Core Knowledge, which comprises 50% of the Village Green curriculum, was developed by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., who recently retired from the faculty of the University of Virginia. He authored the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy for adults as well as A First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy for children. The school curriculum program, supporting this concept of cultural literacy, is a curriculum of sequential learning that builds on previously learned material and provides consistency and related vocabulary as a common ground between grade levels. This program has been extremely successful for our learners. E.D. Hirsch has done research to confirm the importance of building upon vocabulary and the fact that the child with the most extensive vocabulary had a significant edge in the ability to accumulate knowledge. In teaching children the love of language and the skills involved in learning to read, this program has been most effective. The success of our curriculum was demonstrated when our 2001-02 graduating kindergarteners and Montessori graduates took part in the Metropolitan Early Childhood Assessment Program. They all scored above average in their performance rating. Overview of the Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence For Further Information: www.Coreknowledge.org