Intro to Education Ch. 10
curriculum
planned content of instruction that enables the school to meet its aims.
cultural literacy
Knowledge of the people, places, events, idioms, and informal content of the dominant culture.
formal or explicit curriculum
A school's official curriculum that is reflected in academic courses and requirements.
standardized test
A standardized test requires all test takers to answer the same questions and is scored in a "standard" or consistent manner. Test takers are often compared to one another according to their performance.
Extracurriculum
The part of school life that comprises activities, such as sports, academic and social clubs, band, chorus, orchestra, and theater. Many educators think that the extracurriculum develops important skills and values, including leadership, teamwork, creativity, and diligence.
education
What's Worth Knowing? The Case for Cultural Literacy: In The Closing of the American Mind (1987), University of Chicago professor of social thought Allan Bloom: famously took aim at the university curriculum as a series of often-unrelated courses lacking a vision of what an educated individual should know. He called this a canon-less curriculum. Bloom claimed that his university students were ignorant of music and literature, and charged that too many students graduate with a degree but not an ___________________ .
parents
What's Worth Knowing? The Case for Cultural Literacy: In his book Cultural Literacy, Professor E. D. Hirsch, Jr.: basically agreed, but included more contributions from women and various ethnic and racial groups than Bloom's canon did. In fact, Hirsch believes children from poverty and children of color would benefit most from a cultural literacy curriculum. In 1991, Hirsch published the first volume of the core knowledge series, What Your First Grader Needs to Know. Other grades followed in these mass-marketed books directed at both educators and ______________ .
issues
Who and What Shape the Curriculum?: State Government: 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 all schools to follow. In some states, textbook adoption committees have a large role. Tensions flow from debates on including or excluding religion, science, cultural diversity, and other hot-button _______________ .
last mile problem
A digital divide in which geography is a factor, in part because running fiber-optic cables to rural schools is often an expense that telecommunications companies avoid.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
A federal law passed in 2001 that emphasized high-stakes standardized testing. By 2012, the federal government allowed many states to opt out as an emphasis on national core standards took hold.
Authentic assessment
A type of evaluation that represents actual performance, encourages students to reflect on their own work, and is integrated into the student's whole learning process. Such tests usually require that students synthesize knowledge from different areas and use that knowledge actively.
areas
Alternatives to High-Stakes Testing: Authentic Testing: Authentic assessment encourages students to produce and reflect on their own work. The student might demonstrate what has been learned by using a portfolio (like the RAPs found on Connect) or journal, undergoing an interview, conducting an experiment, or giving a presentation. Authentic assessment offers a focused and intense insight into student learning, quite different from the answers to standardized test questions. Authentic assessment is similar to learning a sport. A tennis player practices her backhand, and absorbs nuanced feedback from her coach and teammates. Then, it is time for the authentic assessment: not a multiple-choice quiz about tennis; but her actually playing tennis! Many states are exploring authentic methods of assessment in different subject ______________ .
schools
Alternatives to High-Stakes Testing: Authentic Testing: Coalition of Essential Skills (Theodore Sizer): The Coalition of Essential Schools, founded by prominent educator Theodore Sizer, uses authentic assessment. The coalition encourages schools to define their own model for successful reform, guided by nine basic principles that emphasize the personalization of learning. These principles include the requirement that students exhibit their knowledge concretely. The high school curriculum is structured around demanding, creative tasks, which may include: - Completing an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax return for a family whose records you receive, working with other students in a group to ensure that everyone's - IRS forms are correct, and auditing a return filed by a student in a different group - Designing a nutritious, attractive lunch menu for the cafeteria within a specified budget, and defending your definitions of "nutritious" and "attractive" - Designing and building a wind instrument from metal pipes, then composing and performing a piece of music for that instrument - Exploring one human emotion in an at least four different ways, including (but not limited to): essays, examples from literature and history; creating drawings, paintings, sculptures, films, photographs, video, or music; or performing a pantomime, dance, story, or play that you create - Increased authentic assessment may contribute to a greater classroom focus on critical thinking and personal development. Authentic assessments may help us go beyond our current dependence on efficient and "cheap" high-stakes standardized tests to more accurately determine the competence of students and the success of ____________________ .
setting
Alternatives to High-Stakes Testing: Tipping Point: There are some signs that we may be reaching what author Malcolm Gladwell calls a tipping point, "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point" when change occurs. For instance, the American Psychological Association's testing guidelines now specifically prohibit basing any consequential decisions about an individual on a single test score. Most educational organizations, measurement experts, and teachers agree; they believe that they get a far more accurate assessment of student performance with multiple tools: tests, class participation, portfolios, formal exhibitions, independent student projects, and teacher evaluations. One such measure of deeper learning is authentic assessment. Authentic assessment (also called alternative or performance-based assessment) captures actual student performance, not a structured test _____________________ .
evolution
As put forth by Charles Darwin, a keystone of modern biological theory and postulates that animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types and that there are modifications in successive generations.
core knowledge
Awareness of the central ideas, beliefs, personalities writings, events, etc. of culture. Also termed cultural literacy.
cheat
Evaluating Teachers by Student Test Scores: Cheating: Campbell's Law: named for social scientist Donald T. Campbell, who wrote: "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." To effectively evaluate teachers—and help them improve—schools should use classroom observations, assessment of student classroom work, and ongoing exams in all subject areas. Assessment of students and teachers should move beyond high-pressure, high-stakes, standardized, fill-in-the-bubble tests; we should consider a variety of ways to measure learning. In other words, the more important test scores become, the more likely it is that people will ______________ .
