children.
To achieve this mission, they offer detailed curricular guidance and materials to schools, teachers, parents, and policy makers—to anyone who believes, as we do, that every child in a diverse democracy deserves access to enabling knowledge.
The Core Knowledge approach puts knowledge at the heart of schooling.
Specific and Sequenced: Most curriculum standards provide general goals and objectives but offer teachers little guidance about the specific knowledge students should learn in each grade. In contrast, the Core Knowledge approach is to specify, in a clear grade-by-grade sequence, what students need to know.
Excellence and Equity: Only by specifying the knowledge and skills that all children should share can we guarantee equal access to that knowledge. Educational excellence and equity require that every child in a democracy have access to important shared knowledge and language.
Starting Early: It’s important to begin building strong foundations of knowledge in the early years. The Core Knowledge approach focuses on preschool through grade eight. In these early years, especially the preschool and elementary grades, schools can do the most to help children lay the groundwork for language development and future success.
To learn more about Core Knowledge, click HERE!
The Core Knowledge Sequence provides a detailed outline of content knowledge & skills to be taught in language arts, history and geography, mathematics, science, visual arts and music. The Sequence is intended to help children establish strong foundations of knowledge grade-by-grade. The Core Knowledge Sequence embodies three essential qualities: (1) content-specific, (2) cumulative & (3) coherent.