Running head: Conversation with a Curriculum Worker Research Paper

Conversation with a Curriculum Worker Research Paper

Leigh Miller
leighm@kstate.edu
316-640-1318
Kansas State University
EDCI 803
Bio: In August, I will start my 18th year with Wichita Public Schools, 17 with the virtual school,
in which I have held a variety of different positions including teacher, facilitator, data leader, and
Flex coordinator. This coming school year I will teach grades 1st through 8th online. I am
currently working on my masters in Educational, Computing, Design, and Online Learning. My
teaching interest is instructional design and online education.

Running head: Conversation with a Curriculum Worker Research Paper

Abstract:
This paper begins with an overview of some of the information that I have gained from the
course readings that include Dewey and variety of different types of curriculum that include
explicit, implicit, and null. The remaining of the paper will pertain to curriculum and how it is
developed in the district that I work for. It will include how pacing guides, which are developed
by curriculum specialists, to guide teachers in planning what content is taught. The pacing guide
is also a sequence to when concepts are taught thought out the year. During the conversation
with the curriculum specialist we discussed how and why the curriculum is developed and how it
is delivered to teachers. The last of the paper discussed suggestions to improve the platform that I
use in my teaching.

Conversations with a Curriculum Worker Research Paper

Running head: Conversation with a Curriculum Worker Research Paper

Introduction:
Through the course of the last 17 years of working with Wichita Public Schools, I have
been involved with various stages of curriculum development. When I first started with the
district, teachers had the freedom to create their own lessons as long as the content was taught in
a certain order designed by the district and the state standards were meet. Fast forward 17 years
and now lessons are scripted for math and language arts at the elementary level. Teachers are
expected to follow the pacing guides (which are developed at the district level), which include
what lessons are taught and exactly which day it is taught. Secondary teachers do not use the
scripted lesson plans, but still must follow the pacing guides which are very detailed that include
which resources to use for each lesson. In working with the online school, we had the option to
create our own curriculum. The only guideline was to ensure that the standards were meet and
that students had a variety of different learning experiences.
When my district started to implement pacing guides, it was to guide the teachers though
the sequence of concepts. It was left it up to the teacher to use their profession experience and
expertise to use resources that best fit the needs of their students. Now things have changed.
The district now expects that teachers will follow the pacing guides exactly, including using only
resources listed for lessons. The district also has a list of approved resources for interventions
with the expectation that only these resources will be used. Teachers are also expected to stay on
pace, regardless of how well the students are learning and understanding the concepts. The
pacing guides do not leave room for reteaching or taking a difficult concept at a slower place.
Students who are do not understanding concepts in math and language arts, will be assigned

Running head: Conversation with a Curriculum Worker Research Paper

intervention time to try and get caught up, which means that they miss out on other curriculum or
electives.
When I was working on my bachelors degree, I had a short introduction to curriculum. It
covered the basics of what it was, why it was important, and what is the basic of what we
consider school. What we did not cover what are the different types or any research associated
with developing curriculum. During the course of this class, we were assigned a variety of
different researches and educational experts on the different types of curriculum and curriculum
development.
John Dewey (1938) in Experience in Education described the importance of preparing
students for the future and how to interact in society, which almost 100 years later is still the
purpose of school. In his book The Curriculum and the Child, he also shares the importance of
creating a curriculum by centering on the content to be taught. The difference between when Mr.
Dewey wrote this in 1938 and today, is that society and the world has changed. It is still
important to prepare students for the future and to be successful in their life, but we cannot do
this by continuing to use school in the same way. The problem that we have today is that we
continue to use this theory as it was originally written and my questions is why. We prepare
EVERY student for the same life, regardless of how they see success or what the future may
entail. We are still preparing student for the future of the early 1900s and not for the 21st century.
We hear all the time that we need to prepare students for the future and make them
productive members of society. We also hear that the jobs of the future are not even been
thought of yet, which leaves schools in a tough situation. Knowing this, maybe our educational
leaders should have continued to read Mr. Deweys books which explain the importance of
educating the child and that learning must be active. Students must be involved in their learning,

Running head: Conversation with a Curriculum Worker Research Paper

not just sit in a chair and listen to the teacher. We need to change the way schools are and what
subject are being taught. Students need to have choices in what they study and how. We have a
lot of students that are good at doing school but struggle in the world of life. This is our fault
and needs to be changed.

