Curriculum development takes place at the state department of education, at the district or central office, in classrooms, at the coffee shop and within profit and non-profit organizations. Curriculum development requires reflection, debate, multiple perspectives and input from multiple stakeholders. The attached document outlines the research of Ralph Tyler, Grant Wiggins, Jay McTighe, Larry Ainsworth, Douglas Reeves, Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, Lorin Anderson and other educators. These educators each offer a criteria for developing and assessing curriculum. An essential act of our profession is the design of curriculum and learning experiences to meet specified purposes. - Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, Understanding by Design (1998), p. 7 What questions does your team use to assist with the development and assessment of K-12 curriculum? 
According to Phi Delta Kappa, "The Curriculum Management Audit is a third-party examination of the curriculum design and delivery system of a school or school district. Both curriculum policy and the system in which curriculum functions are analyzed by the audit team. The report provides specific recommendations to improve those functions." According to Wiggins and McTighe (2007), "The job is not to hope that optimal learning will occur, based on our curriculum and initial teaching. The job is to ensure that learning occurs, and when it doesn't, to intervene in altering the syllabus and instruction decisively, quickly, and often" (p. 55). Examples of Curriculum Management Audits: Anchorage School District (Alaska) Clover Park School District (Washington) San Bernardino City Unified School District (California) Wake County Public School System (North Carolina) Frequently Asked Questions About the WCPSS Curriculum Audit If your school district has completed a Curriculum Management Audit, please share your thoughts. How did it help you improve your work as an educator? What were the benefits of the Curriculum Management Audit? Did you conduct the audit through Phi Delta Kappa or did you develop a different evaluation instrument for your school district's curriculum audit? If curriculum alignment is the goal in most school systems, then why do districts fail to conduct a Curriculum Management Audit? School districts must confront the brutal facts of their current reality in order to improve (Collins, 2001). References: Collins, J. (2001). Good to great: why some companies make the leap and others don't. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2007). Schooling by design: Mission, action, and achievement. Alexandria, VA: Assocition for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Assessing A School District's Curriculum 11/09/2009
Fifteen years ago, Allan Glatthorn wrote Developing a Quality Curriculum. This book provides teachers, administrators and other stakeholders with curriculum development guidelines and tools which support the ongoing work of K-12 Curriculum Development. Too often, educators develop the ideal curriculum or the written curriculum, but fail to create tools for assessing a school district's curriculum. In Toward a Coherent Curriculum: The 1985 ASCD Yearbook, Stellar wrote, "The curriculum in numerous schools lacks clarity and, more important, coherence. Students move from teacher to teacher and subject to subject along a curriculum continuum that may or may not exhibit planned articulation" (p. v). The attached chart was developed by Glatthorn (1994). Educators may use this chart or adapt it to meet the needs of your school district. If school districts are in the process of developing curriculum on an assembly line and then mass producing a new curriculum for a different subject the next year, then educators may never see curriculum alignment or the strengths and weaknesses of the written and taught curriculum. Questions number 11, 12, and 15 focus on monitoring the curriculum, implementing the curriculum and conducting a curriculum audit. Following are the organizational components needed to accomplish effective curriculum work. Using this chart, indicate a need by placing a check in the "Need" column. Prioritize the checked items with the following scale: 1 - High Priority 2 - Middle Priority 3 - Low Priority Use the results to plan next steps. This book may be purchased for under $10 at Amazon Books. While 2009 marks the fifteenth anniversary of this book, the advice is still applicable to K-12 Curriculum Developers. When I meet educators at a state conference or I am introduced to an author, one of the questions I like to ask is, "What are you currently reading?" When I meet Superintendents, College Professors, Classroom Teachers, Principals, and Educational Consultants they often cite the same authors. The following list contains Ten Books Every Curriculum Developer Should Read. Please feel free to share your opinion regarding one or more of the books listed. 1. Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction (1949) Ralph W. Tyler 2. Understanding by Design (Expanded 2nd Edition - 2005) Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 3. Deciding What to Teach and Test: Developing, Aligning, and Auditing the Curriculum (2000) Fenwick W. English 4. Developing a Quality Curriculum (1994) Allan A. Glatthorn 5. Mapping the Big Picture: Integrating Curriculum and Assessment K-12 (1997) Heidi Hayes Jacobs 6. Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking Classroom (2007) H. Lynn Erickson 7. Common Formative Assessments: How to Connect Standards-Based Instruction and Assessment (2006) Larry Ainsworth & Donald Viegut 8. Unwrapping the Standards: A Simple Process to Make Standards Manageable (2003) Larry Ainsworth 9. Power Standards: Identifying the Standards that Matter the Most (2003) Larry Ainsworth 10. Schooling by Design: Mission, Action, and Achievement (2007) Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe What are you currently reading? Do you have a favorite curriculum and instruction book? Please feel free to share books that have influenced your work with curriculum design, curriculum alignment and staff development. The Hidden Curriculum 10/24/2009
