Deciding What to Teach and Test : Developing, Aligning, and Leading the Curriculum

by Fenwick W. English

• ISBN13: 9781412960137
• ISBN10: 1412960134
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-06-07
• Publisher: Corwin Pr

Summary

The issue of balancing testing, curriculum design, and teaching practices is a pressing one for today's schools. Now in its third edition, this influential textbook on developing and aligning curriculum is updated with new insights on providing effective curriculum leadership, increasing student success, and closing the achievement gap.

Addressing the fundamentals of curriculum design in the context of a standards-based environment, Fenwick W. English focuses on how administrators and teachers can best collaborate to create a high-quality curriculum for all students. This textbook gives practitioners a template for developing a curriculum whose purpose is to focus and connect the work of teachers in the system. English gives practical approaches to curriculum development and alignment.

Readers will find:

- Guidance on curriculum mapping and other user-friendly tools

- New information on differentiating teaching, learning, and assessment to meet the needs of special education students, English language learners, and others

- Additional content on addressing cultural differences in curriculum content and assessment practices

- A new chapter on the challenges educators face in their roles as curriculum leaders.

Focusing on curriculum leadership and closing the achievement gap, this influential textbook is updated with new insights on developing and aligning curriculum in a standards-based environment.

Table of Contents

Preface: America's Continuing Educational Canterbury Tales	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. xi
About the Author	p. xiii
Introduction to the Third Edition	p. 1
The Function of Curriculum in Schools	p. 5
What is Curriculum?	p. 9
Curriculum Design and Delivery	p. 11
Curriculum Coordination and Articulation	p. 12
Combining Design and Delivery Issues in Schools	p. 14
Formal, Informal, and the Hidden Curriculum	p. 15
Curriculum and the Cultural Arbitrary	p. 18
Conventional Practices and Complaints About Curriculum	p. 20
The Necessary Requirements of an Imperfect Curriculum	p. 33
A Clarifying Model of the Critical Curricular Relationships and Terms	p. 36
A Template for Curriculum Construction	p. 39
The Traditional View of Developing Curriculum	p. 39
Using a Needs Assessment to Develop a Curricular Framework	p. 49
Constructing Curriculum With Gap Data	p. 55
Constructing "User Friendly" Curriculum Work Plans	p. 56
Moving From Curriculum Content to Work Tasks	p. 60
Constructing "User Friendly" Curriculum Guides	p. 63
Essential Elements in Curriculum Guides	p. 64
Setting Content Priorities and Expressing Time Values	p. 68
A Word About Sequence and Stress	p. 73
A Recommended Curriculum Guide Format	p. 74
Aligning the Curriculum	p. 77
The Process of Alignment by Frontloading	p. 78
The Process of Alignment via Backloading	p. 84
How to Do Alignment	p. 97
Other Issues in the Alignment Procedure	p. 103
The Challenge of Curriculum Leadership in the Teaching and Testing Nexus	p. 105
Considering the Full Responsibility for Curriculum Leadership	p. 107
Who Benefits From the Perpetuation of the Cultural Capital Embraced by State Imposed Accountability Models?	p. 109
Avoiding Deficit Mindsets, Models, and Cultural Marginalization of Others	p. 111
Not All Data are Valuable or Relevant	p. 113
Avoiding Outmoded Management Models	p. 119
Understanding the Drawbacks of Top-Down Supervisory Approaches	p. 120
The Nexus of Curriculum Leadership	p. 122
Some Concluding Thoughts	p. 124
Glossary of Terms	p. 127
References	p. 135
Index	p. 147
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