This PowerPoint presentation is an overview of the Curriculum Leadership Course

1. The Dynamic Process of Curriculum Leadership What is the purpose of public schools? Are we preparing our students for our pasts or their future?

2. Syllabus

4. Operational Philosophy Survey/Graph

5. Understand clearly what makes a quality curriculum

6. Curriculum Analysis

7. Use tools to assess a specific curriculum

8. Survey/Class Project

9. Apply knowledge to develop or improve a curriculum that you use or to develop an action plan to improve curriculum at your school

10. Final project options:

11. Understanding by Design or

13. Essential QuestionAre we preparing our students for their futures not for our pasts? Critical Reading Circle Adapted from Literacy Circle Use for Non-fiction as well as literature What is the purpose of education? Some answers: To prepare students for employment To prepare students to be citizens of the US or of the world To prepare students for college or for post-secondary education To expose students to the culture of the West To save the planet for the next generation

14. “Educationese” Wordshttp://www.ascd.org/Publications/Lexicon_of_Learning.aspx

16. Desired outcomes—What should be taught? What is worth knowing?

17. Human nature—Are we good, evil, neutral?

18. Nature of Intelligence—Who can learn? How? (Bell curve)

19. Role of student—Active, passive, silent, engaged, etc.

20. Responsibility of school to student—Why do schools exist?

21. School structure—hierarchy, loosely coupled, school, classroom?

22. Role of teacher—Responsible for all students?

23. Instructional methods

24. Assessment—how do we determine if students learn? If not, is anything done?

25. Role of Parents and community

29. Old model A Instruction Testing Curriculum Text The Content C Move On I

30. Theories focused first on Content, then on Instruction and the teacher, then on testing, then.. finally on the student A I C Impact on Students

31. History Provide time, focused instruction then go on

34. What does a quality curriculum look like?

35. What is your assessment of the 1) Strengths 2) Weaknesses 3) possible dangers if you were to implement this curriculum, for example, would you need supplementary materials or experiences to make up for the weaknesses? 4) What might minimize the dangers and maximize the strengths? Curriculum Analysis Curricula are products of districts, experts, publishing companies. Who created this document or program? Was it developed in your district? Was it developed with a consultant? Curricula are created with philosophies, sometimes consciously, sometimes without awareness. Briefly describe knowledge, student, teacher, instruction, goal of education, remediation,learning environment, assessment, response to change. Discuss the quality of the C, I, A, and IS: Consider the Curriculum (subject matter), the Instruction, the Assessment, and the Impact on Students. Which categories does your curriculum fall into? Consider: official, supported, tested, taught, learned, hidden. Which components are in your curriculum: benchmarks, common assessments, valid and reliable assessments, predictive of MCAS score, supported by appropriate materials?

36. System for Continuous Improvement of CIA POWER STANDARDS Alignment – Curriculum Committees Performance Standards – regular required school based Data Meetings protocols for LASW protocols for Lesson Study C

37. System for Continuous Improvement of CIA Define Best Standards Based Practice for Teachers Minimally: Standards based unit/lesson design Posted measurable lesson objective Agenda Student-student communication Dip-sticking Rubrics/Exemplars HOTS (Bloom’s taxonomy) Use of assessment data to drive instruction I

38. System For Continuous Improvement Of CIA EXPECT TEACHERS TO USE BEST PRACTICE IN THEIR LESSONS Learning Walks (Walkthroughs) Evaluation Data meetings to discuss changes in instructional practice based on results of student work and achievement I

39. When children, beginning in third grade were placed with three high performing teachers in a row, they scored, on average at the 96th percentile in Tennessee’s statewide mathematics assessment at the end of fifth grade. Stronge, J and Tucker, P. Teacher Evaluation and Student Achievement. National Education Association. 2000 p.2 A I C

40. When children with comparable achievement histories starting in third grade were placed with three low performing teachers in a row, their average score on the same mathematics assessment was at the 44th percentile. Sanders, W. and Rivers, J. Cumulative and residual effects of teachers in future academic achievement (Research Progress Report) Knoxville TN. U of TN Value-Added Research and Assessment 1996 A I C

41. A I Teachers working alone, with little or no feedback on their instruction, will not be able to improve significantly – no matter how much professional development they receive. Tony Wagner: The Global Achievement Gap C

