Knowledge Matters

Our mantra is that building knowledge is the work of schooling. This idea doesn’t sound especially radical, but it is. Why? Because for decades K-12 education has largely been focused on the development of critical thinking skills with ever shrinking time dedicated to subjects in social studies, science, and the arts that build knowledge of our world and provide the grist for skills application.

 

In adopting this mantra, StandardsWork aligns itself with, and advances the goals of, the Knowledge Matters Campaign, for which it assumed direction in fall 2016.

 

A wealth of resources for teachers and parents are housed on the Knowledge Matters website, which we invite you to visit. This article sums up the case for building students’ background knowledge, claiming it is the only truly effective lever for improving reading comprehension.