columbia
Evaluating Teachers by Student Test Scores: Cheating: Eleven Atlanta Public School (APS) officials, including the superintendent and three school reform team executive directors, were convicted on criminal charges stemming from widespread alteration of answers on mandated state tests. To drive up test scores, teachers and administrators gave children answers, erased incorrect answers, hid and altered documents, offered monetary incentives to encourage staff cheating, and punished employees who refused to cheat. A grand jury charged 35 school employees, including Dr. Beverly Hall, once an American Association of School Administrators Superintendent of the Year, with falsely inflating APS's performance. Meanwhile, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that 196 of the nation's 3,125 largest school districts (or 7 percent) had suspicious test results suggesting adult tampering. For 33 of these districts, the odds of their test scores occurring naturally were greater than one in a million. Cheating scandals have emerged in nearly 40 states and the District of ______________ .
clue
Evaluating Teachers by Student Test Scores: One year's test scores are a flawed and inadequate measure of teacher effectiveness. Yet test scores can become 40 or 50 percent of a teacher's evaluation in some states. In most cases, standardized test scores reveal more about a student's world than the teacher's. As we discussed above, student achievement is influenced by health issues, home life, class size, curriculum materials, school attendance, other teachers, peers, parenting, neighborhood environment, and of course, the wealth or poverty of the student and school. With so many factors in play, it is not surprising that teacher "ratings" vary from the top one year to merely average (or worse) in following years. As one Houston teacher put it: "I teach the same way every year. My first year got me pats on the back. My second year got me kicked in the backside. And for year three, my scores were off the charts. I got a huge bonus. What did I do differently? I have no ___________________ ."
education
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the Testing Culture: As ESSA replacing NCLB demonstrates, political and policy winds change direction, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly. By the time you read this, ESSA might be well established and implemented—or weakened, ignored, and for all practical purposes eliminated by a new administration. Will ESSA and/or other reforms radically change the face of U.S. education, solve NCLB's problems, or create new ones? Will states loosen standards so much that they become meaningless, or implement meaningful reform? Your guess is as good as ours. In terms of your own career, you might want to explore the specific state where you plan to teach. How is it evaluating schools and students under ESSA? After all, you have a lot at stake in the laws and controversies likely to continue roiling ______________ .
defeating
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the Testing Culture: Federal lawmakers opted for a modified approach with ESSA, with its reduced emphasis on test scores and the drastic consequences that low test scores had triggered. While ESSA is less draconian and detailed than NCLB, it is still intended to identify schools in need of improvement. For example, ESSA makes "failing" schools subject to state takeover, without specifying what a takeover means. Under ESSA, a failing school is defined as one that: - Is in the bottom 5 percent of assessment test scores - Has student subgroups which consistently underperform on standardized tests - Graduates fewer than 67 percent of students Once these schools are identified, states are expected to develop their own strategies to improve them. This might include penalties or additional investments in the school, a stick or a carrot approach. When signing ESSA into law, former President Obama criticized NCLB because it "often forced schools and school districts into cookie cutter reforms that didn't always produce the kinds of results that we wanted to see." While ESSA returns more decision making to the states, some worry that the testing culture will continue unabated. Others are concerned that the Trump administration will go in the opposite direction and decrease school accountability. This new federal administration, less enamored with federal regulations, might simply look the other way if schools are failing, allowing states to look the other way as well. If states avoid all testing, schools in minority and poor neighborhoods might be left to falter, with students put in even greater jeopardy. We need testing to know what is going on, but we need to avoid over-testing that is self-_______________ .
classroom
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the Testing Culture: One problem was dramatic inconsistency in test scores from state to state (more about this below in "Common Core"). Meanwhile, after years of NCLB, American students continued to score well below their European and Asian peers in reading, science, and math. According to the 2015 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), United States 15-year-olds performed well below other developed nations in math, ranking 36 out of 69 countries. Almost a third of U.S. 15-year-olds fell in the "low-performing" category in math, and our percentage of high-performing math students (5.9 percent) was far below the international average (10.7 percent). Sounds terrible, but it is also important to point out that national averages hide significant differences among schools and communities. Some of our school districts, often the wealthier ones, score near the top on these international tests, while our poorest schools score near the bottom. The public does not always understand such statistical subtleties, and therefore often believe that "bad" U.S. test scores on international exams mean that our schools are not doing well. Deeper evaluation of PISA results shows a more complex and useful picture than simplistic year-to-year comparisons of how the U.S. is doing. Years of analysis by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development indicates that 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 ________________
rates
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the Testing Culture: Other Important Aspects of ESSA: Annual Testing Flexibility: ESSA initially required standardized reading and math tests in grades 3-8 and once in high school. However, it promises more flexibility than under NCLB. For example, parents can choose to have their children skip standardized tests. Schools can break up one critical test into smaller tests, or develop alternative methods to measure student learning differently. States might weaken or eliminate tests entirely, influencing graduation _______________ .
targets
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the Testing Culture: Other Important Aspects of ESSA: Eliminates Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP): NCLB's rigid and nationally mandated Academic Yearly Progress system strove to reach 100 percent proficiency in math and reading. ESSA allows states to determine more their own scoring ____________ .
