Kelly's Curriculum Corner

If you haven't read the latest issue of Ed. Leadership yet, let me give you another reason to pick it up. The issue features a two-page article summarizing the research on Pacing Guides. The article indicates that pacing guides are not inherently bad, but too often the manner in which they are used results in narrowing the curriculum, fragmenting knowledge into test related pieces, and increasing teacher-centered instruction. Most guides do not address student reasoning and teachers rarely deviate from the guides. In contrast, Japanese pacing guides describe student solutions to problems and describe how teachers can build on student thinking during instruction. Recommendations - Guides Should: Emphasize curriculum guidance, rather than prescriptive pacing. Focus on central ideas. Provide links to exemplary curriculum materials, lessons, and instructional strategies. I would further recommend that administrators consider how the prescriptive use of pacing guides impedes implement...

The controversial Graduation Competency Assessments (GCAs) initiated by the PA Department of Education seemed to have hit a huge roadblock with the passing of Act 61. However, it is clear that the Department intends to aggressively move forward with the project. In fact at a recent state meeting, officials indicated that the Standards Aligned System, which the GCAs are a part of, is the number one priority for the Department . Below is a table describing the timeline for the development and implementation of GCAs: For a complete overview of GCAs including the details of the RFP, read PDE Seeks Contractor to Develop Graduation Competency Assessments, the top story in the September 12, 2008 issue of School Leader News.

Curriculum Frameworks is one of the six circles. The PA Department of Education created committees of teachers and curriculum specialists throughout PA to create curriculum frameworks in literacy, math and social studies. The curriculum framework consists of Big Ideas, Concepts, and Competencies. Big Ideas are the the overarching key ideas of a subject. Big Ideas are larger constructs and likely require more than one year to achieve. Concepts and the knowledge skills to be mastered in a particular grade level. Competencies are what students must be able to do by grade level. The big question is if we already have standards and assessment anchors, why do we need curriculum frameworks? In order to answer that you have to think about what the standards and assessment anchors really offer us. Standards are written as a menagerie of big ideas, concepts and competencies for grades 3, 5, 8 and 11. Assessment Anchors are written for grades 3-8 and 11 based on the parameters of the PSSA. The Cu...

Standards Aligned System (SAS) reflects the Pennsylvania Department of Education's vision for continuous school improvement. SAS, affectionately referred to as the six circles, reminds us that student achievement should be central to what we do. No surprise there, school should be about the kids. Having worked with numerous school improvement teams, it is clear that students are sometimes overlooked. The graphic is a good filter for our thinking.... is it (whatever it might be) good for kids? Then we need to ask.... does our thinking make sense? Do our assessments align with the curriculum? Our instruction? Do they align with our interventions? The caution here is to think through the questions and cite the evidence. Time and time again we see schools that say they have clear standards and fair assessments, only to later share that many of the special needs students do not have access to standards-based instruction. No evidence of IEPs being aligned to standards. We've also see...