Chapter 10
Impact of professional organizations on curriculum
(Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Association for Educational Communications and Technology, International Society for Technology in Education, and International Reading Association) publish journals and hold conferences on curriculum development. They help teachers and administrators from technology to authentic learning
Invisibility example
- today LGBTQA members and the disabled are often invisible in educational texts,
When was the Common Core State Standards developed?
2009- it created the common core
What did PISA reveal (program for international student assessment)?
A more complex and useful picture than simplistic year-to-year comparisons of how the US is doing
What is authentic assessment?
Also called alternative or performance-based assessment it captures actual student performance not a structured test-setting. This encourages students to produce and reflect on their own work. The student might show what they learned with a portfolio, journal, an interview, an experiment, or giving a presentation.
What is the Orff approach?
Attempts to engage a child's intrinsic creativity and playfulness.
What was the federal Every Student Succeeds Act ESSA?
Became law in 2015- some supporters hoped it would help end the controversial effects of NCLB. This has a reduced emphasis on test scores but is still intended to identify schools in need of improvement. Ex- it makes failing schools subject to state takeover without specifying what that means.
What was wrong with NCLB?
Dramatic inconsistency in test scores from state to state, American students continued scoring below European and Asian peers, PISA (program for international student assessment) revealed US 15 year olds performed below other developed nations in math ranking 36/60 countries. A third of them fell in the low-performing math category and the high performing students were below the international average.
What did Educator Hilda Taba do?
Emphasized the importance of a school curriculum: "Learning in school differs from learning in life that it is formally organized. It is the special function of the school to arrange the experiences of children and youth so that desirable learning takes place."
What is cocurriculum?
Extracurricular activities such as Odyssey of the Mind, National Forensics STudy, and Scholars Bowl that advocates see as so important they believe their value goes far beyond the high school years
What do standardized tests do?
Help educators analyze the curriculum and teaching methods to see what's working or what needs to be changed.
What are the seven forms of bias?
Invisibility, stereotyping, imbalance and selectivity, unreality, fragmentation and isolation, linguistic bias, cosmetic bias
What does annual testing flexibility mean in regard to ESSA?
It promises more flexibility in testing than NCLB. Ex- parents can choose to have their children skip standardized tests, schools can break up one test into smaller tests, or develop alternative methods to measure student learning differently. States might weaken or eliminate tests entirely, influencing graduation rates
Linguistic bias example
Language that suggests non-directed behavior and relationships which helps justify poor behavior. Ex- "men and their wives", using words like "roaming, wandering" to describe Native Americans as this justifies the seizure of native lands for white Americans to "civilize or settle"
What is the implicit or hidden curriculum?
Learning that is not always intended but emerges as students are shaped by the school culture, including the attitudes and behaviors of teachers. ex; When a student in a spelling bee spelled a word correctly a "hit" was scored. When three spelling errors were made, the team was "out" this shows the hidden/implicit curriculum which is in this example the importance of winning, the pain of losing.
Impact of students on the curriculum
Most students still have some curricular choice in selecting topics for independent projects, research papers, book reviews, and authentic learning
What does eliminating adequate yearly progress (AYP) have to do in regard to ESSA?
NCLB's rigid and nationally mandated AYP system strove to reach 100% proficiency in math and reading. ESSA allows states to determine their own scoring targets
What is Campbell's law?
Named for social scientist Donald T. Campbell it says the more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it was intended to monitor. IE the more important test scores become, the more likely it is people will cheat
Impact of Education commissions and committees on curriculum
Nonprofits and local, state and or national govs have created various committees to study education. In 2010 the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association developed Common Core State Standards, identifying the math and English skills and knowledge students should master at each grade level from kindergarten to grade 12
Stealth censorship
Occurs when educators or parents quietly remove a book from a library shelf or a course of study in response to an informal complaint, or to avoid controversy or when teachers avoid controversial topics
Unreality example
Painting a shiny and unblemished portrait of the nation; textbooks often ignore racism, classism, and sexism
Impact of parental and community groups on curriculum
Parents can advocate for more rigorous academic courses, higher scores on standardized tests, greater access to technology, etc. Conservative families may argue for religion to be taught while liberal families may demand elimination of gender and racial stereotypes from the curriculum
Impact of administrators on school curriculum
Principals and other administrators can set the school's priorities from raising test scores to investing or eliminating art education
Impact of publishers on curriculum
Publishers may forego in-depth coverage of topics and avoid unpopular points of view to get on state-approved textbook lists. Teachers must remember textbooks are published to meet market demands and not necessarily to offer objective or complex viewpoints
What is a standardized test?