mandates
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the Testing Culture: Other Important Aspects of ESSA: Less Federal Accountability of State Performance: States have almost all the responsibility for school, student, and teacher accountability. For instance, ESSA prohibits the federal government from mandating how to perform teacher evaluations, or what grades students need to obtain on a test. While the U.S. Department of Education retains some oversight, ESSA reduces the power of the Secretary of Education to dictate specific _______________ .
effective
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the Testing Culture: When the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) became law in late 2015, some supporters hoped for an end to the controversial effects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the 2001 law designed to raise school standards and accountability nationwide. Historically, the individual states were responsible for their own schools' quality, so NCLB (supported by both Republicans and Democrats) represented the increased federal government emphasis on student achievement. The Department of Education would provide more money to encourage states to test students and punish schools where students did not test well. Widely heralded at first, NCLB's approach proved neither popular nor _______________ . Under NCLB, a school that continually posted weak test scores would be labeled "underperforming" (some said "failing"). When that happened, NCLB called on states to close or reorganize the failing school, and/or fire its teachers and principal. Students at the "failed" school would then have to attend other schools—which would themselves face greater risk for "failure" and shutdown, as they tried to absorb blocks of new students with low test scores. The ripple effect led to even more schools labeled as failing. The lives of students, teachers, administrators and parents were continually affected by test scores—and not in a good way! Even some early NCLB advocates turned against the law. Former Undersecretary of Education Diane Ravitch (part of the team that initially implemented NCLB) later became a harsh critic, saying it funneled money away from public schools and to private companies that sell tests or run charter schools—without any evidence that either approach improves education. She railed against creating test-takers, rather than improving real learning, and lamented the elimination of arts, physical education, foreign language, and history in the curriculum. She no longer believed that high-stakes tests led to improved schools
Common Core State Standards
Identifies the skills and content a student should master at each grade level from Kindergarten through grade 12.
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
Like the No Child Left Behind Act, which it replaced, ESSA is a reauthorization of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, describing the federal government's role in public education.
society
Suggestions for Tomorrow's Curriculum: Collaboration and Human Relations: Too often our world is marked by misunderstanding and anger; cultural, class, and religious conflict; widespread poverty; physical deprivation; and interpersonal and international clashes. This calls for proactive curriculum commitment to Human Relations. Here are our suggestions: Human Relations 1: Understand Yourself. Knowing only our own family history, cultural and religious beliefs, gender challenges, and view of our national heritage leaves us less prepared for the modern world. We lack a healthy appreciation of how our backgrounds have shaped our lives and our worldview. Only through greater self-insight can we begin to understand our perceptions and motivations, our strengths and weaknesses, our limits and potential, why we behave and think as we do, and our purposeful place in the world. Human Relations 2: Celebrate Others. Self-understanding excites curiosity about and insights from other peoples and cultures. This is far richer than mere tolerance. We believe that diversity should be celebrated. Cultural, racial, ethnic, gender, spiritual, ability, and religious differences offer us wondrous insights into the human experience. We can learn so much from one another. We must learn to learn from our differences, not fear them. Human Relations 3: Encourage Individual Talents. Schools should prepare students to live purposeful and satisfying lives. To do this, students need to learn and develop their own unique interests, abilities, skills, and talents. By measuring all students against standardized yardsticks of literacy and numeracy, we lose and/or denigrate individual creativity and talents. We would like to see more individualization in the curriculum. Human Relations 4: Promote Purposeful Lives. Pioneering education reformer Horace Mann told Antioch College's 1859 graduating class: "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity." The real measure of an education is what people do after graduation—not their grades, assignments, or extracurricular activities. Are students living and working ethically? Are adults caring for one another? Do we treat children, families, colleagues, and especially strangers with love, compassion, and forgiveness? This will be the true measure of our teaching, our schooling, and our ____________________ .
schools
Suggestions for Tomorrow's Curriculum: Physical Fitness: Lifelong fitness activities—yoga, walking, Pilates, climbing, kickboxing, basketball, dance, biking, and so on—can be enjoyed today and promote wellness for life. We must reverse cutbacks in physical and kinetic learning. Civics Education: Responsible citizenship is difficult in an environment of hyperbolic and misleading news outlets, ubiquitous marketing, political gridlock, money's influence in politics, and denigration of our republic's political process itself. More than 80 percent of eighth-graders are not proficient in civics knowledge and skills. "Ultimately, schools are the guardians of democracy," and we advocate a more robust civics education throughout the curriculum to protect and nourish our nation's noble experiment in self-governance. Creativity: People in our society have created (and continue to create) groundbreaking art, media, technology, ideas, and countless inventions. Yet with so much focus on testing, too few educators explore how to promote and honor creativity in ______________ .
literacy
Suggestions for Tomorrow's Curriculum: Using and Evaluating Digital Information: Technology brings us both true and phony information. It's essential to teach students how to separate the important from the insignificant and the real from the fake. We favor a curriculum that helps students effectively evaluate and use information, a curricular challenge for life and citizenship. Critical Thinking Skills: Students spend a lot of time memorizing information that can be easily retrieved. More time is needed for comparing, interpreting, observing, summarizing, classifying, decision making, creating, and criticizing. Using more of these critical-thinking skills in subjects from mathematics to history increases our higher-order thinking—our ability to think clearly. Media "Literacy": Inside and outside of schools, screen time is exploding. Life in a marketing culture requires understanding of how media can be helpful and promote wellbeing, and also how it could be harmful. Financial Literacy: Virtually all high schools teach geometry and calculus; but only 17 states require high school students to take a personal finance course covering math life skills like checkbook balancing, understanding compound interest, and managing credit card debt.109 High school students who are required to take personal finance courses average better credit scores and debt delinquency rates as young adults.110 We'd like to see wider adoption of financial ________________ .
