Observations from an Educational “Outsider”
My journey into the world of education began when a local school district hired a consulting firm to work with their staff to develop a curriculum management system. One of their key driving factors was the belief that curriculum is a waste of time and effort if it does not provide value to and is not used by educators. As a result, I found myself locked in a room with twelve dedicated, experienced teachers for the next three months designing what would eventually become Embarc (formerly BYOC).
Since designing Embarc (formerly BYOC), I have had the opportunity to travel the country and work with hundreds of school districts and have had the pleasure of seeing some great ideas. Although I am an IT professional by trade, along the way I found that my IT background gives me a unique perspective on education. Below are some of the observations I have made about school districts over the past seventeen years.
Observation One
Quality K-12 curriculum should outline WHAT is being taught, WHY it is being taught (student expectations), and approximately how LONG it will be taught. Ideally curriculum should also include how this will be assessed and resources for teachers, students, and parents.
Conceptually a district’s curriculum should serve as a roadmap for teachers on their journey from the beginning to the end of a course. We have encountered numerous districts whose view of curriculum was limited to end of year/end of course benchmarks/standards either developed by the district or the state. While these are extremely helpful and should serve as the basis for the district’s curriculum, stopping here is the equivalent of telling several drivers to get in vans in New York and provide independent cross-country tours to California without providing them maps or itineraries. Obviously, each van would have a vastly distinct experience, learn different things along the way, and achieve varying levels of success completing the journey. While I admit that this comparison is a stretch, it happens every day in districts across the country causing significant issues as students transition from grade to grade and course to course with inconsistent skills and knowledge.
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Observation Two
A consistent, guaranteed curriculum is crucial to a district being able to systematically improve.
One of the primary goals of curriculum is to act as a blueprint or roadmap designed to ensure that students are exposed to the same skills and knowledge regardless of their teacher. If this goal is achieved, districts are positioned to address areas of need by systematically adjusting the plan (curriculum) and measuring the results of those adjustments. Without this plan in place, it is impossible to systematically improve it. In this situation, district-wide improvement is limited to throwing resources at the issue, and true performance improvement is left in the hands of individual teachers with no process for institutionalizing best practices. The following true story serves to illustrate the inconsistencies that exist in many districts.
At a recent luncheon I asked a middle school principal if she could tell what grade school individual students came from for the first few weeks after they transitioned to middle school. The principal laughed and said typically for at least the first year she could not only could tell me what school they came from but in many cases who their teachers had been at those schools. Quite simply, this district wastes a huge amount of educational time and resources getting kids to a common knowledge base prior to being able to move forward.
Observation Three
To provide value, curriculum must be a “Living Document,” evolving as new knowledge becomes available.
The days of three to five-year curriculum review cycles are dead. Historically districts have worked like crazy to author quality curriculum documents every three to five years. Unfortunately, those documents now typically and quickly become outdated and end up collecting dust on a shelf. The world today is simply changing too fast, quality teachers are constantly evaluating what works and evolving the curriculum. Without this ability they will have no choice but to go in their own direction, thus rendering the curriculum documents useless. Additionally, quality districts are constantly analyzing both formative and summative assessment information to identify areas of weakness. An effective curriculum management solution should not only facilitate the ongoing evolution of the district’s curriculum but should also aid in the analysis and identification of strengths and weaknesses.
Observation Four
Being honest, most teachers do not welcome standardized curriculum with open arms.
Most teachers are extremely dedicated individuals, doing their absolute best for their students. Transitioning to a curriculum model where all students are taught the same content, for the same reasons, for approximately the same amount of time is painful because it may mean not teaching items that teachers have historically been vested in. The key to overcoming this issue is to ensure that the district’s curriculum approach/tool honors the work that has been done before, provides new value and opportunities to teachers, and does not dictate how a teacher teaches. A good curriculum management solution should free the teacher from having to determine what to teach and allow them to focus instead on how to teach. Additionally, it is imperative that building level administrators are engaged in this process since they are the district’s frontline leadership and tasked with being the instructional leaders in their buildings.
Observation Five
District common assessments greatly focus attention on district curriculum.
This is a somewhat painful observation, but the bottom line for most people is that we focus on what is measured. While we strongly believe in the merit of a deep, guaranteed curriculum that provides value to teachers, some teachers simply will not get on board until assessments come into the picture. There seem to be two distinct philosophies in education, one being if we teach the right stuff in the right fashion the assessments will take care of themselves, the other being if we assess it and measure it, educators will focus on teaching it. We strongly side with the first philosophy; however, common assessments are sometimes required to truly get everyone on the same page.
Observation Six
Teachers’ daily lesson plans should be driven by the district curriculum.
The district curriculum is the basic road map or outline that all parties have agreed to follow. If we accept that statement, then each teacher’s daily lesson plan should state where they are in the road map, how they are going to progress that day, and any “special situations” that they will need to address. Using the curriculum as our guide, it becomes easy to see if we are on schedule or not, and to ensure that our students are progressing on the district defined benchmarks. Quite simply, if our teacher’s lesson plans are not driven by the curriculum, what are they driven by?
Observation Seven
Writing the curriculum is just the first, small step of the process.
Districts have written curriculum for years with a limited impact on education. The key to having curriculum perform its role, which is to be the core that our educational activities focus on, is to develop curriculum in a fashion that truly provides value to the teachers. When thinking about your approach to curriculum, be sure to consider how to leverage the curriculum to help educators. Things to consider are the integration of curriculum into lesson plans, the ability to share teaching resources and activities, impact on assessments, and parental involvement. Additionally, to build effective curriculum requires building administrators to be instructional leaders and implement a plan to integrate curriculum information into the district data retreat process to identify areas of weakness and plan improvement.
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