Common Knowledge^™
The Newsletter of the Core Knowledge Foundation

A Beacon in the Bronx

An op-ed in the October 2 New York Observer, “A Beacon in the Bronx,” relates an impressive story about Carl C. Icahn Charter School in New York City. School leaders, teachers, and students there have tackled many challenges, embraced the full Core Knowledge curriculum, and produced results that — according to the U.S. Department of Education, which gave the school a prestigious “Closing the Gap” award — distinguish the Carl Icahn School as one of the most promising charter programs in the country.

Below are some excerpts. Read the entire New York Observer article here.

“Fifty-nine percent of the school’s 278 students are African-American; 41 percent are Hispanic. Eighty-nine percent are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches, meaning that they come from poor families, many of whom live in high-rise apartment buildings near the school.

“The U.S. Department of Education recently discovered that those children and their teachers are working miracles in the South Bronx. Every student — every one of them — met state standards in language arts and mathematics in the 2004-05 school year. In 2005-06, 100 percent of the school’s third and fourth graders — 100 percent! — were judged proficient or better on state math tests.

“. . . At the Icahn school, the so-called achievement gap hasn’t simply been closed. It has been obliterated. No child is being left behind; indeed, the children at this charter school are surging ahead of their peers. . . .

“. . . It starts with leadership. The school’s principal, Jeffrey Litt, is a fixture in the community and a tireless advocate for his students. But he is more than an administrator: He is an educator. The school’s curriculum is based on author E.D. Hirsch’s concept of core knowledge, which identifies content in the humanities and the sciences that every American child ought to know.”

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