Types of Curriculum:
According to the Merriam and Webster online dictionary (2016), explicit means very clear and
complete: leaving no doubt about the meaning and implicit is defined as understood though not
clearly or directly stated. So if we look at these two words and associate them to curriculum,
what we teach is the explicit and all the extra stuff that students learn in school, like how to do
complete school work, what the school culture is, and a number of classroom management
techniques that teachers use would be the implicit curriculum. The problem with using these to
define school, is that not all students excel in the implicit curriculum and are usually labeled as
being disruptive or behavior students. This is usually not the case, they just do not fit into the
mold that we said they should. This is why we need to change how schools work and redefine the
roles of teachers.

A Conversation with a Curriculum Worker:

The curriculum worker that I will be visiting with is Jessica Smith. She is currently
employed in my district and works in the Math curriculum department. Her primary job is with
the curriculum for secondary math, but also assists with secondary science. She has been in
education for close to 20 years, starting as a middle math and science teacher before moving on
to high school. She has worked in the curriculum department for about 5 years and figures she

Running head: Conversation with a Curriculum Worker Research Paper

might only stay for another year to too. She thinks that we need to change the way we demand
teachers to use only resources that her department approves, instead of giving teachers the option
to be professions and know what is best for the students in their class. I agree with her on this.
Our conversation lasted for several hours and on many of the questions, we went more in
depth, not just about the curriculum and more about education in general. In my notes, I only
recorded information about the curriculum.
We began our discussion about how her department starts to design curriculum. The
department will start by look at the state standards, the textbook resources, the textbook,
resources from the approved list issued by the district and the sequence guide, which usually
comes with the textbook or the company that developed the curriculum. In the past they would
usually follow the textbooks sequence because according to Jessica they have it in order for a
reason and in my experience they usually have done more research around the order than we do
and they have a bigger team. They are doing it for all who purchase the curriculum, not just our
district. In very rare circumstances the department may change the order of the content to insure
all tested content is covered before state assessments.
We moved on to who is involved in the planning of the curriculum. For the math curriculum
writing that Jessica has been a part of, they usually only include the math curriculum department
personal, which is usually former teachers. Usually teachers are only involved in trying out the
textbooks in actual classrooms. Teachers will pilot the textbooks that we are trying and not the
actually writing of the curriculum. In science, the district sends out an email to all teachers
teaching a certain subject area, like biology or chemistry. The email gives specifics about the
time commitment, deadlines, what is required and if teachers would receive additional
compensation for the writing of the pacing guides (curriculum) that teachers are required to use.

Running head: Conversation with a Curriculum Worker Research Paper

Usually teach subject area will have about 3-4 teachers and a curriculum department person work
on a subject area, like biology or earth space.
We moved next to discussing what happens when an adoption in new math curriculum is
directed from the district. They try to be about 9 weeks ahead of the teachers in the schools. For
the most part it works, Jessica states that they have not had a lot of issues with doing it this way.
It gives them a chance to spread out the planning and not trying to rush. Unfortunately,
sometimes we have to change the process but we try to keep it consistent. Usually, we purchase
new subject curriculum at the end of the school year and work in the summer. There is not
enough time to get the whole school year worth of curriculum done before teachers come back to
work in August. By taking it slow and only releasing parts, the department can be more through
and not feel rush to get it out to the teachers.
When Algebra 2 was redone last summer, we were only able to give teachers about 3 weeks
at when they started back in the fall. There were several vendor and district issues, but we still
wanted to give the teachers quality curriculum and figured this was the best way. For the most
part, everyone was understanding.
I know as a teacher it was hard to do long term planning and our virtual teachers had to
go with what the online curriculum was and did not have a chance to arrange it according to the
pacing guides. The online curriculum has to be submitted quarterly, if there are changes. It is
also hard for classroom teachers to do the planning because the pacing guides are required to be
followed exactly how they are written. Jessica said, they felt, as a team, that is was important to
still give quality pacing guides to the teachers. The problem came in when we told them that
they had to write their own tests because we did not just follow the textbook, we moved material