Requires all test takers to answer the same questions, so that student and teacher performance can be compared
What is the invisible curriculum?
Some of the most powerful curricular lessons taught in school that are not found in the formal curriculum. It has two parts; the implicit or hidden curriculum and the null curriculum
Impact of state governments on the curriculum
States are now assuming a larger role in education under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and their interest in curriculum matters has sharpened through state standards and tests, curriculum guides, and frameworks for schools to follow. Textbook adoption committees have a large role in some states. Tensions flow from debates on including or excluding religion, science, cultural diversity, and other hot-button issues.
What are textbook adoption states?
States mainly from the South and West that determine textbook content nationwide such as California, Florida, and New York. It's much easier to sell "Florida-approved" books to Oklahoma then it is to customize texts for smaller states
What is the formal or explicit curriculum?
Textbooks, lesson plans, and arranged classroom experiences for learning
What is intelligent design?
The idea that nature's complexity springs from an unnamed intelligence or designer rather than resulting from an undirected process
What is creationism?
The notion that God created all life and the world in seven days, as described in the book of Genesis
Impact of standardized tests on the curriculum
The results of state and national tests (legally mandated annual tests, state graduation tests, AP Exams, SATs and ACTs) influence what is taught. If students do poorly in an area, gov and public pressure pushes school officials to raise those scores
What is curriculum?
The set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university.
What is the common core?
The standards aimed to ensure all students, regardless of where they live, will graduate from high school with a consistent, clear understanding of the key concepts and skills they need.
What is the most visible form of the formal curriculum?
The textbook
What are the concerns over the common core standards?
There is not a consensus on the core standards, not all states sign on, a single set may not be desirable, it may not be the right direction for US schools
What are the disadvantages of extracurriculars?
They are distractions, there is an underrepresentation of low socioeconomic students and gender differences, some are "pay to play" which means minorities cannot join
Why are standardized tests so popular?
They are less expensive than other assessments, offer apparently clear results, and can be rapidly implemented.
Impact of teachers on the curriculum
They develop it formally and informally, may serve on textbook selection committees to determine the materials a school purchases, interpret and adapt the official text or curriculum guide, stressing certain points, giving scant attention to other points, and/or supplementing texts with teacher-made materials or directing students to the internet
Impact of federal gov on curriculum
They influence it through judicial decisions, financial incentives, and legislation. ESSA and federal support of a common core of standards for all states is one recent example of the power it can exert
impact of colleges and universities on curriculum
They influence it through their entrance requirements which spell out courses high school students must take to gain admittance.
Impact of local gov on curriculum
They make a variety of curriculum decisions, requiring or prohibiting courses from sex ed to financial literacy to technology. Supporters want them to have a strong voice in the curriculum because they are closest to the needs of the local community and interests of the students, those against them feel the members lack the professional training to make informed curricular decisions
Impact of Marketers and other special interest groups on curriculum
They may do self-promoting distortion of worldly issues
What happened to schools with poor performance due to NCLB?
They would be labeled underperforming or failing. Then NCLB called states to close or reorganize the failing school and or fire its teachers and principal. Students at the failed school would have to attend other schools which put them at greater risk for failure and shutdown as those schools took in students of low performance. This caused more schools to be labeled as failing.
Imbalance and selectivity example
This is where one side of an issue is given; describing how women were "given" the vote
Cosmetic bias example
This offers the "illusion of equity" to lure educators into purchasing books that appear current, diverse, and balanced. ex- a science textbook brandishes many photos of women and people of color on its pages and a female scientist on the cover, yet there is little or no content on female or minority scientists inside
What is the extracurriculum?
This teaches students lessons in school activities such as recess, sports, clubs, governance, and the student newspaper-all places where a great deal of learning occurs without tests or grades. A majority of students participate in at least one extracurricular activity with students from smaller schools with stronger academic records the most likely to be involved
What is the null curriculum?