differences
Tension Points: Censorship and the Curriculum: (Self Censorship)/ Stealth Censorship: occurs when educators or parents quietly remove a book from a library or a course of study in response to informal complaints—or to avoid controversy. Teachers practice the same sort of self-censorship when they choose not to teach a controversial topic or discuss a difficult issue. While data on the frequency of self-censorship are impossible to obtain, we can tally up the number of books officially removed or placed on restricted-access shelves in schools and libraries. The ALA tracks challenged and censored books, issuing a new report annually. Once again, the tension centers on the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech, of the press, and—by implication—of reading. For instance, challenges to books that include homosexuality are commonplace today. Critics say such books promote homosexuality and/or other sexual orientations, unacceptable topics for school. Others assert that neither books nor education can change a person's sexual orientation, so fear of "promotion" is unfounded. They believe that such books teach tolerance for individual ____________________ .
spots
Tension Points: Censorship and the Curriculum: Supporters of censorship or prudent selection argue that adults have the right and obligation to protect children from harmful influences. Censorship opponents say that our purpose as educators is to expose students to a variety of views and perspectives, not to indoctrinate them. But "harmful influences" are in the eye of the beholder. Deciding what students should be able to read, and at what age, continues to be a difficult challenge for teachers, parents, and students. It has been made even more difficult by the Internet and social media, which opens wide the schoolhouse door. Teachers at all levels wonder how best to introduce potentially provocative material emerging as "trigger warnings, microaggressions and tweeting." While some school Internet access is filtered or blocked, technology makes all types of information available in homes, libraries, and hot _______________ .
evolution
Tension Points: Evolution, Climate Change, Religion, and Science: A significant number of people believe that evolutionary theory does not explain the origin of life on its own—or at all. Some argue for intelligent design, the idea that nature's complexity (perhaps including evolution, or perhaps not) springs from an unnamed intelligence or designer (perhaps supernatural), rather than resulting from an undirected process. Many Christian fundamentalists believe in creationism, the notion that God created all life and the world in seven days, as described in the book of Genesis. Supporters of intelligent design and creationism say public schools should teach one or both explanations instead of—or at least alongside—___________________ .
hunch
Tension Points: Evolution, Climate Change, Religion, and Science: In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Louisiana statute that outlawed teaching evolution in public schools without also teaching creation science or intelligent design—the position that God created the universe in six 24-hour periods as described in the Bible. Yet, decades later, public schools were still teaching biblical creationism. Youngstown, Ohio, public schools announced that "beginning this 2016-2017 school year, any reference to intelligent design, creationism, or any like concepts are eliminated from the science curriculum." At the same time, the Texas State Board of Education was working to reaffirm biblical beliefs in the schools and arguing against its own science committee's recommendation to challenge the theory of evolution. The debate over teaching the theory of evolution remains heated and polarizing. The subtlety of language is partially responsible for this tension point, because "theory" has two distinct meanings. 1. In everyday usage, "theory" means an idea or a hunch. 2. But in science, theory is a thoroughly tested belief unlikely to change, such as the theory of gravitation or cell theory. Scientific theories are the result of decades or centuries of insights drawn on many interconnected observations, ideas, and replicated tests. The theory of evolution—that animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types and that there are modifications in successive generations—is a well-founded scientific explanation, not a ______________ .
science
Tension Points: Evolution, Climate Change, Religion, and Science: Many scientists and civil liberties advocates argue that intelligent design and creationism are religious and unscientific. Meanwhile, polls indicate that a large segment of the public is comfortable with the notion that students deserve to hear competing theories. While science refutes a literal biblical interpretation of the earth's age, not all scientists refute a spiritual or higher intelligence at work. Perhaps intelligent design works through evolution. The bottom line is that we still have much to learn. It is unfortunate that such debates create pro- and anti-science camps. More than a dozen states (a number likely to grow) are either considering passing or have already passed legislation requiring that when evolution and other scientific subjects (e.g., climate change) are taught, criticism and/or alternative explanations, including the supernatural, be included as well. Tennessee, for example, provides teacher guidelines for answering student questions that challenge established scientific theories and the state guarantees that teachers won't be disciplined for ignoring the tenets of _________________ .
states
Textbooks: Textbook publishing is also big business, with potential customers in the United States of 13,000-plus public school districts, 132,000 schools, 3.2 million teachers, and 50 million students annually.16 No wonder some believe that textbooks rule. However, many people are frustrated with the quality of textbooks. The story starts with textbook adoption states. About half the states, located mainly in the South and the West, require local districts to select their texts from an official, state-approved list. To a large degree, these "textbook adoption" states (including big states like California, Florida, and New York) determine textbook content nationwide; it's more profitable to publishers to sell "Florida-approved" books to Oklahoma then it is to customize texts for smaller _________________ .
