K-12 Curriculum Development

Judie Haynes is the author and co-author of five books on helping classroom teachers with their second language population: Getting Started With English Language Learners,Newcomer Program Grades K-2,Newcomer Program Grades 3-6, Classroom Teacher's ESL Survival Kit #1,and Classroom Teacher's ESL Survival Kit #2. She also co-authored a chapter in TESOL's Integrating Standards into Classroom Practice.

Twenty-Five Quick Tips for Classroom Teachers provides practical suggestions for the mainstream classroom teacher.  

Educators may also review Getting Started with English Language Learners by Judie Haynes for free. This book will provide you with basic concepts and can't-miss strategies for boosting the achievement of English language learners whether you are new to teaching ELLs or an old hand. 

America’s public schools enroll about 5 million English language learners (ELLs) – twice the number from just 15 years ago, and that number is expected to double again by 2015. English language learners are the fastest growing group of students in the United States today (Source:  National Education Association).  

K-12 curriculum development and instruction focuses on preparing students for life and work beyond the twelfth grade.  National reports indicate that a large number of students are not enrolled in school through the twelfth grade.  According to a report by the Alliance for Excellent Education, "Over a million of the students who enter ninth grade each fall fail to graduate with their peers four years later.  In fact, about seven thousand students drop out every school day."  This is unacceptable in today's workforce.

The following link shows a disturbing political cartoon:
http://www.all4ed.org/files/DF_01_1.jpg

High School Dropouts

One of the documents which has brought needed attention to this national crisis is "The Silent Epidemic" published in 2006.  While this document was published four years ago, educators can still begin a conversation about the dropout crisis by using quotes and statistics in this document as a starting point.

K-12 Curriculum Development provides an opportunity for educators to share strategies for increasing high school graduation rates and decreasing dropout rates. 

Questions For Discussion:
1.  What strategies does your school use to monitor student attendance?

2.  Does your school call the parent/guardian if a student is absent?

3.  Does your high school offer credit recovery programs?

4.  Does your high school set SMART goals for addressing the graduation
     rate/dropout rate?

5.  Does your school offer additional support for students who have been
     identified for being at-risk of dropping out?

6.  If we know that students drop out of school, should we develop strategies for
     supporting students and identifying at-risk students?

7.  Do you have a link to a PowerPoint presentation or your school website which
     offers information to parents and students regarding the negative
     consequences of dropping out of high school?

8.  Do you have programs which support high school graduation rates (i.e., AVID,
     Early College, Virtual Courses, Credit Recovery, Pyramid of Interventions,
     Lunch Tutorials, Alternative School, Weekly Advisory, Yearlong Classes on the
     Block Schedule, Reading and Math support for identified students, Ninth Grade
     Academy, or other school-designed programs and opportunities for
     students)?  Please describe.

Educators do not need to answer each question.  If one question is specific to the work being conducted in your school or school district, please answer that question.  If you have a URL link to your school site wiith resources related to dropout prevention, please share the link with the K-12 Curriculum Development community.  This is a conversation that will improve the lives of millions of students.  While the high school dropout rate is a crisis in each school, it is a national crisis with international implications.  "Nationally, about 71 percent of all students graduate from high school on time....but barely half of African Americans and Hispanic students earn diplomas with their peers.  In many states the difference between white and minority graduation rates is stunning; in several cases there is a gap of as many as 40 or 50 percentage points" (Alliance For Excellent Education, Feb. 2009).

Join the Conversation! 

Teaching to the Test: Is it a best practice or education malpractice?  Since the introduction of high-stakes testing, educators have attempted to weigh the benefits versus the consequences of teaching to the test.  Some educators argue that teaching to the test is unethical.  In most states, teachers can lose their teaching license if they are caught teaching to the test.  However, if you are teaching in a standards-based education system (all 50 states in the U.S.), then teaching the standards could be viewed as teaching to the test.  If teaching to the test means that students have been exposed to the standards and there are no surprises on the End-of-Grade or End-of-Course test, then this practice could be viewed as ethical.

James Popham (2001) wrote an informative article titled, Teaching to the Test: High Crime, Misdemeanor, or Just Good Instruction.  Popham suggested that educators should "immediately expunge the phrase 'teaching to the test' from our educational lexicon, forcing folks to say either 'teaching to the test's items' or 'teaching to the knowledge/skills' represented by the test."

Common Problems with "Teaching to the Test":
1.  Curricular Reductionism
A narrow focus on the tested subjects or excluding certain skills and concepts because they cannot be measured on a multiple-choice test

2.  Covering standards (a.k.a. "Coverage")
Wiggins and McTighe (2005) discuss the Twin Sins of Curriculum Development and they call the twin sins coverage-focused teaching and activity-focused teaching.  In today's high-stakes era of testing and accountability teachers feel pressure to 'cover' material, rather than teach for understanding.  Covering material may indicate that a teacher has taught content or checked off each state standard, but it does not mean that student understanding took place.