 Hidden Curriculum During the month of October thousands of children will dress in costumes and attend fall festivals in their community. As we carve pumpkins and share ghost stories, it reminds me of the "hidden" curriculum in schools. The "hidden" curriculum is the unintended curriculum. "It defines what students learn from the physical environment, the policies, and the procedures of the school" (Glatthorn & Jailall, 2009, p. 110). The main factors that seem to constitute the hidden curriculum are: • Time Allocation • Space Allocation • Use of discretionary funds • Student discipline • Physical Appearance • Student Activities Program • Communication • Power Educators should analyze the “hidden” curriculum on a regular basis. When an analysis of the “hidden” curriculum has been completed, the principal and the teachers should identify those "hidden" messages that do not reflect the intended curriculum. Source: Glatthorn, A.A. & Jailall, J.M. (2009). The principal as curriculum leader: Shaping what is taught and tested. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Examples of the “Hidden” Curriculum in Schools In a school that administers common formative assessments on a regular basis, a student may ask the teacher, “Why do we have tests every three weeks?” If the teacher replies, “We want all of our students to be prepared for the End-of-Grade tests in the spring”, then the “hidden” message will imply that the purpose for school is to prepare for a single test. The message schools want to send is that learning is an ongoing process and their intention is to develop lifelong learners. However, the answer that the teacher gave indicates that common formative assessments are intended to prepare students for a high-stakes test, rather than a method to assess students’ understanding of the current unit of study. In a school that teaches social studies three days per week, a student may ask the teacher, “Why do we study social studies less than other subjects?” If the teacher replies, “Students won’t be tested in social studies until high school," then the student learns that social studies is not as important as the other subjects. If the student follows the teacher’s advice, then the student will not place much value on the following concepts, democracy, citizenship, courage, change, rights, responsibilities, voting, leadership, and government. This example demonstrates how the “hidden” curriculum interferes with the written and taught curricula in schools. Questions for Administrators and Collaborative Teams 1. What are the “hidden” messages that students receive in our school/school district? 2. How do the current “hidden” messages interfere with the intended curriculum? 3. What can teachers and administrators do to correct unintended messages? 4. Does the “hidden” curriculum exist in our school, or is it a “ghost story” without supporting evidence? 5. Is it possible to have a “hidden” curriculum every year since educators are humans and humans are not perfect? 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. If We Can, Should We? 10/04/2009
A good activity for teacher teams is called "If We Can, Should We?" See Examples Below: If we can build a guaranteed and viable curriculum, should we? If we can meet as a vertical team once per month, should we? If we can raise student achievement through curriculum alignment, should we? If we can gain greater clarity about 'what' to teach by unpacking the standards, should we? If we can help more students through differentiated instruction, should we? If we can help students develop critical thinking skills through writing essential questions, should we? If we can improve curriculum development and instruction through data analysis, should we? If we can develop a rigorous curriculum through teacher collaboration, should we continue to work in isolation? The goal is to have teacher teams develop the questions, rather than having a list of questions for the teacher teams to answer. There are multiple variations that teacher teams can use with this activity. While the questions may sound like someone is challenging the group or individual members of the group, the intent of the activity is to help teachers begin a conversation which has the potential to improve teaching and learning. When we begin to realize that our collective efforts can drastically improve each student's future, it is worth the time and effort to have this initial conversation. A good follow-up activity is to begin developing SMART Goals. SMART Goals will help teacher teams stay focused and will require a commitment to action. Curriculum Decisions 09/10/2009
Curriculum decisions are made by a variety of stakeholders. Parents make decisions regarding the curriculum when they elect to send their child to a private school, a charter school, a public school, a home school, or a boarding school. Policy makers impact policy through laws, state mandates, declarations, blogs and websites. School administrators impact the curriculum through holding teachers accountable for the written curriculum, facilitating curriculum development and revision, curricular reductionism, and encouraging teaching academics versus teaching the whole child. Classroom teachers make decisions regarding the written, taught, assessed, differentiated, concept-based, hidden, standards-based, integrated, rigorous, and excluded curricula. The following considerations are important for parents, policy makers, school administrators and classroom teachers to discuss. If student achievement is our main priority, then we must reflect on our existing policies, practices, and educational goals. What Do We Value? A Sea of Standards............................................Essential Standards Coverage of Standards..................................... Transfer of Learning Test Prep...........................................................Key Skills and Concepts Textbook Perspective........................................Multiple Perspectives Teacher Isolation...............................................Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum Pacing Guide(s)..................................................Student's Needs and Abilities Subject-Based Curriculum..................................Integrated Curriculum Focusing on Student Weaknesses.....................Focusing on Student Strengths Curriculum Chaos...............................................Aligned Curriculum Learning for Some..............................................Learning for All Project-Based Curriculum...................................Traditional Curriculum Teaching.............................................................Opportunity to Learn State Standards.................................................Unpacked Standards Standardization.................................................Differentiation Bloated Curriculum.............................................Narrow Curriculum Assessment of Learning.....................................Assessment for Learning Curriculum Clutter..............................................Curriculum Maps Multiple Graduation Tracks.................................College Ready Track Specific Facts and Information...........................Enduring Understandings Curricular Reductionsim......................................Well-Rounded Curriculum Written Curriculum..............................................Learned Curriculum