Curriculum Inception Taya Hervey-McNutt Dr. Teresa Lao EDU 555: K-12 Curriculum Design & Development July 27, 2021 Introduction Farrell School District is a rural public school located in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. It has been ranked as one of the worst-performing schools in the state. This poor performance is linked to the low level of education among the adults, only 16 % of the adult population have a bachelor’s degree (Stebbins & Sauter, 1). 43.9% of the school children live below the poverty line, explaining the poor performance in schools. The most problematic subjects in the schools are math and reading. The percentage of students who are proficient in math and English are 16 and 31 % respectively (Stebbins & Sauter, 1). I, therefore, believe it would be important to develop a pivot curriculum that improves the math performance in the school. ● Geographical Location Farrell School District is located in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. It serves a population of 6,798 in Farell, Wheatlands, and Sharon, Pennsylvania. ● Demographic of the Student population The school has currently enrolled 700 students in pk-12 with only 60 teachers. It operates an elementary school and a high school. According to Niche, the ratio of students to teachers is 12:1 which is below the statutory requirement of 15:1. The average spending per student in the district is $26,975 (Farell, 2). ● Cultural Influences Mercer county has different racial and ethnic compositions. 90.2% of the population is non-Hispanic white,5.6 % non-Hispanic African Americans,1.04 % Hispanic whites, and 0.677 % non-Hispanic Asians. 90% of the students speak the English language at home while the rest speak other languages such as Spanish, Asian, Indio-European, ect (Farell, 2). ● Regional accrediting body standards for curriculum development The accredited body standards for curriculum development in Pennsylvania include academic standards on different subjects which must be covered in the curriculum. The body responsible for this is the Pennsylvania Board State of Education. The other standards include assessment anchors for the different disciplines and eligible content that is regulated by the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA). The state education department has also issued early learning standards that must be incorporated into the curriculum for elementary students (Pennsylvania, 3). ● State and Local policies on curriculum development The policies on curriculum development are contained in Title 22, Chapter 4 of Pennsylvania’s code (Pennsylvania, 3). The code requires that the basis for curriculum development of all students be based on the accredited academic standards. The curriculum should instill critical thinking skills in the students, communication, developmental writing, and literacy skills. The discipline and grade for which the curriculum will be developed The pilot curriculum will address the poor performance of ...

1. Curriculum Inception
Taya Hervey-McNutt
Dr. Teresa Lao
EDU 555: K-12 Curriculum Design & Development
July 27, 2021
Introduction
Farrell School District is a rural public school located in Mercer
County, Pennsylvania. It has
been ranked as one of the worst-performing schools in the state.
This poor performance is linked
to the low level of education among the adults, only 16 % of the
adult population have a
bachelor’s degree (Stebbins & Sauter, 1). 43.9% of the school
children live below the poverty
line, explaining the poor performance in schools. The most
problematic subjects in the schools
are math and reading. The percentage of students who are
proficient in math and English are 16

2. and 31 % respectively (Stebbins & Sauter, 1). I, therefore,
believe it would be important to
develop a pivot curriculum that improves the math performance
in the school.
● Geographical Location
Farrell School District is located in Mercer County,
Pennsylvania. It serves a population of 6,798
in Farell, Wheatlands, and Sharon, Pennsylvania.
● Demographic of the Student population
The school has currently enrolled 700 students in pk-12 with
only 60 teachers. It operates an
elementary school and a high school. According to Niche, the
ratio of students to teachers is 12:1
which is below the statutory requirement of 15:1. The average
spending per student in the district
is $26,975 (Farell, 2).
● Cultural Influences
Mercer county has different racial and ethnic compositions.
90.2% of the population is
non-Hispanic white,5.6 % non-Hispanic African Americans,1.04
% Hispanic whites, and 0.677

