K-12 Curriculum Development

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?