K-12 Curriculum Development

Most teachers and administrators have experienced spending one to two years in meetings debating what students should know and be able to do, only to see the final document used as a book end.  Many school districts focus on creating documents and in lose sight of the bigger picture which is student achievement.

Curriculum development is "an ongoing process that asks teachers and administrators to think, act, and meet differently to improve their students' learning" (Hale, 2008, p. 8).  Have you ever thought about what it would look like to act differently and meet differently in schools?  Wiggins wrote, "The great scandal in K-12 education is that almost every K-12 system is actually not a system at all" (p. 24).

Working on the Work: An Action Plan for Teachers, Principals, and Superintendents (Schlechty, 2002) is a timeless classic.  If educators are seeking to improve student achievement, they can begin by focusing on the following quotes from Working on the Work.

"Schoolwork is a form of work intended to produce learning."

Teachers should purposefully create, design, identify, or otherwise make available to students authentically engaging activities, programs, tasks, assignments, and opportunities to practice that result in students learning those things it is determined that students need to learn to be judged well educated (p. xvi).

Resources for K-12 Curriculum Developers:

Ainsworth, L. (2003). Unwrapping the standards: A simple process to make
       standards manageable. Englewood, CA: Lead + Learn Press.

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Hale, J.A. (2008). A guide to curriculum mapping: Planning, implementing, and
         sustaining the process. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Jacobs, H.H. (2010). Curriculum 21: Essential education for a changing world.
          Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Marzano, R. (Ed.). (2010). On excellence in teaching. Bloomington, IN: Solution
         Tree Press.

Schlechty, P.C. (2002). Working on the work: An action plan for teachers,
         principals, and superintendents. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Wiles, J. (2009). Leading curriculum development. Thousand Oaks, CA:
          Corwin Press.