Readiness Audit For Gulliver Academy

1- A committee of parents, students and teachers should be able to develop curriculum programs for the school. Teachers can collect information on current effective practices in their schools; they can provide demonstration lessons to the public and their colleagues. Parents can share their expertise and experiences; they can serve as cooperative advisors, editors and advocates for their children. Students can also be a part of it because it helps define acceptable levels of expectations and identify motivating practices.

There are many approaches that can be taken in order to develop a school’s curriculum, or the material that the students will learn. If there were no federal regulation of curriculum, then it would not be possible to compare student achievement across districts or even states. The federal program, Common Core State Standards, assists in equaling education across the nation. The Common Core has reinvented the perception of student learning which, in turn, has caused American education to become a corporate institution. As a result, there has been a threat to states’ rights for education as more rigorous content has been implemented into classrooms by the government, which ultimately changes the role of the teacher.

How do you monitor to ensure the written curriculum is what is taught and tested in your school? In what ways is this challenging? In order to ensure that the written curriculum is what is taught and tested in the school Wes has several procedures in place. First, the curriculum was evaluated to make sure that it aligned with the common core state standards (CCSS). The curriculum has pre and post tests for every unit allowing teachers to monitor their progress toward teaching the curriculum. They also have subject matter professional learning communities (PLC’s) that

Her philosophy of learning is “ever changing” and she believes “the learner is the most important piece of the puzzle…” . (H. Cyrus, personal communication, January 20, 2017) She works continuously with the other second grade teachers in a team to set the plan on the standards and how they will meet them each year. They do not follow a curriculum, but the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) with the Essential Learning Outcomes (ELO) and Depth of Knowledge (DOK) levels. The curriculum Math Investigations is offered in the district for her grade level, but it is not a main focus for her lessons. She utilizes curriculums provided by the district as resources and supplements for lessons alone.

Curriculums are the roadmaps for schools which provide purpose and direction for administrators, educators, parents, and students. Curriculum typically refers to, “the knowledge and skills students are expected to learn, which includes the learning standards or learning objectives they are expected to meet; the units and lessons that teachers teach; the assignments and projects given to students; the books, materials, videos, presentations, and readings used in a course; and the tests, assessments, and other methods used to evaluate student learning.” (Curriculum, 2015, para. 1) Curriculums may come in many shapes and forms, whether they’re purchased as a package at the school or district level or they’re created or refined by educators and

Criterion 4.1: The curriculum incorporates established professional standards, guidelines, and competencies, and has clearly articulated student learning outcomes and program outcomes consistent with contemporary practice.

Curriculum development refers to a process of critical questioning used in framing the activities of teaching and learning in schools. The process of developing a curriculum translates broader statements of intent in actual plans and actions. Curriculum development involves designing and developing integrated plans for teaching and learning, implementation, and the evaluation of the plants if they achieve learning objectives. Accordingly, the intention of curriculum development is to align the planned, delivered, and experienced curriculums. On November 3, I contacted Rachel Yurk to provide some insights on the curriculum development process of Cedarburg School District. Yurk is the Instructional Technology Specialist for Cedarburg School District. As demonstrated by the Cedarburg school district curriculum development process, the primary purpose of curriculum development is to guarantee integrated and coherent learning experiences to enhance personal, academic, and professional development of students.

“Common Core State Standards Initiative” is a result of the “Standards and Accountability Movement” which began in the 1990s in the United States. This particular branch of education reforms was geared towards expectations of learning at each grade level. The Standards and Accountability Movement not only brought attention on what students were expected to learn, but on teachers as well – focusing on how teachers were to implement lessons and able to teach for student achievement which would be measured in

Standards and curriculum are the core pieces of teaching. Basically, the curriculum is the meat of the course and the standards are how it is prepared. The meat of the course is the substance and the tools of instructing. It encompasses the material, lesson plans and literature. It also incorperates how the instructor decides to present the information, how they alter it to the students, and the order in which the content is delivered. Each instructor may choose to serve a different piece of meat; or rather, decide on a different method of demonstration, but the way the material is prepared must follow a common denominator.

Evidence in the article shows that they are the not the same. To better understand the difference between the Standards and Curriculum, the article defines them in different forms. One definition is that “The Standards define what all students are expected to know and be able to do, not how teachers should teach” (McTighe & Wiggins, 2012, p.26). The author says to think of grade-level standards

The Common Core curriculum is intended to educate pupils for the increasingly demanding world that we exist in today. Common Core State Standards establish precise, uniform guidelines for what every school child should know and be able to do from kindergarten through 12th grade creating benchmarks for reading and math, replacing education goals that varied drastically from state to state. These new standards focus on preparing the critical-thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills that are essential to be successful after high school, and gives teachers a means to evaluate a student’s development throughout the academic

The book Inquiring into the Common Core by Nancy Fitchman Dana, Jamey Bolton Burns, and Rachel M. Wolkenhauer focuses on what Common Core is. This is a book that you can read that helps with the ideas and guidance for teachers, principals, and administrators in implementing the Common Core State Standards. Inquiring into the Common Core is an essential resource that offers teachers an inquiry based professional development model for achieving greater understanding of the standards, then the desired outcomes will be determined. “The CCSS values the voices of teachers, as teachers were and continue to be involved in their development” (Dana, Burns, & Wolkenhauer, pg.2). The Common Core is clear about what to teach but it is up to the teachers on how they teach it.

The word curriculum can mean something different to different people, even to different teachers who use the term almost daily (Manning & Butcher, 2012). However, it boils down to curriculum being what a student learns, both in terms of core subject content, as well as though social activity and elective/activity courses. However, there has often been a disconnect between different states and districts over what exactly should be in the curriculum for various grades and what is needed to prepare students for life beyond school, as well as providing little basis for comparing the US to other countries. That’s where Common Core State Standards (CCSS) come in. According to Teaching in the Middle School (2012), the Common Core standards were created in an attempt to provide curriculum standards that are “rigorous, internationally benchmarked, and aligned with college and work expectations”. Since its implementation in 2009, 42 US states and the District of Columbia have integrated the standards into their curriculums. (Core Standards, 2015)

Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is a widely debatable topic. Parents, teachers, administration, and even states have taken a stance on what they believe. CCSS is a document created by researchers, teachers, administration, and even the public, stating exactly what each student in grades K-12 should be accomplishing by the end of each level. It is ideally in place for teachers to have a clear understanding of what students are expected to achieve and know by each benchmark test so they can ensure this readiness. Though much thought and exertion has gone into the production and implementation of these standards, many myths have been formulated from them, causing the standards to sound as if they do not have any advantage to our schools (“Understanding the Common Core”).

For this program outcome I chose my curriculum analysis paper from CUR 512, Curriculum Analysis and Planning. In this course we defined curriculum, the aspects that are considered when writing curriculum, the theoretical perspectives found within curriculum, and the goals of the curriculum. By writing this paper, I was able to focus in on a unit that I teach in third grade social studies to get a full picture of the curriculum. I was also able to see the complex issues surrounding the curriculum that I never previously noticed.