K-12 Curriculum Development

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?