3.  Test Prep Activities
In defense of classroom teachers, I have rarely met a teacher who enjoys "Drill and Kill" test prep for the final month of the school year.  By looking at the faces of students, it appears that drill and kill lessons take the joy out of learning.  If you have ever visited a low-performing school or a school that is focused on increasing test scores at all costs, then you have probably witnessed Test Prep Activities.  Some Superintendents even praise principals who raise test scores using these practices.  While test prep activities may increase scores, the activities rarely transfer to student understanding or transfer of learning.

Conclusion:
I could cite over 20 problems with "teaching to the test", but educators already understand the problems and know the solution to many of these problems.  As Popham suggested, "teaching to the test" is a phrase with multiple meanings.  As we enter the second semester of the 2009-2010 school year, I encourage educators to have this conversation in each school and each school district.  What do we mean when we say "teaching to the test?"  What are the 'benefits' of teaching to the test?  Does "teaching to the test" help all students?  Do we want to teach to the test or teach for student understanding?  What are the consequences of spending the final month of school on test review and test prep activities?  Is teaching to the test a best practice or education malpractice?

Final Thought:
"Whatever else Opportunity to Learn (OTL) may entail, it must surely encompass a consideration of the content taught.  Students can scarcely be said to have had an opportunity to learn content they never encountered" (Moss, 2008, p. 19).  If Teaching to the Test means that every student in a school district receives the state and local curriculum and that the curriculum is not reduced to tested subjects or tested items, then I favor teaching to the test.  Student achievement should not be dictated by a zip code, student assignment, board policies, teaching practices, tracking, or school leadership. 


Please feel free to share your thoughts on testing and accountability, teaching to the test, and other thoughts you have on these important topics and policy issues. 

Opportunity to Learn was introduced by John Carroll (1963), who asserted an individual cannot learn a task if he or she is not allowed enough time to do so.  Since 1963, various national and international studies have been conducted in an effort to measure opportunity to learn.  The IEA Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), English Language Learners and Math Achievement: A Study of Opportunity to Learn and Language Accomodation, the Education for All Global Monitoring Report(s), and the National Educational Longitudianl Survey of 1988, are among the surveys and research studies that have analyzed how Opportunity to Learn impacts student achievement.

The purpose of this article is to focus on a few specific factors that impact Opportunity to Learn at the school level.  If educators agree that all students should be prepared for the next grade level and the goal is for 100% of our students to graduate, then we should develop a clear idea of how to support student achievement.  Robert Marzano (2003) cited several factors which impact student achievement.  He divided the factors into the following categories: School Level, Teacher Level, and Student Level.  His thirty year meta-analysis revealed that the number one factor impacting student achievement is a 'guaranteed and viable curriculum.'  In other words, according to Marzano's research, Opportunity to Learn is the number one factor impacting student achievement.

School Districts Can Increase Opportunity to Learn By:

1.  Developing a Guranteed and Viable Curriculum
Does our school district have a common curriculum?

2.  Monitoring Student Achievement
Does our school district administer common formative assessments or benchmarks to monitor student achievement results?

3.  Differentiating Instruction
Does our school district differentiate instruction while still providing every student with the Opportuntiy to Learn?

4.  Identifying Common Student Misconceptions
Does our school district provide teachers with time to focus on student misconceptions?  Do teachers collaborate and share strategies for teaching the common curriculum to all students?  Does our school district focus on 'coverage' of material or student understanding?

5.  Developing and Revising Pacing
Does our school district provide teachers with pacing guides, curriculum maps, online tools which allow for teacher collaboration, or other tools which assist in implementing a guaranteed and viable curriculum?  If the pacing is not working, do teacher have a voice in modifying the district's pacing and curriculum maps?

6.  Increasing the Number of Minority Students Enrolled in Advanced Courses
Does our school district have strategic plans in place for identifying students who would benefit from advanced course offerings?  Do Advanced Placement (AP) and Honors courses reflect the demographics of our student enrollment?

7.  Identifying Instructional Strategies Which Will Support the Learning Styles of Today's Student's
Will the instructional strategies used in our school district support student understanding of the district's guaranteed and viable curriculum?  Will students receive challenging assignments and the opportunity to learn regardless of school assignment or teacher assignment?  Are certain instructional strategies more effective than others?

