The final type of evidence examines the effect of a multi-year curriculum designed to build knowledge that will support reading. One study followed children who won or lost kindergarten lotteries to attend Core Knowledge charter schools in Colorado (see “How Building Knowledge Boosts Literacy and Learning,” research, Spring 2024). The schools did not use a set curriculum but followed a detailed, grade-by-grade sequence of topics. By comparing lottery winners to non-winners, the researchers found that students who attended Core Knowledge schools scored much higher on state reading tests in grades 3 through 6 and demonstrated gains in science and smaller improvements in math. The gain in reading amounted to about 16 percentile points.