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Open Source Academic Curriculum

An open-source, comprehensive, self-paced academic curriculum designed to help learners excel academically in Math, Reading, and Writing & Language, from Pre-Kindergarten (or earlier) through high school.

Mission

To help democratize education by providing a comprehensive, self-paced academic curriculum that is free and accessible to everyone.

Who This Is For

  • Ambitious parents looking to accelerate their children's learning outside of school
  • Students pursuing self-directed education
  • Homeschooling or unschooling families or co-ops
  • Teachers seeking additional learning curriculums and resources for their students

Ways You Might Use This Curriculum

  • As a parent, use it to accelerate your child's learning
  • As a teacher, use it to supplement your existing curriculum
  • As a student, use it to self-study or prepare for standardized tests
  • As a tutor, use it to guide your students
  • As a homeschooling or unschooling family, use it to create a personalized curriculum
  • As a homeschooling or unschooling co-op, use it to create a shared curriculum

Core Approach

Our curriculum is organized as a "graph" or network, where:

  • Each node in the graph represents a specific academic skill
  • And edges or connections between nodes indicate prerequisites or dependencies between skills

Learners can progress at their own pace through the graph, mastering each skill along the way.

Example

A small part of our skill graph might look like:

Solving Linear Equations
  ↑
Understanding Variables
  ↑
Basic Arithmetic
  ↑
Addition and Subtraction
  ↑
Counting

Current Focus

Our primary goal is to reverse engineer major college entrance exams (like the SAT) to build a comprehensive graph of academic skills, working backward from test requirements down to foundational concepts. We aim to make this entire curriculum free and accessible to everyone via a responsive website.

Why Focus on College Entrance Exams?

For better or for worse, the predominant path of education for most students today is to:

1) go to primary and secondary school 2) get into college 3) get a good job or pursue a higher degree with that college degree

However, getting into college is a major barrier for many students. Therefore, we focus on building a free and accessible curriculum that can help learners anywhere develop the academic skills needed to succeed on these exams.

At its core, we believe that education is about helping learners develop the skills they need to succeed in life, whatever "success" may mean for them.

Curriculum Structure

Currently, our curriculum is divided into three main sections:

  • Mathematics - Algebra, problem-solving, data analysis, and more
  • Reading - Comprehension, analysis, and evidence-based reading
  • Writing & Language - Grammar, expression, organization, and effective communication

Each section contains a complete graph of skills from foundational abilities (PreK-2) through advanced concepts needed to master that subject. Skills are organized hierarchically with clear prerequisites and dependencies.

Developmental Progression

Our curriculum spans the following approximate developmental levels:

Level Approximate Age/Grade Focus
Foundation Ages 3-5 / PreK Basic concepts and skills (counting, letter recognition, etc.)
Primary Ages 6-8 / Grades K-2 Fundamental skills (reading, basic arithmetic, etc.)
Intermediate Ages 9-11 / Grades 3-5 Expanding skills (multi-digit operations, paragraph writing, etc.)
Middle Ages 12-14 / Grades 6-8 Advanced fundamentals (algebra foundations, literary analysis, etc.)
Secondary Ages 15-18 / Grades 9-12 College-preparatory skills (advanced algebra, complex analysis, etc.)

Contribution Model

This is a true open-source project where:

  • Anyone can contribute content, examples, or improvements
  • Contributors may include educators, parents, and students
  • The community helps ensure quality and relevance

Development Philosophy

  1. Focus first on building a robust curriculum structure and resources
  2. Prioritize academic mastery over test-specific tricks
  3. Make learning accessible to everyone, regardless of background

Getting Started

Visit the Curriculum Overview to better understand the curriculum and how to navigate between interconnected skills and concepts.

Join the Community

This project is hosted on GitHub, and we welcome your feedback and contributions!

  • Have feedback, questions, or ideas for new resources? Start or join a discussion in the Discussions tab.
  • Found a bug or technical issue with the website? Please open an issue in the Issues tab.

You'll need a GitHub account to participate. We appreciate your input in helping make this curriculum better!

License

This project is open source under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) - see the LICENSE file for details.