95
Textbooks: The textbook is the most visible element of the formal curriculum. In many ways, the textbook functions as our current de facto national curriculum. Students around the nation study from the same books, do the same exercises, and are expected to master the same material. Studies reveal that students spend as much as ___________ percent of classroom time using textbooks. Teachers base more than 70 percent of their instructional decisions and as much as 90 percent of homework assignments on the text.
controversy
The Common Core: As we have seen, our school curriculum is a hodge-podge, developed by different groups and varying from state to state. Test results reflect that confusion. For instance, almost every student in Mississippi was passing the state mathematics exam on the first attempt, while 35 percent of the students in Arizona were failing. Were Mississippi's students brighter, or harder working than Arizona's? Or was something else going on? Here's a clue: on national tests, Mississippi students performed poorly. Why are some state test results so different from national outcomes? Clearly, some state tests were less demanding, the passing score was lower, and students were learning less. There was little consistency on student performance from state to state, a situation that was both unprofessional and embarrassing. To address these problems, governors and other leaders from 48 states, two territories, and the District of Columbia met in 2009 to develop a single set of Common Core State Standards for curriculum in all states. Many educators and policymakers cheered: "About time!" Usually referred to as the Common Core: the standards aim to ensure that 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. But sometimes good ideas go awry, and the Common Core has become a disappointing national ________________________
problems
The Common Core: Critics say the mandated standards and associated testing are onerous and handcuff teachers. Both conservative and liberal politicians have voiced objections, as well as some respected. Concerns: There Is Not a Consensus on the Core Standards: Different states want stronger standards for fiction reading, feel the math standards are too weak, or oppose topics like climate change and evolution (more on this later in the chapter). Some states even hold different views of what the history standards should be! The idea of a consensus on core curriculum standards has evaporated. Not All States Sign On: While most states are onboard, not all are, and some are abandoning ship. Some states invest little time or resources in preparing their schools and teachers to put the standards into practice, and so there are implementation _______________ .
schools
The Common Core: Some question whether preparation for college admission or employment should be the only focus of K-12 schooling. A well-rounded education features the arts, social sciences, active citizenship, physical education, caring human relations, creativity, and health concerns—but these and other goals are being submerged in Common Core's narrowed focus. Questions About the Common Core: Is a Single Set of Common Core Standards Desirable?: Critics like Alfie Kohn wonder if it's wise to require students from different states, backgrounds, skills, and talents to meet one set of standards. He fears that common standards will simply lead to standardization, not quality education. He is not alone. Are Common Core Standards the Right Direction for U.S. Schools?: A common set of standards is no educational panacea. Stanford University professor Linda Darling-Hammond points out that students from Finland learn without such detailed standards, yet do strikingly well on international tests. In fact, Finland improved its students' test scores by doing quite the opposite, shifting "to a more localized system in which highly trained teachers design curriculum around very lean national standards." Students from countries with national standards scored at both the bottom and the top on international tests in math and science. So, while the standards movement is popular with some, it doesn't guarantee better ___________________ .
another
The Common Core: The Common Core is intended to 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 retains the freedom to define the curriculum and identify the materials appropriate for its own students. They agree on the skills and knowledge students should possess, but how to reach those outcomes is left to the states to decide. Supporters point out that Common Core Standards lead to high school graduates better prepared for college and careers, allow more accurate state-to-state comparisons of schools performance, and ease the transition for students moving from one state to _________________ .
groups
The Extracurriculum: But the extracurriculum is not without problems. The underrepresentation of low socioeconomic students is evident in many programs, as are gender differences in participation in performing arts, athletics, school government, and literary activities. Skeptics suggest that "the effects of extracurricular participation on secondary school students' personal development and academic achievement are probably positive, but very modest, and are definitely different among students with different social or intellectual backgrounds." Given the current emphasis on test scores and academic standards, some people view extracurricular activities as little more than a distraction. In Texas and other states, "no pass, no play" rules deny students in poor academic standing the right to participate in varsity sports. In other communities, budget tightening means "pay to play," in which a fee is required for sports participation, posing a serious problem for low-income families and students. Such policies raise complex questions and issues. The top academic students, more likely to be wealthy and white, already dominate the extracurriculum, so will "pay to play" and "pass to play" regulations make extracurriculum even more exclusive, driving deeper divisions between the haves and the have-nots and further segregating racial and ethnic ____________ ?
cocurriculum
The Extracurriculum: Nationwide programs such as Odyssey of the Mind, National Forensics Study, and Scholars Bowl promote cross-curricular interests and creative problem-solving skills. Advocates see these activities as so important that they refer to them not as the extracurriculum but as the __________________ , and believe that their value goes far beyond the high school years. 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
skills
The Extracurriculum: The extracurriculum 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 and with stronger academic records the most likely to be involved. In high school, varsity sports attract more than half of the boys and about 40 percent of the girls. Involvement in extracurricular activities reduces behavior problems and increases students' sense of belonging and academic engagement while also teaching lessons in leadership, teamwork, persistence, diligence, and fair play. Though it may surprise some, the fastest-growing high school sport for both girls and boys is bowling, defying the perception that it is a sport of a bygone era. About one student in four participates in music and drama, and about the same percentage joins academic clubs in science, languages, computers, debate, and the like—clubs that enhance both academic learning and social ________________ .
present
The Invisible Curriculum: 2. 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. Most of us experience the null curriculum when our history class does not get us to the ______________ .
curriculum
The Invisible Curriculum: But running out of time in school is not the only part of the null curriculum. The null curriculum takes a darker turn when there is a conscious attempt to ensure that students do not learn a compelling topic that adults do not want them to learn. When a school board decides not to teach about climate change, evolution, or sex education, the board's censorship makes these topics part of the rich, but invisible null __________________ .
