K-12 Curriculum Development

 
 
The following quote provides an opportunity for educators to discuss opportunity to learn, curriculum development, essential learnings, enduring understandings, the enacted curriculum, curriculum alignment and pacing.  Additional resources on these topics may be found by clicking on the topics listed in the blog archives.  This quote explains the complexity of K-12 curriculum development. 

“The enacted curriculum, the actual instruction delivered in the classroom, is ultimately controlled by the teacher, negotiated with a particular set of students at a particular time.  In designing the enacted curriculum, teachers make content decisions about how much time to spend, what topics to cover within what time, which students are to study what content and to what standards of achievement.  Collectively, these four teacher content decisions determine school provided opportunity to learn (Porter et al. 1988).  As a result, there are substantial differences in the enacted curriculum provided by teachers teaching ostensibly the same course, even within the same school” (Porter, 1989).   

Questions for Discussion:

1.  Does our school system have a process for curriculum development?

2.  Does our school system use technology to support ongoing collaboration
    and professional conversations regarding K-12 curriculum decisions?

3.  What is our current reality?  In other words, what is the enacted
     curriculum?

4.  What are the four teacher content decisions that determine school
     provided opportunity to learn?

5.  How can this short quote help our staff improve our current K-12
    curriculum development process? 


Reference:

Porter, A. C. (1994). Standards and school improvement in the 1990's:
      Issues and Promise. American Journal of Education, 102(4), 421-449.




 
 

Curriculum clutter impacts student achievement.  "When school staff have a more informed conception of curriculum, a teacher's daily decisions about how to deliver instruction not only affect student achievement in that classroom but also future student achievement, for it is assumed that students will be entering the next classroom prepared to handle a more sophisticated or more expansive level of work" (Zmuda, Kuklis & Kline, 2004, p. 122).

As schools enter the month of May, educators ask the following questions:

a)  How can we teach it all?

b)  Should we teach each standard well or should we prioritize the state
     standards?

c)  What skills and understandings should all students have by the end of this
     grade level/course?  How do we adjust our pacing to make these goals a
     reality in the upcoming school year?

One common complaint among teachers and administrators is the lack of time to reflect on the written, taught and received curriculum.  In August, teachers are beginning the school year and some complain that it is too early in the year to discuss the curriculum.  In March and April, teachers have spring break and other holidays which interfere with curriculum meetings.  In May, teachers are amazed that another school year is coming to a close.  In order to prevent curriculum clutter, schools should ask the following questions:

1.  What are the key concepts and skills in each unit of study?

2.  Did our pacing allow us to teach the key concepts and skills this year?

3.  Are we attempting to teach too many concepts and skills in some units?

4.  Are we teaching all key concepts and skills for mastery or should we aim for
     introducing some concpepts/skills and mastery of others?

5.  When will we schedule time to discuss the curriculum in 2009-2010?

In other words, how can we meet on a regular basis to avoid arriving in the
final weeks of the 2009-2010 school year feeling overwhelmed by curriculum clutter?  Wiggins and McTighe (2007) wrote, “Schooling at its best reflects a purposeful arrangement of parts and details, organized with deliberate intention, for achieving the kinds of learning we seek” (p. 9).