Four Memphis charter schools are piloting a new reading curriculum this school year aimed at boosting reading comprehension in a city and state with lagging literacy rates.

The Core Knowledge Language Arts curriculum is in classrooms at Memphis Delta Preparatory Charter School, STAR Academy Charter School, Gestalt Community Schools and Leadership Preparatory Charter School.

Created by author and professor E.D. Hirsch Jr., the curriculum focuses on students’ background knowledge of the topic, not only their formal decoding skills.

While the curriculum is free, teacher training and related resources are being funded with grants of about $10,000 from Memphis Education Fund, a collaborative created in 2014 and rebranded in 2016 in partnership with local education leaders and philanthropists.

As a small charter organization, we don’t have the ability for professional development like that in our budget,” Michael McKenna, founder of Memphis Delta Prep. “This gave us the opportunity to collaborate with others.”

Read the full article by Caroline Bauman about reading curriculum from Chalkbeat