teaching
The Invisible Curriculum: Schools teach many powerful but hidden lessons, from the importance of punctuality to following the rules, from social conformity to respecting authority. Although some hidden lessons are useful, others can be destructive. The first step in evaluating the appropriateness of the hidden curriculum is to actually see it, then figure out what it is _________________.
teachers
The Invisible Curriculum: This "invisible curriculum" has two parts, and by describing each we hope to make it more visible for you. 1. 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 _______________ .
skills
The Problem with High-Stakes Standardized Tests: Reasons Why High-Stake Standardized Tests are Problematic: Higher Test Scores Do Not Mean More Learning: For many educators, teaching has become test preparation, with learning measured by test scores. But this pits teachers against their values, knowledge, and skills. Only 28 percent of teachers see standardized tests as an essential or very important gauge of student achievement, and only one in four teachers believes that these tests accurately reflect student learning. About half of the teachers believe that students do not take these tests seriously, and therefore do not try to do their best. The students themselves may be on to something: A study of 18 states found that when state standardized tests were given, student performance dropped on ACT, SAT, and NAEP math tests. The study concluded that higher state test scores were most likely due to direct test preparation rather than increased student learning. During a RAND study in Washington State, three-quarters of fourth-grade teachers and most principals said they believe that better test preparation (rather than increased learning) was responsible for most of the score gains. A group of neuroscientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, and Brown University, funded by the Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, found that strategies schools used to boost high-stakes standardized test scores did nothing to help students improve development of logical thinking, cognitive gains, and "fluid intelligence" ______________ .
failure
The Problem with High-Stakes Standardized Tests: Reasons Why High-Stake Standardized Tests are Problematic: Lower Graduation Rates.: A Harvard University study found that students in the bottom 10 percent of achievement were 33 percent more likely to drop out of school in states that required graduation tests. That data may seem paradoxical, but when standards-based testing is linked to promotion and graduation, higher dropout rates logically follow. Adding to the problem, a school's average test score rises when a weak student drops out—generating a false-positive rate success when the real picture is __________________ .
funding
The Problem with High-Stakes Standardized Tests: Reasons Why High-Stake Standardized Tests are Problematic: Poorer Students are at Greater Risk: Because students do not receive equal educations, holding identical expectations for all students places the poorer ones at a disadvantage. States use the same tests for students in well-funded posh schools and students trying to learn in underfunded, ill-equipped schools. This approach is grossly unfair, with predictable outcomes. For example, one year, two out of three low-income Georgia students failed the state's math, English, and reading competency tests. Every student in well-to-do counties passed the tests, and more than half exceeded standards. Unfortunately, many states don't ensure a level playing field by providing all students with appropriate educational resources, competent teachers, and modern technology. Meanwhile, real barriers to achievement—racism, poverty, sexism, low teacher salaries, language differences, and inadequate facilities—get lost in the sea of testing and inadequate _________________ .
hurdle
The Problem with High-Stakes Standardized Tests: Reasons Why High-Stake Standardized Tests are Problematic: Rationing Time and Resources: With limited resources, schools resort to triage or rationing. Strong students get less special attention, since mandated tests are geared to measure minimal skills, not excellence. The weakest students can be left behind, because they need more time and resources than many schools have. So-called Page 292"bubble kids" get disproportionate attention because they are closest to clearing the high-stakes test "passing" ___________________ .
schools
The Problem with High-Stakes Standardized Tests: Reasons Why High-Stake Standardized Tests are Problematic: Standardized Testing Shrinks the Curriculum: Many teachers believe that their schools give less attention to subjects absent from the state test. The timing of state tests also drives teaching: "At our school, third- and fourth-grade teachers are told not to teach social studies and science until March." Indeed, a study by the Center on Education Policy found that about 62 percent of school districts increased the time spent in elementary schools on English/language arts or math, while 44 percent of districts cut time on science, social studies, art and music, physical education, lunch, or recess. Such a narrow view of the curriculum is self-defeating. Educator Alfie Kohn advises parents to ask an unusual question when a school's test scores increase: "What did you have to sacrifice about my child's education to raise those scores?" While the global economy demands innovation and fluid intelligence, too often the narrow perspective of test scores is driving ___________________ .
learning
The Problem with High-Stakes Standardized Tests: Reasons Why High-Stake Standardized Tests are Problematic: Teacher Stress: Although teachers support high standards, they object to measuring learning by a single test. Fourth-grade veteran teachers were requesting transfers, saying that they could not stand the pressure of administering the high-stakes elementary exams, and teachers recognized for excellence were leaving public schools, feeling their talents were better utilized in private schools where test preparation did not rule the curriculum. Teachers feel that tests are driving them to shortchange schoolchildren out of a love for _________________ .
scores
The Problem with High-Stakes Standardized Tests: Reasons Why High-Stake Standardized Tests are Problematic: Tests Can Fail: Tests themselves are often flawed, and high-stakes errors become high stakes disasters. Stories continue to mount as the crush of millions of new tests overwhelms the handful of testing companies. In 2014 alone, one testing company printed New York state math assessment tests with missing questions and blank pages, admitted it wrongly scored tests taken three years earlier, and faced penalties from Florida's education commissions after schools in 26 counties had to suspend computerized testing when logins failed, screens froze, and servers failed. A flawed answer key incorrectly lowered multiple-choice scores for 12,000 Arizona students, erred in adding up scores of essay tests for students in Michigan, and forced the re-scoring of 204,000 test essays in Washington State. Another error resulted in nearly 9,000 New York City students being mistakenly assigned to summer school, and $2 million in achievement awards being denied to deserving students in Kentucky. And a Massachusetts high school senior spotted an alternative answer to a math question, propelling 449 fellow students over the passing mark. Given the flawed history of the testing industry, is it wise or fair to reward or punish students, teachers, and schools primarily (or solely) on such high-stakes test ______________ ?