Running head: Conversation with a Curriculum Worker Research Paper

around and added lessons that were later in the book to early chapters. This year are working on
writing tests for the teachers. This makes it more uniform across the district.
We next discussed how often is the curriculum rewritten and why? The curriculum is
rewritten when the district adopts a new textbooks, at all levels and subject areas, including
electives. Some departments are different because they do not rely on the textbooks so much. In
the math department that it is very important to still give the students printed materials, the
textbook, in order to help their learning and to maybe they will better understand the content if
they have something to refer back too.
When having a new textbook adoption or need to change sometime in the curriculum,
what steps are involved? She says that they try not to do to many changes, about the only time
that we change the math curriculum is when we have a new district wide adoption. If major
changes need to be made, then the process is the same as if it is a new adoption, little changes are
made during the summer.
In the science department, they will review the pacing guides each year and see what, if
any changes need to be made. When dealing with science labs and more hands on material, they
want to ensure that the materials are available to the teachers each year. When Jessica first
started assisting them, they would also only review it when a new adoption was implemented in
the district, but now it is done yearly.
In the beginning I discussed how the elementary math curriculum is scripted. What
choices do teachers in teaching the curriculum? Jessicas reply was in the secondary math it is
not scripted, but the elementary math is. She personally goes back and forth on the elementary
math being scripted. She does not work with them to directly to write the curriculum, but is
involved when it is done to ensure that there is a flow from 5th grade to 6th grade. We dont want

Running head: Conversation with a Curriculum Worker Research Paper

the students not have an introduction to content in 5th grade that needs to be mastered in 6th
grade. This is something that was implemented about 2 years ago. It has helped to bridge the
gap between the elementary and secondary teachers. In years past, they did not communicate
with each other and teachers on both levels were very frustrated. Fifth grade teachers felt that
they were not necessarily preparing the students for middle school in not just the content part but
also how middle school math is taught different than the younger grades. The sixth grade
teachers would complain about the 5th grade teachers because they felt that students were not
prepared for not only some of the contents but also the expectations of middle school math. By
the two departments, elementary and secondary curriculum working together this has helped
considerably. Jessica explains that they know that each teacher and school has different
expectations, but we wanted the fifth grade teachers understand how middle school was different
and give them a chance to work with the students. We are still working to get all the teachers on
board with working with the students, but we like what we are seeing. This was accomplished
by having fifth grade visit middle school math teachers classrooms and see firsthand how it is
not scripted and other differences and similarities that are happening. A good portion of the
teachers did this, but not all. Teachers also had to opportunity to work with math teachers in
their feeder pattern on a district in-service day. This has helped with communication and each
grade level knowing what the other grade level is doing.
For the most part in the math department focuses on the explicit curriculum. No null
curriculum used the math department, not even for different types of math that could be useful to
students going into different engineering or computer fields. Null curriculum is the stuff that is
not taught in school, computer coding.

Running head: Conversation with a Curriculum Worker Research Paper

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The schools today are still functioning the same that they have for at least the last 60
years. Students to go school and learn the core subject areas of science, math, English language
arts, and social studies. In the secondary level students have the choice on some of the courses
that they to take some elective classes, but they are usually areas of interest to the student.
Students have a wide range of choices to classes that they may take, including for example arts,
ceramics, orchestra, mechanics, engineering, and the list goes on. The problem with this is that
some students are not exposed to all areas. There has been several different curriculums that
some schools across the country use to try to include that all students cover a wide range in
content, one of these is the Core Knowledge curriculum introduced by Dr. Hirsh.
The most important part of school, which is all the different types of curriculum that we
use, explicit and implicit being the most easily defined, is that we are still require students to
complete a certain number of courses and have a certain number of required classes. As
educators we insist on keeping the rolls the same and not giving the students a chance to learn
what they want, when they want, and where they want. This is what needs to change and as
teachers we need to be partners with our students and make learning more active and start
preparing students for a world that we can only image.

Running head: Conversation with a Curriculum Worker Research Paper

References:
Dewey, J. (1902). The child and the curriculum. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dewey, J. (1938). Experience in education. New York: Collier Books.
(n.d.). Retrieved June 27, 2016, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/

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