42. A The only thing that really matters……. I What happens in the classroom between the teacher and the student. C

43. A “guaranteed” and “Viable” Curriculum

44. A “guaranteed and viable” Curriculum makes all the difference. Meta analysis Bob Marzano (2003), an educational researcher and popular presenter, focuses on this concept as one of five school-level factors (the one with the greatest impact), in his book on What Works in Schools: Translating Research into Action

45. The guaranteed curriculum, according to Marzano, is what we decide is imperative to teach – a curriculum that we communicate and assure to all groups. A viable curriculum is a curriculum that we can realistically teach during the time we have available during the course of a school year. We need to focus on what is essential vs. supplemental to teach in a school year. We must organize and sequence our curriculum to enable effective student learning – that is to say, checking to make sure the essentials are being taught and avoiding interruptions during instructional time. The work on the guaranteed and viable curriculum is designed to focus on the standards that are most essential to spend time on and, while not eliminating other standards, to make it permissible to spend less time (or no time) on them. The challenge is to decide what is essential.

47. What tools are used to evaluate The Curriculum?

48. What is good quality curriculum?

49. Group Work: Tools/Use c I A IS

51. Questions about Curriculum Quality Do we teach a standards-based curriculum? Are individual teachers’ lessons backward designed? Is our curriculum aligned to the frameworks? Is our curriculum aligned to the tested curriculum (MCAS, usually). Is this a good program to purchase? What are the gaps and redundancies in the curriculum? How are (all, some, a few) of our students performing? How are my students progressing this year? What should I do to help advance at risk, average, above average students? Do we all have the same expectations? Do we all teach the same curriculum? Does the implemented curriculum have rigor? Too many students are failing the MCAS? What are the causes? We don’t have enough advanced scores. Why? Are all students challenged? How much time is spent on core subjects every day? How is the year used for a course? What is the quality of the teaching of the curriculum? Is it consistent? How can I improve classroom teaching? How can I improve specific lessons? We don’t have time to cover this entire curriculum. How do we prioritize? How do we know what is essential? How do we use team or grade-level time to improve the curriculum? Where do we start if we don’t make AYP for subgroups? For all students?

53. What is the research base For success in CIA ?

54. Research:What Works at the SCHOOL level?

55. SEVEN STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING CURRICULUM, INSTRUCTION, and ASSESSMENT An urgency and understanding of the problem presented through data A shared vision of good teaching which includes rigor, relevance, and respect Adult meetings that focus on instruction and model good teaching Clear standards, assessments, and consistent understanding of quality student work Supervision that is frequent, rigorous, and focused on instruction PD that is primarily on-site, intensive, collaborative, and job-embedded Diagnostic data that is used frequently by teams to assess learning and teaching

56. What Works for the TEACHER: discipline, student socialization, teacher behavior, organization, interactions, equity: routines, classroom climate Standards-based curriculum: backwards plan Goal setting, measuring progress

58. The most promising strategy for sustained, substantive school improvement is building the capacity of school personnel to function as a professional learning community. Milbrey McLaughlin (cited in Professional Learning Communities at Work by Dufour and Eaker) 1. DATA - driven (academic) priorities 2. GOALS: that are measurable/tied to an assessment 3. TEAMWORK that produces short-term assessmentresults Focus on: What should students know and be able to do? How do we know if they know it? What do we do if they don’t?

59. The NUMBER ONE FACTOR that increases levels of learning Marzano; Porter; Lezotte “Direct involvement in instruction is among the least frequent activities performed by administrators of any kind at any level.” Richard Elmore 2000 This is not a matter of work ethic; it is a matter of misplaced priorities.

61. WRITING: “voice”; “word choice”

62. School ClimateUSE formative assessment data (measurable results from lessons, units, etc.) to assess progress and meet quarterly at least to look at student work.

63. K-12/COLLEGE SUCCESS: ANALYTICALREADING PERSUASIVE WRITING WRITING AND MATH: 32% of college-bound are adequately prepared for college; 58% are in remedial courses—College Knowledge READING: 34% of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate from it (66% cannot). NCED Statistic WRITING: 24% write at proficient level; 4% at Advanced-NAEP “For all its unparalleled cognitive benefits, little or no real writing instruction takes place in regular classrooms.” Kameenuiand Carnine

64. sisyphuschronicles.wordpress.com/category/life/

65. Why is change so difficult in Education? Education 4 Frames of Organizations Political Human Resources Structural Symbolic

69. Final Projects

71. Teachers

72. Students

73. School committee

74. Town officials

78. BACKWARD CURRICULUM DESIGN TEMPLATE