problem
The Problem with High-Stakes Standardized Tests: Standardized tests can help educators analyze the curriculum and teaching methods to see what's working or what needs to be changed. A standardized test requires: all test takers to answer the same questions, so that student and teacher performance can be compared. Students who do not do well or teaching methods that are not working can be identified and corrected. But high-stakes standardized tests are another story. High-stakes tests are used to make important decisions about students, educators, schools, or districts. Such tests are used to determine punishments (like reduced school funding), accolades (the "best" schools, teachers, or students), advancement (graduation), or salary increases. These tests are more likely to create havoc and hurt than to solve __________________ .
exams
The Technology Revolution: Technology in the Classroom: Meanwhile, school policies on smart devices vary dramatically. In China, teachers and parents Page 302believe that phones disrupt learning, while students see them as a support for their schoolwork; but adults and children both agree that mobile devices should be banned during classes and ________________ .
peers
The Technology Revolution: Technology in the Classroom: Perhaps the biggest technological classroom problem is smartphone distraction. In theory, easy access to mobile tools could help students and teachers actively participate in and enhance classroom learning. In practice, students too often use apps and Web access to tune out teachers and ______________ .
students
The Technology Revolution: Technology in the Classroom: large investments in school-based digital technologies have not been matched by significant gains in student achievement. In fact, researchers are divided on the academic benefits of technology. Perhaps more effective learning will occur with more sophisticated future technology—or perhaps not. Technology offers a tremendous assist for some students, including homeschooled ones. But there are downsides as well. Students who become too dependent on calculators before understanding mathematical concepts can see their mathematics test scores tumble. Word processing has produced longer, higher-quality writing by students, but teachers complain about how texting shortcuts impact student spelling and grammatical skills. Technology creates some serious ethical dilemmas as well. Nearly 40 percent of college students cut and paste text from the Internet into their own work. Text messaging has been used to share information during exams. But high-tech cheating is rarely reported by __________________ .
matters
The Technology Revolution: The Digital Divide: Finally, let's focus on a digital divide that goes beyond issues of access: How Technology Is Used. Some schools use technology to promote drill and practice, while other schools use it to challenge students. Professor Henry Jay Becker warns, "Efforts to ensure equal access to computer-related learning opportunities at school must move beyond a concern with the numbers of computers in different schools [and] toward an emphasis on how well those computers are being used to help children develop intellectual competencies and technical skills." Although technology can awe us, in the end it is how well we use the technology that ______________ .
males
The Technology Revolution: The Digital Divide: For years, African American, Hispanic, and female students had fewer computers and less access to or interest in the Internet, a digital divide with serious educational implications. While the price of laptops, tablets, and smartphones has fallen, that may not matter to a family struggling to pay rent or buy food. The number of computers in schools is growing, but that doesn't bridge after-school digital divides. In addition, classrooms in wealthier communities are more likely to have up-to-date technology with high-speed broadband than classrooms in poorer communities. The impact radiates beyond public schools; the majority of computer science majors and professionals continue to be whites, Asians, and __________ .
problem
The Technology Revolution: The Digital Divide: Geography also matters, even in the digital age. For example, running fiber-optic cables to rural communities is an expense that telecommunications companies often avoid. Some school Internet connections still use slow acoustic modems, making it almost impossible for students participating in online classes. Even when school buildings have high-speed Internet access, inadequate internal wiring and networks may choke off full classroom access. This digital divide is known as the last mile ______________ .
Campbell's Law
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 disport and corrupt the social processes of it was intended to monitor.
creationism
The position that God created the universe, the earth, and living things on the earth in precisely the manner described in the Old Testament, in six, 24-hour periods.
digital divide
The term used to describe technological gap between the haves and the have nots. Race, gender, class, and geography are some of the demographic factors influencing technological access and achievement.
high-stake tests
These tests are used to make important educational decisions that impact students, educators, schools, and school districts. These tests may determine rewards or penalties for educators and students alike.
through
Visible Curriculum: A curriculum refers to the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. (It derives from the Latin verb "currere," meaning "to run or proceed," an understandable origin for the path of courses we expect students to proceed ________________ .)
approach
Visible Curriculum: A more accurate way to name textbooks, lesson plans, and arranged classroom experiences for learning is the formal or explicit curriculum. If you could go back in time, you soon realize that the formal curriculum changes with the values and needs of the time. If you were a student in colonial America in the 1660s, your formal curriculum would focus on religion and reading, the "two Rs." If you were a student in the 1960s, you would explore courses like Multicultural Education, Peace Studies, Ecology, and Women's Studies. But by the 1980s, schools were eliminating many of these electives and increasing the number of required courses. By the 2000s, emphasis shifted to more frequent testing. At each moment in history (including today), some concerned people inside and outside of schools protest the dominant educational ________________ .