Teaching.............................................................Learning Teaching Content................................................Teaching for Understanding You may review the options listed above and say, both options are good. This list of considerations is not meant to make stakeholders select one choice over the other. For example, the written curriculum is very important to teaching and learning. In most states and school districts, the curriculum is not optional. Therefore, a teacher could not select the learned curriculum and ignore the written curriculum. Regardless of your answer, the value in this activity comes from the reflection, collaboration, conversations about curriculum and instruction, and the impact that these conversations have on curriculum policy, curriculum alignment, and student achievement. If a school or school system has teachers and school administrators with conflicting values then the learned curriculum will be impacted. Please feel free to share what you value in education. How does your school district make Curriculum Decisions? Those Kids 08/28/2009
Have you ever sat in a meeting with teachers and administrators and heard the term "those kids." If you have heard someone utter, "those kids," then it is likely that you have also heard the following phrases: "That group"; "They have been that way since elementary school."; "That side of town"; "They don't act like the other students." As we begin the school year, I am frightened to think that a group of teachers would say "those kids" when referring to my own children. If it is inappropriate to say about my children, then it is inappropriate to voice about other people's children. In the book titled, Other People's Children, Lisa Delpit (1995) wrote, "If we do not have some knowledge of children's lives outside the realms of paper-and-pencil work, and even outside of their classrooms, then we cannot know their strengths. Not knowing students' strengths leads to our 'teaching down' to children from communities that are culturally different from that of the teachers in the school. Because teachers do not want to tax what they believe to be these students' lower abilities, they end up teaching less when, in actuality, these students need more of what school has to offer" (p. 173). Questions for Educators to Consider: 1. Do teachers in your school use the term, "Those Kids"? 2. Is it addressed by the team, or do we all secretly feel like that is the best we can expect from "those kids"? 3. Do students live up to the teachers' expectations? 4. Do our perceptions of students impact curriculum planning and instruction? 5. Do all students receive the (written curriculum) Key Concepts and Key Skills when teachers have lower expectations for one student or for a group of students? 6. If we treat "other people's children" like our own children, does it change our views towards the curriculum, instruction and learning goals? 7. How can we change our school culture to a culture where "those kids" become "our kids"? (See DuFour, DuFour, & Eaker, 2008). If teachers and principals believe the impetus for student learning remains outside of their influence and there is nothing they can do to overcome these external variables, the idea of school improvement will undoubtedly seem futile, if not downright ridiculous. (DuFour, DuFour, & Eaker, 2008, p. 59) Make a collective decision to eliminate the term "Those Kids". References: Delpti, L. (1995). Other people's children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: The New Press. DuFour, R., DuFour, R. & Eaker, R. (2008). Revisiting professional learning communities: New insights for improving schools. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree. First Day of School 08/25/2009
 The first day of school never gets old. For some adults, it may seem like the movie Groundhog Day, where everyday repeats itself. When I was a student, I could hardly sleep the night before school because I was so excited about seeing my friends and meeting my new teachers. As a student teacher/college student, I was excited because I had so many lessons I wanted to try with students and I lay awake wondering if I could control a room of sixth graders. As a first year teacher, I don't think I slept for more than three hours the night before the first day of school. I was rehearsing my opening remarks and activities with students in my head throughout the night. Last night was no different than any other year. As I struggled to go to sleep, I wondered about the new students in our school district. Would they feel welcome on the first day? I thought about the principals and the stress that they must have on the first day of school. Then, my thoughts turned to my own children. I have a student in elementary school and a student in middle school. I wondered if they were excited about school or sound asleep. Would they make positive friends at school on the first day? Would they have teachers who influence their lives in a positive way? No matter if you are a student, student teacher, teacher, administrator or parent, the first day of school creates a little anxiety, combined with excitement about the new school year. As a Director of Secondary Instruction, my thoughts have changed from when I was a student teacher. Today, I ask myself the following questions: 1. What do we want all students to know and be able to do? 2. Do our students have access to a ‘guaranteed and viable’ curriculum? 3. What Enduring Understandings do we want students to have at the end of the school year? 4. How can I support student achievement? 5. How can I support teachers and principals? 6. What support does our district provide students who do not understand the key concepts and skills identified in the ‘guaranteed curriculum’? 7. What processes need to be established or revised in order to meet our district’s goals of raising achievement and closing achievement gaps? 8. If everything is important, then nothing is important. What can be removed from our district’s curriculum? The first day of school is an exciting time and it provides students with a new opportunity to shine. As you go through the school year, I hope you can enjoy reflecting on the seasons of life (i.e., student, student teacher, teacher, support staff, administrator, central office, parent, or other roles you have experienced over the years). The first day of school never gets old! | AuthorSteven Weber is the Director of Secondary Instruction for Orange County Schools in Hillsborough, NC. Weber has served as a classroom teacher, assistant principal, and state department of education consultant in Arkansas and North Carolina. He consults school systems in aligning their curriculum and in unpacking curriculum standards.  ArchivesMarch 2010 CategoriesAll | ||
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