Our cause
The Knowledge Matters Campaign believes high-quality curriculum grounded in the science of reading, learning, and knowledge-building is an essential lever to transform instruction, promote equity, and sustainably ensure all students can be strong readers, writers, thinkers, and speakers.
We provide free, research-based tools and learning opportunities for the field, including our podcasts, webinars, our Curriculum Directory and Review Tools, and sponsorship of the Curriculum Matters Professional Learning Network (PLN).
Our work is informed by an independent Scientific Advisory Committee of leading experts in cognitive science, education research, and public policy and builds on more than three decades of field-leading expertise by StandardsWork, the parent organization of Knowledge Matters.
Scientific Advisory Committee
The Knowledge Matters Campaign is fortunate to receive guidance from a distinguished group of education researchers who constitute our Scientific Advisory Committee. While this group is not formally associated with the Campaign and does not endorse—as a group or as individuals—everything said or done via the campaign, we are grateful for their wisdom and humbled by their commitment to advancing our understanding of how children learn to read and write.
The Committee meets quarterly and regularly updates the Campaign about new developments and insights from research, policy, and practice related to how building content knowledge impacts literacy and learning. Members represent a range of scholarly disciplines and areas of expertise, including cognitive psychology, literacy, neuroscience, linguistics, and education policy and practice.
Support our work
Our work is made possible through the generosity of donors who believe in improving instruction and expanding access to evidence-based, knowledge-rich learning. That support helps us continue to provide free tools, resources, and learning opportunities to the field. We hope you will join us in this mission.
To learn more, contact us at fundraising@knowledgematters.org.
StandardsWork, our parent organization, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit registered in the United States. Your donation is tax-deductible.
Our history
The Knowledge Matters Campaign was launched in 2015 by a group of education thought leaders who understood the essential role of background knowledge to reading comprehension and critical thinking. Almost immediately, hundreds of educators from across the country endorsed the organization’s call to “make building knowledge Job One for American education.” A 2018 national survey of teachers found that students in grades K–6 receive a mere 16–21 minutes a day on social studies and 19–24 minutes on science, which defies everything we know from research about the critical role knowledge plays in learning to read and write well.
For the last 10 years, we have endeavored to “find the good and praise it,” by amplifying excellence and advancing three core principles: curriculum counts, knowledge matters, and proven practices deliver. The Knowledge Matters School Tour has visited more than 50 schools and communities and collected stories from hundreds of educators and leaders to demonstrate what’s possible when high-quality, knowledge-building curriculum and aligned instruction and professional learning work together.
As we enter our second decade, Knowledge Matters endeavors to show educators and parents that wonder and excitement CAN be a part of every child’s learning experience. We also seek to cut through the confusion about what constitutes excellence in knowledge-building materials and instruction. We will continue to highlight the many virtues of true knowledge-building curricula, including which ones are the strongest in the eyes of literacy leaders.