Too often teachers and administrators make the mistake of:
1.  Celebrating success on the End-of-Grade or End-of-Course High-Stakes Assessments
or
2.  Becoming frustrated because student growth is decreasing annually according to High-Stakes Assessments

Educators should celebrate their success.  However, if we are only celebrating and not looking for patterns or identifying individual students who need academic support, then we may be missing the point.  It is also understood by most teachers and administrators that waiting to measure students' knowledge of the common curriculum or state standards at the end of the grade or course is too late to provide students with timely intervention and support.  Several educators also struggle with assessing student understanding using multiple choice exams.  Do we help all students meet the district's learning outcomes when we use one high-stakes multiple choice test to determine student achievement? 

Recently, Squires (2009) wrote, "It is of paramount importance to make sure students have the opportunity to learn more important content aligned with standards and assessments....Further, school districts, through their curricula, have the tools at their disposal to control and ensure what students learn" (p. 133).  Developing specific strategies which support Opportunity to Learn will impact student achievement.  Over forty years of research supports that "access to curriculum opportunities is a more powerful determinant of achievement than initial achievement levels" (Darling-Hammond, 2010, p. 54).

References:
Carroll, J. B. (1963). A model of school learning. Teachers College Record, 64
       (8), 723-733.

Darling-Hammond, L. (2010). The flat world and education: How America's
       commitment to equity will determine our future. New York: Teacher's
       College Press.

Marzano, R. (2003). What works in schools: Translating research into action.
       Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Squires, D.A. (2009). Curriculum alignment: Research-based strategies for
       increasing student achievement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

The article below introduces educators to Purpose-Driven Curriculum and Instruction.  If you wish to build a Purpose-Driven Curriculum, take a moment to ask yourself and a co-worker or team of co-workers the Eight Questions Which Drive the Work of a Purpose-Driven School System (attached).

If you made New Year's Resolutions, you may have decided to change your diet, exercise more, spend more time with your family, develop a new budget, enroll in graduate school, help your favorite charity, read more books, focus on the 'main' things in your life, develop a 'seek first to understand' mindset, or other personal goals.

It is not a secret that many people around the world set personal goals that they do not keep.  Goal setting can be rewarding, but committing to a goal requires much more than clarifying our goal(s) on paper.  S.M.A.R.T. goals are recommended by business coaches, education consultants, and numerous leadership courses.  When someone makes a S.M.A.R.T. goal, it is:
 
S =  Specific
M =  Measurable
A  = Attainable
R  = Realistic and Results-Oriented
T  = Timely

When students returned to school in January, it felt like a "Race to the Finish Line" for several students and teachers.  Teachers were racing to cover material that will be on state high-stakes testing, AP tests, or other final exams.  Students try to cram as many facts into their heads, without gaining deeper understanding and teachers continue to appear overwhelmed with the sheer amount of material that must be covered in the final three weeks of the semester.

If we are going to improve teaching and learning in the new year, then we must define the purpose of our curriculum.  A good starting point is to reflect on 2009?

What did students achieve in 2009?

What common misconceptions did students have in 2009?

What instructional strategies seemed to be more relevant to this generation of learners in 2009?

What goals did our department, team, school, or school district achieve in 2009?

What stretch goals do we have for teaching and learning in 2010?

What will we do to adjust the pacing, so we don't have a "race to the finish" each semester?

How can we include more 21st century skills in our curriculum in 2010?

What do we want each student to know and be able to do at the end of our course?

Is our current curriculum, instruction and assessment designed to help us develop the kind of student(s) who can meet the course goals and contribute to society?

Resources for Educators:

Team S.M.A.R.T. Goal-Setting Plan (A great resource)
All Things PLC

Curriculum Development: What Should Students Know and Be Able to Do
Blog Archives

Five Questions For Curriculum Developers
Blog Archives

Determining Curriculum: A Non-Negotiable to Increasing Student Achievement
Blog Archives

Nearly fifty years ago, Jerome Bruner wrote:

"If the hypothesis.....introduced is true - that any subject can be taught to any child in some honest form - then it should follow that a curriculum ought to be built around the great issues, principles, and values that a society deems worthy of the continual concern of its members."

                                                    -  Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education, 1960

This statement is as true today as it was in 1960.

Questions for Educators to Consider:

1.  Can any subject be taught to any child in some honest form?

2.  What do we expect all students to know and be able to do?

3.  Do we have a process for identifying Essential Learning Outcomes for each
     course?

4.  Do we have a clearly defined purpose for each course? 
     (i.e., Thinking with the end in mind)

5.  What current events, local issues, or community norms should be included in
     the curriculum?

6.  Is the role of this course to prepare students with academic knowledge or do
     we want to develop students who can apply their understanding of content in
     an ethical manner?

7.  Should each teacher identify what students should know and be able to do or
     should teacher teams or district teams work together to establish a common
     curriculum?  What would Bruner recommend?

