Eric Hirsch is an American educator who argued that a lack of shared cultural knowledge among students and a fragmented curriculum has contributed to declining literacy rates in the US. He proposed that schools teach a specific core body of knowledge to ensure all students have a strong foundation. Hirsch established the Core Knowledge Foundation to create a detailed outline called the Core Knowledge Sequence of the essential concepts and information he believes every student should learn from preschool through 8th grade to improve reading comprehension and cultural literacy.