syllabi
Visible Curriculum: If you ask a teacher for a copy of the curriculum, you will likely be handed a curriculum guide: a description of courses offered, or perhaps ______________ describing what students are supposed to be learning in each subject at each grade level. If you ask the teacher for a more detailed curriculum, you might receive specific lesson plans for classroom activities that will enable students to meet those objectives. Educator Hilda Taba emphasized the importance of a school curriculum: "Learning in school differs from learning in life in 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."
implicit or hidden curriculum
What students learn other than academic content, from what they do or are expected to do in school, incidental learnings.
together
What's Worth Knowing? The Case for Cultural Literacy: Proponents of core knowledge/cultural literacy: argue for a common set of such books, a course of study for all students, one that ensures that all educated people know the same basic cultural information. This core of information is far more specific in content than the core curricular standards discussed earlier in the chapter. In fact, it is sometimes called a curricular canon. (The word "canon" is rooted in religion, referring to a list of books officially accepted by a church or a religious hierarchy.) The curricular canon refers to the notion that there is a central core of information that schools should teach. This includes famous figures, great works of art and music and, particularly, great works of literature. Common understanding of our civilization is an important way to bind our diverse people ____________________ .
identities
What's Worth Knowing? The Case for Cultural Literacy: Those who support multicultural education say that students of color and females like learning better, achieve more, and have higher self-worth when they are reflected in the visible curriculum. When white males they read about people other than themselves in the curriculum, they are more likely to honor and appreciate their diverse peers, and less likely to see themselves as the center of the world. Educator and author James Banks calls for increased cultural pluralism: Many educators, people of color, women, and other marginalized groups are demanding that their voices, visions, and perspectives be included in the curriculum. For example, they ask that Western civilization acknowledge the debt it owes to Africa, Asia, and indigenous America. This does not mean eliminating Aristotle, Shakespeare, or Western civilization from the school curriculum. That would reject important aspects of their own cultural heritages, experiences, and ___________________ .
education
Who and What Shape the Curriculum?: Administrators: Principals and other administrators can set the school's priorities, from raising test scores (all too common) to investing (or eliminating) arts ___________________ .
system
Who and What Shape the Curriculum?: Colleges and Universities: Post-secondary institutions influence curricula through their entrance requirements, which spell out courses high school students must take to gain admittance. As A. Bartlett Giamatti noted when he was president of Yale University: The high schools in this country are always at the mercy of the colleges. The colleges change their requirements and their admissions criteria and the high schools ... are constantly trying to catch up with what the colleges are thinking. When the colleges don't seem to know what they think over a period of time, it's no wonder that this oscillation takes place all the way through the _____________________ .
standards
Who and What Shape the Curriculum?: Education Commissions and Committees: Nonprofits and local, state, and/or national governments have created various committees to study education at many points in U.S. history. In 2010, for example, 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 (more on this later). Most states adopted these ___________________ .
exert
Who and What Shape the Curriculum?: Federal Government: The federal government influences the curriculum 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 __________.
decisions
Who and What Shape the Curriculum?: Local Government: Local school boards make a variety of curriculum decisions, requiring or prohibiting courses from sex education to financial literacy to technology. Supporters want local school boards to have a strong voice in the curriculum, because they are closest to the needs of the local community and the interests of the students. Others feel that local elected school board members often lack the professional training to make informed curricular _________________ .
view
Who and What Shape the Curriculum?: Marketers and Other Special Interest Groups" Today's students are tomorrow's customers. Businesses seeking future customers may provide free (and attractive) curricular materials. But these free materials come with a cost. Company X's free, student-friendly magazine on protecting the environment looks wonderful at first glance, but how do teachers handle self-promoting distortion of climate change that may be part of the narrative? Teachers need to examine materials and products carefully to present a fair and accurate _____________ .
curriculum
Who and What Shape the Curriculum?: Parental and Community Groups: Parents can advocate for more rigorous academic courses, higher scores on standardized tests, greater access to technology, or other practices. Conservative parents and communities may object to the absence of Christian values in the curriculum, while Page 284liberal families and communities may demand elimination of gender and racial stereotypes in the _________________ .
viewpoints
Who and What Shape the Curriculum?: Publishers: The major goal of textbook publishers is—not surprisingly—to sell books. That is why textbooks are attractively packaged and chock full of terms and names deemed important at the time (including this text!). Many elementary and secondary schools must choose from a list of state-approved textbooks, limiting choices and options. To get onto those lists, publishers may forego in-depth coverage of topics and avoid unpopular points of view. Teachers need to remember that textbooks are published to meet market demands, and not necessarily to offer objective or complex ____________________ .
scores
Who and What Shape the Curriculum?: Standardized Tests: The results of state and national tests (including legally mandated annual tests, state graduation tests, AP exams, SATs, and ACTs) influence what is taught in school. If students perform poorly in one or more areas of these standardized tests, government and/or public pressure pushes school officials to raise those test ________________ .
learning
Who and What Shape the Curriculum?: Students: During the 1960s and 1970s, student protests demanded curricular relevance. While overt protests have waned, most students still have some curricular choice in selecting topics for independent projects, research papers, book reviews, and authentic ________________ .
Internet
Who and What Shape the Curriculum?: Teachers: Teachers develop curriculum formally and informally. They may serve on textbook selection committees that determine the materials a school purchases, or they may help develop a district's curriculum. In less formal but still powerful ways, classroom teachers interpret and adapt the official text or curriculum guide, stressing certain points, giving scant attention to other points, and/or supplementing texts(s) with teacher-made materials or directing students to the ________________ .