3. % non-Hispanic Asians. 90% of the students speak the English
language at home while the rest
speak other languages such as Spanish, Asian, Indio-European,
ect (Farell, 2).
● Regional accrediting body standards for curriculum
development
The accredited body standards for curriculum development in
Pennsylvania include academic
standards on different subjects which must be covered in the
curriculum. The body responsible
for this is the Pennsylvania Board State of Education. The other
standards include assessment
anchors for the different disciplines and eligible content that is
regulated by the Pennsylvania
System of School Assessment (PSSA). The state education
department has also issued early
learning standards that must be incorporated into the curriculum
for elementary students
(Pennsylvania, 3).
● State and Local policies on curriculum development
The policies on curriculum development are contained in Title
22, Chapter 4 of Pennsylvania’s
code (Pennsylvania, 3). The code requires that the basis for
curriculum development of all

4. students be based on the accredited academic standards. The
curriculum should instill critical
thinking skills in the students, communication, developmental
writing, and literacy skills.
The discipline and grade for which the curriculum will be
developed
The pilot curriculum will address the poor performance of math
by 4th grade students. Most
students within and outside Feral county dislike math. They feel
that it has a lot of complex
numbers that are difficult to understand and requires a lot of
memorization. Also they find it
frustrating having to repeat the same problems to get the hang
of it since math requires making
lots of mistakes. Also, they feel that math limits their creativity
compared to other disciplines
such as English and science. There is a fixed way of solving
math problems that require
memorization which they find burdensome and boring.
According to a survey conducted by the
National Centre for Education, most of the students have
developed stereotypes in math because

5. they heard their parents saying math is boring and difficult.
Despite this, some still believe that
math is a great discipline that requires the students to put in the
extra effort. The discipline is
ranked among the worst performed subjects in the US.
Farrell school area ranked among the bottom 50 schools in
Pennsylvania. Only 16% of its
students are proficient in math with grade 4 registering the least
performance. In 2018, the level
of poor performance of math in grade 4 was at 58 % compared
to other grades that scored below
50% (Farell, 2). Math is a vital discipline that can benefit
students in various ways. It enhances
their problem skills, helps them to understand the world better,
and equips them with skills that
they can use to solve real-world problems (Sammons, 4). These
skills are very essential for the
students in this area since poor performance is also linked to the
poverty levels in the country.
Farrell school district is in a poverty-stricken area with a high
teacher turnover rate. The ratio of
students to teachers is 15:1 which is below the statutory
recommendations (Stebbins & Sauter,
1). The schools lack a well-structured curriculum that can help

6. improve the student’s
performance. Additionally, most of the parents are not educated
and fail to support the children,
and the teachers increase the performance gap.
Benefits of pilot curriculum to the students
A pilot curriculum is essential for determining the areas that
need improvement and how to best
attain the desired educational goals. It is essential for schools
like Farrell school area district that
is based in a poverty-stricken rural area with limited access to
resources. The curriculum will
help in mitigating the problems associated with the obsolete
curriculum that may arise in the
future. Before design a pilot curriculum, the stakeholders need
to address the following questions
● The specific areas that need improvement
● What are the required resources per student
● Can the school afford the resources
● What learning theories will be adopted
● Will the learning theories apply to all the learners

7. ● How will the curriculum cater for the learners with learning
disabilities
● What are the anticipated learning outcomes
● How will the new curriculum help change the perception of
the students about math
This program enables the stakeholders to determine how
satisfied the students are with the old
curriculum and use it to develop the pilot curriculum. They will
be able to identify the areas that
need improvement and facilitate the effective allocation of
resources. This is achieved through
standardized tests which enable the teachers to identify the
students that need specialized care
and areas where they need to allocate more time and resources.
This eases the planning process
and increases the outcomes of the curriculum development. The
benefits that will accrue to the
students are as follows ;
● Higher performance
This will be achieved through standardized testing. Taking part
in the standardized tests will
enable the students to identify their areas of weakness that
require improvement. They will then

8. communicate this to the teachers and stakeholders who will
incorporate their needs into the new
curriculum. The students, with the help of the teachers, will
begin working on their weaknesses
which will be enhanced with the inception of the new
curriculum improving their performance.
The teachers will also be able to identify the students with
learning disabilities before the onset
of the implementation of the curriculum and issue instructional
goals to help increase their
performance
● Increased Motivation
Students feel motivated when they are engaged in the
curriculum development process. They
will be willing to change their perception about the discipline
when they realize the
administration wants to address their concerns. One of the
causative factors of the student’s
negative perception of mathematics is lack of motivation. This
is achieved through issuing
test-based incentives where the students are given a target and
rewarded when they achieve it.

