Professional Documents
Culture Documents
factors that help determine decisions about curriculum. Standards are the
skeleton of all curriculums and when new standards are adopted, there needs to
curriculum into everyday school life. Jayhawkville needs a process that is clear
and easy to implement in order for teaching and learning in the district to be
more effective, as well as adopting new standards such as the Common Core
State Standards in order for all of our schools to be aligned and working together
in unison towards a common goal. The goal for this district is to “align
(Glatthorn, 2015). The five-year planning cycle, the ADDIE design model, of
make sure that the school properly implements and stays up to date with
curriculum and what is best for our students (Glatthorn, 2016, p.191).
need.
all levels across all schools. Right now, the schools in Jayhawkville are working as
structures and people are in place in order for the process to be properly
Since the school district is sizeable and the schools are spread out over four
teachers to work together to give their expertise in the planning process. Susan
Schmoker, 1999). Not all of the schools in Jayhawkville are proficient or high
performing the district should want all of the schools to provide equal
opportunities for all students. Presently, all Jayhawkville schools have their own
mission statements rather than having one common goal for all of the students in
the district. It is key that the district works together to form common goals and
work together to move forward in order to ensure success for all parties
involved, especially our students. Students should have access to the best
curriculum and have more choices as they get older. As of right now, there is no
structure in place to fix this issue and in order to move forward successfully
so that we can provide all of our students, K-12, students in special education or
The Common Core State Standards will help the school district work
together towards a common goal for all of our students. “These learning goals
outline what a student should know and be able to do at the end of each grade.
The standards were created to ensure that all students graduate from high
school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and
Curriculum Plan for Jayhawkville 4
life, regardless of where they live” (Common Core State Standards Initiative).
There should be a need for all of the schools to be proficient and work toward
the common goal that all of students will be ready for the next chapter of their
lives after school. The Common Core State Standards provide the right tools to
get students where they need to be. Since some of the schools are not proficient,
it provides the problem that not all of the schools are aligned with one another.
Vertical alignment from bottom to top is crucial for student success. “When
vertical teams are most successful, the curricular changes they initiate create
support structures that make high achievement a reality for more students
the process in order to make sure teachers have clearly communicated with one
another what they are teaching to ensure students will be successful and not
learning the same topics throughout the different grade levels. Having a clear set
level and make modifications to these standards to best fit the needs of their
individual students. Adopting the Common Core State Standards would ensure
that the schools in the district are aligned and using an effective curriculum plan
The curriculum planning process will be complex but with the right
members and structure, the process will work to make curriculum planning clear
and coherent so that all students will benefit. All members of the school
community will be involved with the process but each groups’ role will be unique
to the process. Each subject area will have its own committee with a group of
expert teachers and a mix of building administrators or leaders. For example, the
Curriculum Plan for Jayhawkville 5
Language Arts committee will be made up of a mix of teachers from grades Pre-K
to 12th grade with the reading specialist as the subject area leader and an
administrator as well. Each subject has a leader and that leader will meet with
p.119). “But administrators can walk marathons through the hallways and
classrooms of a school and accomplish nothing if they do not begin with a clear
and consistent idea of what effective instruction looks like and have the ability to
terms” (Reeves, 2009, p.119). School leaders are the people that start the
conversation about any changes with curriculum and have the most power over
what is best for the school overall. But in order for them to be successful, school
leaders must work with their teachers to make these changes happen. The role of
the teachers is also crucial to the curriculum plan. Teachers are in the classrooms
and are working with various techniques and materials, in order for the students
to reach their full potentials. “Leaders and teachers must collaborate to find the
golden mean between instruction that is compliant but devoid of joy and
classroom practices that are fun but unsupported by research” (Reeves, 2009, p.
121). Students also play a role in the curriculum planning process because they
are the center of all of the decisions that school stakeholders make. Students are
the most important in the plan because they are receiving the education
provided by the school and all decisions are made with their best interest in
Curriculum Plan for Jayhawkville 6
mind. The parents’ role is supporting both their children in school and also
supporting the school itself and the decisions that the leaders and teachers make.
provides opportunities for students outside of the classroom and within the
Roekel, 2008).
research based design model that provides our district the structure necessary
to make decisions and provide our stakeholders with the information needed in
order to be successful. In this case, the curriculum plan will be modeled from the
making (Branch, 2009). The model is a five-year cycle that allows the district to
make decisions and move forward in implementing the new curriculum. Each
subject area will go through the cycle but at alternating start times in order to
happen in the school district which could be confusing. At the end of the five
years, it will circle back to the beginning in order to start making improvements
and other necessary changes. New goals will then be set and the process will
start again. The first year is the visioning year. This is when the Language Arts
committee will review and revise the program philosophy to match the
PreK-12 standards, this case Common Core State Standards, and agree on
understandings will also be established. The committee will collect resources for
review and evaluation and make purchases of materials for the next school year.
