core curriculum

plural core curricula · plural core curriculums

1. educationThe courses or other components of an educational program which are foundational, prerequisite, or mandatory, as opposed to the elective, secondary, or variable components of a program.

   Even the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act includes foreign languages as part of a core curriculum.

   2007, Anne C. Lewis, “Language Learning and National Security”, in Phi Delta Kappan, volume 89, number 2, page 84

   2 more examples

   The senior high school, if free to concentrate on intensive specialized courses and a core curriculum of constants, will consummate the socially integrating influences of the elementary school.

   1923, James M. Glass, “The Reorganization of the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Grades—Program of Studies”, in The School Review, volume 31, number 7, pages 523–524

   Thus, the undergraduate core curriculum is a college's foundational education, a developing lens that effectively focuses issues of whatever sort and projects them, so focused, onto a community screen as conventional wisdom.

   1991, David M. Bossman, “Cross-Cultural Values for a Pluralistic Core Curriculum”, in The Journal of Higher Education, volume 62, number 6, page 662