9. The students are therefore motivated to work harder to qualify
for the incentives increasing their
learning outcomes.
● Increased Learning Outcomes
Setting targets and rewarding students for achieving them
increases their learning outcomes.
Once a student hits the set target, the bar is set higher and the
number of incentives also
increased. The student’s learning outcomes will gradually
increase over time as they strive to
reach their targets to attract the incentives. In the process, they
will identify their weaknesses and
communicate them with the curriculum developer or their
teachers who will ensure that the
inception of the new curriculum addresses their needs.
Instructional goals
Instructional goals are the desired learning outcomes from the
inception of the pilot curriculum.
The four instructional goals include; critical thinking, problem-
solving, understanding the
mathematical language, and increased mathematical confidence

10. ● Critical thinking
The first instructional goal for the curriculum is critical
thinking that deviates from the old
approach of memorization to an advanced way of tackling
numerical problems. Critical thinking
skills are important when solving math problems as it makes
learning to be more significant and
purposeful (Toh & Chua, 5). It will enable the students to
internalize the problems and take
predetermined steps without just guessing hence increasing their
performance. The new
curriculum will issue guidelines on the activities that the
students will be engaged in to improve
their performance. This includes issuing open-ended questions
on areas such as addition and
subtraction of fractions and letting them attempt the problems
before stepping in. The teachers
will also utilize tools such as Bloom’s Taxonomy and Maths300
to improve critical thinking
among the students. Given the economic nature of the Farrell
district, the school will need to
apply for more funds from the state to implement these
strategies which I believe will be useful
in improving the student’s learning outcomes

11. ● Problem Solving
Problem-solving is another instructional goal that will improve
the student’s learning outcomes.
The concept of problem-solving is based on the fact that math
should be understood and not
memorized. Most of the 4th-grade students at Ferrell fail
mathematics because they tackle it the
same way they handle other disciplines. Problem-solving
enables the students to internalize the
problem, analyze it and be able to explain the procedure if
given similar problems (Liljedahl &
Santos-Trigo, 6). This concept applies to the topics of
measurement conversion and decimal
notations.
● Understanding the Mathematical Language
The other instructional goal for the new curriculum is to ensure
the students comprehend the
mathematical language. Understanding math vocabulary is vital
for achieving proficiency in the
discipline. The students can utilize critical thinking and
problem-solving skills if they apprehend

12. math vocabulary. The pilot curriculum requires the teachers to
start teaching math vocabulary
such as the different symbols, where and how to use them as
early as grade one. The students
will be conversant with the symbols when they get to the 4th
grade hence improving their
performance.
● Increased Confidence
Students who lack confidence will never attempt to answer
mathematical questions in class.
They always keep their heads and avoid making eye contact
whenever the teacher asks a
question. This is the leading cause of poor performance because
the students fail to challenge
themselves hence retarding their learning process. A confident
student strives to learn new ways
of solving math problems by attempting advanced problems.
They are not afraid to make
mistakes which increases their math skills. To achieve this goal,
the teachers should always
praise the students whenever they get a problem right, however
simple it may be, and encourage
them to attempt advanced ones (Toh & Chua, 5). Also, the pilot
curriculum requires the teachers

13. to listen to the student’s needs. They can utilize this to
understand the student’s areas of
weakness and develop ways of boosting their confidence and
improving their performance. This
can be done by issuing rewards whenever a shy student attempts
to solve a question during class.
References
1. Stebbins, S., & Sauter, M. B. (2020, March 11). Making the
grade?: In these school
districts, students are less likely to succeed. USA Today.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/03/11/school-
districts-50-us-where-students
-least-likely-succeed/5000094002/.
2. Farell Area School District. (2021). Farrell Area School
District.
https://www.farrellareaschools.com/.
3. Pennsylvania State Board of Education. (2021). Regulations
& Policy. State Board of
Education.
https://www.stateboard.education.pa.gov/Regulations/Pages/def
ault.aspx.

