Central Park™ is designed to be an interactive web-based reading, math, and science curriculum for children ages two to eight that teaches both educational and character education concepts. Through a cast of fully developed animated characters with an embedded narrative structure featuring 3-D animation, music, and character interaction, Central Park is adaptive to each individual student and maintains a child’s attention to learning. Central Park is a web-delivered product, with the intent that any family with Internet could access it.
Central Park is based on a foundation of nationally recognized standards for the instruction of children in reading, math, and science. Overall, the curriculum is a developmentally appropriate continuum representing comprehensive depth and breadth. Each level builds to the next. High expectations, at the child’s uppermost zone of proximal development, dictate content delivery. As children strive to achieve core-content competencies, they are given instructionally appropriate material to help them attain success. This includes scaffolding, remediation, or more challenging material.
As well as teaching educational concepts, Central Park also teaches and models key non-cognitive concepts—concepts crucial for children in developing lifelong skills and values. The goal is to facilitate the social-emotional growth of children while promoting positive family and friend relationships. Non-cognitive objectives are organized into six categories based on the Six Pillars of Education, part of the Character Counts Program from the Josephson Institute of Ethics: trustworthiness; respect; responsibility; fairness; caring; and citizenship.