The second year is for unit writing or revision year and also grade or course level
made in order to provide this for specific teachers. The committee will also agree
implementing year in which the committee continues to revise unit maps, agree
fourth year begins the process of evaluating and modifying. The committee will
evaluate and assess IEP interventions, modifications, and enrichment for all
students as well as continuing to review and revise the unit level maps. The fifth
year continues the process of evaluating and modifying but the committee also
starts researching. In addition to review and revising unit level maps and
ensuring assessments and interventions are appropriate for all students, the
committee will research best practice and changes in the area of Language Arts.
With the new information acquired in the fifth year, the committee starts the
process again at year one using the information researched and the data from
Many products will come out of the planning process that will be used to
curriculum framework is the first product that the committee will complete. The
organized plan with standards and learning outcomes that defines the content
that will be learned. The framework bridges the gap between the standards and
teaching and learning. Curriculum maps will be created in order for teachers and
what and when. Curriculum maps in this case are the same as the unit level maps
discussed in the timeline. The classroom teachers will create the maps because
“The only professional person who knows what is taught in the classroom is the
teacher” (Jacobs, 1997). “The purpose is to collect authentic data about the
not what others think they are supposed to be studying” (Jacobs, 1997).
teachers is very important for alignment, to make edits for the following year,
and to reflect on what was done. “Teachers should look for repetitions, gaps,
and timeliness” (Jacobs, 1997). Curriculum maps are an excellent source of data
collection from our teachers in order for the committee to make decisions to
assessments are used in a school or district to ensure that all teachers are
to work together to align our schools, then common assessments play a big role
assessment with teachers that teach the same content, whether it is in the same
Curriculum Plan for Jayhawkville 9
grade level, department, or content area (Hidden Curriculum, 2014). With these
assessments, teachers are able to compare results with other teachers. Common
assessments are the most important products that will be developed throughout
key in making sure teachers are ready. Even with a well thought out curriculum
plan, without proper training for teachers, Jayhawkville School District will not
be prepared for the change. Teachers must be informed and able to grow
engaging methods to make sure staff understands the Common Core State
knowledge and skills needed to understand and implement the new standards.
Professional learning communities should be well planned out for the entire
school year to make sure that the work is moving toward with guidance (Clifton,
2013). Peer observations should be used for teachers to learn from one another
the new standards and all of the options provided should be used in order to
because it makes teachers accountable and shows educators whether or not the
will collect both formative and summative assessments for each subject area in
order to review student learning and the effectiveness of the new Common Core
State Standards. The subject area committee members will look at the data
provided from the classroom teachers as well as any standardized testing scores.
All of the data together should give a clear picture as to what learning looks like
in the Jayhawkville School District. The subject area leaders will compile all of
the data provided and share it with the curriculum director and later the entire
will open a conversation with all the stakeholders about what is working and
what needs to be changed. Since this is done from bottom to top, all stakeholders
Since this process is so complex and has many steps to it, patience and
willingness to take the process one step at a time will make a difference to the
Curriculum Plan for Jayhawkville 11
school district. This is not a process that happens in a short time, but one that
for its success. Jayhawkville School District schools should all be proficient after
going through this curriculum planning process and implementing the Common
References
Clifton, N. (Producer). 2013. Shifting from the Elephant in the Room to Ownership of
the Common Core State Standards: A Capacity-Building Implementation
Plan.
Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2017). What Parents Should Know.
Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/what-parents-should-know/
Glatthorn, A., Boschee, F., Whitehead, B., & Boschee, B. (2015). Curriculum
Leadership: Strategies for Development and Implementation. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Hidden curriculum (2014, August 26). In S. Abbott (Ed.), The glossary of education
reform. Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/hidden-curriculum
Jacobs, H. H. (1997). Mapping the big picture: integrating curriculum & assessment,
K-12. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.
Reeves, D. B. (2009). Leading change in your school: how to conquer myths, build
commitment, and get results. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision
and Curriculum Development.