14. 4. Sammons, L. (2018). Teaching students to communicate
mathematically.
5. Toh, P. C., Chua, B. L., & Association of Mathematics
Educators (Singapore). (2018).
Mathematics instruction: Goals, tasks, and activities.
6. Liljedahl, P., Santos-Trigo, M. (2019). Mathematical problem
solving: Current themes,
trends and research.
Grader - Instructions Excel 2019
ProjectExp19_Excel_Ch03_CapAssessment_Movies
Project Description:
You are an assistant manager at Premiere Movie Source, an
online company that enables customers to download movies for
a fee. You need to track movie download sales by genre. You
gathered the data for April 2021 and organized it in an Excel
workbook. You are ready to create charts to help represent the
data so that you can make a presentation to your manager later
this week.
Steps to Perform:
Step
Instructions
Points Possible
1
Start Excel. Download and open the file named
Exp19_Excel_Ch03_CapAssessment_Movies.xlsx. Grader has
automatically added your last name to the beginning of the
filename.
0
2
You want to create a pie chart to show the percentage each

15. category contributes to the monthly movie downloads.
Select the ranges A5:A10 and F5:F10. Create a pie chart and
move it to a chart sheet named April Pie Chart.
6
3
The chart needs a descriptive title that is easy to read.
Type April 2021 Downloads by Genre as the chart title, apply
bold, 18 pt font size, and Black, Text 1 font color.
5
4
Percentage and category data labels will provide identification
information for the pie chart.
Add category and percentage data labels in the Inside End
position. Remove value data labels and the legend. Apply 14 pt
font size and Black, Text 1 font color.
5
5
You want to focus on the comedy movies by exploding it and
changing its fill color.
Explode the Comedy slice by 7% and apply Dark Red fill color.
4
6
A best practice is to include Alt Text for accessibility
compliance.
Add Alt Text: The pie chart shows percentage of downloads by
genre for April 2021. (including the period)
2
7
Next you want to create a combo chart to depict the monthly
totals and percentages by category.

16. Display the Data sheet, select the ranges A4:A10 and F4:G10,
and then create a Clustered Column – Line on Secondary Axis
combo chart.
4
8
You want to position the chart below the data source.
Cut the chart and paste it in cell A13. Change the height to 3.5"
and the width to 6".
5
9
Change the combo chart title to April 2021 Downloads. Apply
Black, Text 1 font color to the chart title.
3
10
Axis titles will help distinguish the number and percentage of
downloads.
Add a primary value axis title and type Number of Downloads.
Add a secondary value axis title and type Percentage of Monthly
Downloads. Apply Black, Text 1 font color to both value axis
titles.
6
11
Now that you added an axis title for each vertical axis, you can
remove the legend and format the secondary value axis to
display whole percentages.
Remove the legend for the combo chart. Display 0 decimal
places for the secondary value axis.
1
12
You want to add some color to the plot area for the combo
chart.

17. Apply Light Gradient – Accent 1 gradient fill color for the plot
area.
5
13
A best practice is to include Alt Text for accessibility
compliance.
Add Alt Text: The combo chart shows the number and
percentage of downloads by genre for April 2021. (including the
period).
2
14
To provide a visual summary of the weekly totals for each
genre, you will insert sparklines.
Select the range B5:E11. Insert Line Sparklines in the range
H5:H11. Apply Black, Sparkline Style Dark #4
10
15
Displaying the markers helps identify the specific points on the
sparklines. You will also change the high point to a different
color to stand out.
Show the high point and markers for the sparklines. Change the
high point marker color to Red.
5
16
Your last major task is to create a bar chart for weekly
downloads.
Select the range A4:E10. Create a stacked bar chart. Move the
chart to new chart sheet. Type Weekly Downloads for the sheet
name. Apply Style 8 chart style.
14
17