When a person or group decides that some topic is unimportant, inappropriate, too controversial, or not worth the time, that topic is never taught and becomes part of the null curriculum ex- when classes run out of time so they cannot teach everything- history class does not take us to the present, it also occurs when there is a conscious attempt to ensure students do not learn a compelling topic that adults do not want them to learn-climate change, evolution, sex ed
Years of analysis by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development indicates
a country's students tend to score higher if the country: make the teaching profession more selective and prestigious, enroll children in high-quality preschools, provide more resources to the neediest children, establish school cultures of constant improvement, apply consistent and rigorous standards in every classroom
What was No Child Left Behind 2001
a law designed to raise school standards and accountability nationwide. NCLB represented the increased federal gov emphasis on student achievement. The dept of Education would provide more money to encourage states to test students and punish schools where students did not test well. It proved neither popular or effective
What is core knowledge?
also called cultural literacy, proponents of this argue for a common set of books, a course of study for all students, one that ensures that all educated people know the same basic cultural information
Why is cheating happening?
because ofCampbell's law
Benefits on common core standards?
better preparation for college and careers, more accurate state-to-state comparisons, ease the transition for students moving between states
What was the common core intended to do?
bring more rigor to the curriculum and reflect a national consensus on what all American students should learn. Fewer topics would be covered but greater depth and mastery required. Each state still has the freedom to define the curriculum. They agree on the knowledge but states are left to decide how to reach that outcome.
What is the tipping point?
coined by Malcolm Gladwell it is the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point when a change occurs
Common core of standards is desirable because
educators will be held accountable, it makes us more competitive, teachers work collaboratively rather than in isolation, it binds our citizens
Participation in extracurricular activities is correlated with
enriched student life and learning, higher student self-esteem, school completion, and civic participation, improved race relations, higher grades and SAT scores, better health and less conformity to gender stereotypes, higher career aspirations especially for boys from poor backgrounds
Under ESSA, a failing school is defined as one that
is in the bottom 5% of assessment test scores, has student subgroups which consistently underperform on standardized tests, graduates fewer than 67% of students
Additional aspects of ESSA
less federal accountability of state performance, annual testing flexibility, eliminates adequate yearly progress
is the Common Core required?
no
Is the common core a curriculum?
no; it is a set of standards, but it can become a curriculum
Who was Former Undersecretary of Education Diane Ravitch?
part of the team that initially implemented NCLB she became a critic saying it took money from public schools and gave it to private companies that sell tests or run charter schools without any evidence that it improved education. She went against creating test-takers rather than improvind real learning, and lamented the elimination of arts, physical ed., foreign language, and history in the curriculum. She no longer believed high-stakes tests improved schools
Why are high-stakes tests problematic?
poorer students are at a greater risk, lower graduation risks, rationing time and resources, higher test scores do not mean more learning, standardized testing shrinks the curriculum, teacher stress, tests can fail
What do extracurriculars do?
reduce behavior problems and increases students' sense of belonging and academic engagement while also teaching lessons in leadership, teamwork, persistence, diligence, and fair play. High school seniors involved in school activities are less likely to cut class, three times as likely to have a GPA of 3.0 or higher, and more likely to attend college when compared to students not involved
What is the curricular cannon?r
refers to the notion that there is a central core of info that schools should teach including famous figures, great works of art and music and great works of literature.
Why are some state test results so different from national outcomes?
some state tests are less demanding, have lower passing scores, and students learn less
A common core of standards is a mistake because
standardized tests detract from learning, the national standards are a step backward for some, teachers work competitively rather than cooperatively, it will divide the nation
What happens when failing schools are identified by ESSA?
states are expected to develop their own strategies to improve them. It might include penalties or additional investments in the school, a stick or a carrot approach
What does less federal accountability of state performance mean regarding ESSA?
states have almost all the responsibility for school, student, and teacher accountability-ex it prohibits the federal gov from mandating how to perform teacher evaluations or what grades students need on a test
What do critics argue about the common core standards?
that mandated standards and associated testing handcuff teachers, it hurts education, it diverts education funding to private curriculum and testing companies
What are high-stakes tests?
they are used to make important decisions about students, educators, schools, or districts. They are used to determine punishments (like reduced school funding), accolades (the best schools, teachers, or students), advancement (graduation), or salary increases. They are more likely to create havoc and hurt than solve problems though
What is the digital divide?
unequal access to computer technology; also known as the last mile problem
How should schools effectively evaluate and help teachers improve?
use classroom observations, assessment of student classroom work, and ongoing exams in all subject areas.
Stereotyping example
when rigid roles or traits are assigned to all or most members of a group; portraying all African Americans as athletes, Mexican Americans as laborers, and women only in relation to their families
Example of fragmentation and isolation
when texts isolate groups-segregating them into a separate box or chapter- they subtly suggest those groups are not part of society's mainstream