8.  Should curriculum focus on state standards or should it go beyond the state
     standards to include locally determined Essential Learning Outcomes?

9.  Is everything identified in the curriculum of equal importance?

10.  What impact, if any, does it have on students if our school system has not
       developed a curriculum built around the great issues, principles, and values
       that a society deems worthy of the continual concern of its members?


Teachers are more likely to implement a curriculum that has grown out of their own conversations and meetings, that allows for teacher autonomy and that represents their own beliefs about what should be taught - 
See Home-Grown Curriculum.


References:

Bruner, J. (1960). The process of education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
         Press.

Time for a Tune-Up: Comprehensive Curriculum Evaluation
By Lisa H. Meyers
Principal Leadership - September 2005

"How important is a high-quality curriculum?  A school without a quality curriculum is like a car without an engine - neither goes anywhere.  One responsibility of a school administrator is to ensure that quality curriculum is designed, adopted, and implemented."
                                                                                                    - Lisa Meyers

Prior to this afternoon, I had not read this article.  This informative article provides educators with several key considerations for K-12 curriculum development, curriculum alignment, curriculum evaluation and renewal.  I highly recommend this article! 

For additional information related to curriculum evaluation and a curriculum audit, visit these K-12 Curriculum Development topics:

Curriculum Management Audit

Curriculum Clutter

Curriculum Development

Share your thoughts on
Time for a Tune-Up: Comprehensive Curriculum Evaluation

Are curriculum documents accessible in your school system?  Do teachers know where curriculum documents are stored?  Can the curriculum be revised electronically or are the district's curriculum documents still stored in three-ring binders?



Location, Location, Location is frequently used by realtors to describe property that may be valuable to potential buyers.  Educators need to use this same phrase when they describe the location that K-12 curriculum is archived.  Some school districts use Microsoft Office products.  Popular vendor products which store curriculum documents include Curriculum Mapper, Curriki, Rubicon, TechPaths, and Understanding by Design.  This short list does not include all products available to educators, nor does it include an endorsement of any particular product. 

Our school district utilizes Drupal.  Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. Tens of thousands of people and organizations are using Drupal to power scores of different web sites.  If your school district is seeking location, location, location, but you are operating on a small budget, Drupal offers the opportunity for 24 hour access to your district's curriculum, the opportunity for ongoing communication within a school and across schools, and the chance for group editors to make timely revisions to the district's curriculum maps.

Questions For Educators:

1.  Do teachers and principals have access to the district's K-12 curriculum?

2.  Can the K-12 curriculum be modified using Web 2.0 tools or the Internet?

3.  Does the online tool which stores our district's K-12 curriculum allow for
     comments and reflection on the written, taught and assessed curriculum?

4.  Do teachers have access to multiple curriculum documents?
     (i.e., vertical alignment and interdisciplinary curriculum)

5.  Is the current tool teacher-friendly?

6.  Is the location a prime location or does the school district need to revisit the
     location of the district's curriculum documents? 

Curriculum development requires educators ask the following questions:

1.   What content is worth knowing?
2.   What concepts are worth understanding?  (Erickson, 2002)
3.   What skills are worth knowing?
4.   What should be left out of the curriculum or moved to a different part of the
      curriculum?
5.   Should the curriculum teach for Introduction, Review, Mastery or Deep
      Understanding at this grade level?  Where does the curriculum address this
      content, skill, or concept before or after this grade level or course?
6.   Will this standard or the curriculum provide students with knowledge and
      skills that will be of value beyond a single test date (Reeves*)?
7.   Will this standard or curriculum provide students with essential knowledge
      and skills that are necessary for success in the next grade or the next level of
      instruction (Reeves*)?
8.   What educational purposes should this course/the school seek to attain?
      (Tyler, 1949)
9.   What do we want students to uncover (Coverage vs. Uncoverage)?
      (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005)
10. Is the curriculum aligned with the criteria for 21st Century standards?
      See 21st Century Standards  

What criteria do educators in your school district or state use when developing K-12 curriculum?  

Do you agree or disagree with the criteria listed above?

A great article for K-12 Curriculum Developers was written by George Nelson (2001).  Nelson's article titled Choosing Content That's Worth Knowing provides educators and other stakeholders with essential questions for curriculum development.  To view the article online, visit  http://tiny.cc/VlwsR


K-12 Curriculum Development was developed as a site for educators to share ideas, discuss recent books about curriculum, share tools for supporting the work of teachers and administrators, and foster an online professional
learning community.   

References:

* Excerpted from Ainsworth, L. (2003). Power Standards, pp. 10-14, Englewood,
          CO: Advanced Learning Press.

Erickson, H. L. (2002). Concept-based curriculum and instruction: Teaching beyond
          the facts (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.