18. Add a chart title above the bar chart and type April 2021
Weekly Downloads by Genre.
4
18
Increasing the font size will make the chart elements easier to
read.
Apply 11 pt font size to the category axis, value axis, and the
legend for the bar chart.
6
19
Because the largest value is less than 9,000, you can reduce the
maximum bound in the chart. In addition, you want to display
the category labels in the same order that they are in the
worksheet.
Change the maximum bounds for the value axis to 9000 and set
the Major Units to 500 for the bar chart. Use the Axis Options
to format the category axis so that the category labels are in
reverse order in the bar chart.
5
20
Although the bar chart displays major gridlines, minor gridlines
could improve the appearance.
Add primary minor vertical gridlines to the bar chart.
0
21
A best practice is to include Alt Text for accessibility
compliance for the bar chart.
Add Alt Text: The stacked bar chart shows downloads by each
week for each genre. (including the period).
4
22
Insert a footer with Exploring Series on the left, the sheet name

19. code in the center, and the file name code on the right on all the
sheets. Change to Normal view.
4
23
Save and close
Exp19_Excel_Ch03_CapAssessment_Movies.xlsx. Exit Excel.
Submit the file as directed.
0
Total Points
100
Created On: 02/08/2021 1
Exp19_Excel_Ch03_CapAssessment - Movies 1.5
Curriculum Foundations
Need by: Sunday, August 15, 2021
Total $30- $15 NOW/ $15 COMPLETE
Scenario for the Three Assignments
Assume that you are the curriculum designer for a school
district. The school board has
requested that several teams develop proposals for new
curricula to meet newly established
state standards. You and your team must develop the first
proposal to provide as a pilot or
model for the other teams. You have to first identify a specific
curriculum area not currently used
in the school district that would greatly benefit the students in
the district. Use the Internet or the
Strayer Library as well as your textbook to develop a pilot
curriculum for a specific discipline
area such as reading, math, science or grades K–12 at a local

20. school district.
Refer to the scenario for the assignments. Build on the same
pilot curriculum that was identified
in the Curriculum Inception assignment that has been attached
for your viewing, please be sure
to refer to the original assignment and to answer every question
laid out here in the outline for
curriculum foundations, thank you!
Instructions: Curriculum Foundations
Write a 6–7 page paper in which you:
● Summarize the following aspects of the Curriculum Inception
assignment: (a) Describe the
specific curriculum area and grade level or levels for the pilot
curriculum. (b) Provide four core
instructional goals for the curriculum.
● Describe the approach to curriculum development (that is,
behavior, systems, humanistic) you will
use to shape curriculum design, providing a rationale for your
selected approach that is
consistent with the core instructional goals of the planned
curriculum.
● Describe the philosophical/theore tical approach to curriculum
development (for example, idealism
or realism) you will use to shape the curriculum design,
providing a rationale for your selected
philosophy that is consistent with the core instructional goals of
the planned curriculum.
● Describe the psychological motivational approach to
curriculum development you will use to

21. shape the curriculum design, providing a rationale for your
selected approach that is consistent
with the core instructional goals of the planned curriculum.
● Discuss one cultural influence that has the greatest impact on
the school district and provide a
rationale for the impact it has on the district.
● Recommend at least one effective way to integrate the
cultural influence into the planned
curriculum that is consistent with the core instructional goals of
the planned curriculum.
● Develop a strategy for incorporating critical thinking skills
(appropriate to grade level) into the
planned curriculum using Bloom’s Taxonomy of cognitive
objectives.
● Provide a rationale for your strategy that is consistent with
the core instructional goals of the
planned curriculum. (Note: A brief description of Bloom’s
Taxonomy may be found at The Center
for Teaching and Learning.)
● Use at least six relevant, scholarly references published in the
last seven years (that is, three new
references in addition to the three identified in the Curriculum
Inception assignment). (Note:
Wikipedia and other nongovernment websites do not qualify as
scholarly resources.)
The specific course learning outcome associated with this
assignment is:

22. ● Propose an approach to developing a curriculum that is
informed by the audience and needs
analysis.
http://teaching.uncc.edu/articles-books/best-practice-
articles/goals-objectives/blooms-taxonomy-educational-
objectives