Curriculum Development Is a High

Curriculum Development is a high priority for our school. One of our four school goals is, "Use adopted materials and standards-based supplements to increase student proficiency as measured on the California Standards Test." This year our K-6 teachers voiced concern regarding our District Adopted Language Arts Curriculum, questioning whether it was really as standards based as claimed. Our principal, knowing how essential teacher buy-in is for consistent performance and high expectations, gave teachers time to dig deeper into the curriculum and state standards. The principal provided release time so that teachers could collaboratively determine if their concerns were warranted. Substitutes for three days during the past year gave grade-level teams time to collaborate with each other, the curriculum support teacher and the principal on this project.

Using district theme tests, state standards, and our district curriculum resource guide to look critically at our adopted language arts program, teachers found that too much time would be wasted if they taught the program as it was written. So, the teachers decided to redesign the curriculum. They expanded lessons that were motivating, challenging and standards-based while removing less effective lessons. The groups also worked on ways to use other curriculum areas, health, social studies, and science, to teach the language arts curriculum using a project-based learning approach where project work is central rather than peripheral to the curriculum. The aim was to get students more involved in the learning process.

Overall, the teachers agreed that curriculum review was an empowering and effective way to use their release time. They felt their quality of instruction and student achievement (based on measurements such as theme tests, writing assignments and teacher observation) were greatly improved. They also felt more valued as educators and asked that this process be written into our school plan for the following year.

The principal informally assessed the value of this project by looking at lesson plans and teacher collaboration and performing unscheduled walk-throughs as well as monitoring theme test scores. Because of the positive results and teacher enthusiasm, the principal agreed to include curriculum participation in our school plan for the following year. Substitutes will be paid from our Title 1 money so that each grade-level team can be released for curriculum planning and evaluation with the curriculum support teacher and the principal three times during the next year.