In this Election--And Beyond--Let's Put Curriculum Front and Center

Marina Budhos

Every September, my husband and I attend Back to School night, or more recently, School in Action Night in May, for the middle school.  We enjoy sitting in the classroom seats, getting a sense of each teacher, wandering the hallways, with its welter of colorful bulletin boards.  But far too often I spend a lot of time listening to the principals talk about the mechanics of school—bus pick up and schedules. Far too often, we walk away with only a vague sense of curriculum, unsure of how many book reports, what units our children will be studying, how and when.  For me, while the celebratory vibe is nice, I could use a lot more hard information on curriculum—the true bricks and mortar of any school district.    

So now that we’re in the high season of BOE elections, I believe we need to stop arguing about the who—who gets into what class, what level—and hone in on the what—the quality of our content--for all our students.  And most of all—no matter who is elected—we need to focus on the what of scrutiny—the mechanisms for determining what makes a quality curriculum.

We need to put curriculum front and center.

Traditionally the Board of Education has shied away from curriculum, since that is the purview of the administration—a respectful church and state separation.  And certainly we must be mindful of a not very pretty history in this country of school boards and political bodies interfering with books in the realm of learning—for instance, Judy Blume’s books being banned, or the insertion of creationism next to Darwinism in science classes; or the banning of ethnic studies in Arizona for inciting ‘ethnic resentment’.

Granted, parents might be able to articulate an individual dissatisfaction or concern, but they are not experts in curriculum.  They don’t necessarily know how curriculum is written, nor do they feel comfortable questioning an assignment. They might feel a book is ‘too easy’ or an assignment confusing or boring, but they don’t have a broader sense of what the aims and objectives of that unit or lesson plan.  Thus, they only have piecemeal impression of some of the weaknesses in how their own children are being prepared.  Or, they refer back to their own education and are surprised, for instance, at the books their children are reading, or the noticeable lack of assignments that they can recognize.

Nonetheless, we have come to a critical juncture in our schools, and parents are more than ready to have their say.  For years, at the middle school, parents have been clamoring for higher level texts in the classroom, frustrated at seeing too many titles that their children have already read in elementary school.  They’ve complained that the writing assignments do not build rigorously toward the kind of argumentation and reasoning skills that will be demanded of students in high school and beyond.  Many in the elementary school wish to see much more content-rich materials in Social Studies and Science (something my husband and I have been begging for, for years!) Certainly Common Core and IB are meant to address these issues. 

At a time of great change in our school district, we must be far more proactive on curriculum, and demand more oversight, information and communication on what is the ‘meat’ on the bones of our classrooms.  As a community we need to educate ourselves on what makes for good, strong curriculum.  Obviously, we can’t have a chaotic free-for–all, with everyone clamoring for their pet subject.  But we do need to come up with a focused and efficient procedure for discussing and reviewing curriculum within the community and the Board of Education, particularly as we embark on these dramatic changes at the middle school.

Thus, on the eve of our last debate, I ask all candidates and the existing BOE to bear down even more specifically on what each means by ‘improving curriculum’ or ‘bringing up our curriculum’ or 'curriculum management' and how we will truly enforce thorough and vigorous oversight. 

The truth is, we do have a system of review--every five years for each subject.  How many parents know this?

What is the process by which the Board better scrutinizes and reviews curriculum? How do we determine high quality curriculum? How does the Board measure the alignment with Common Core? How do we determine whether the assessments attached to curriculum are truly wide-ranging and of high caliber? How do we determine whether the revised units contain rigorous questions that extend a student’s prior knowledge—one of the important benchmarks of IB? What of community input in terms of their values and expectations? In this punitive fiscal environment, how do we give our administrators support in the revision of curriculum and the training of teachers in implementing that curriculum?

It’s not enough to say that Common Core and IB will magically transform our curriculum.  It’s our full-on engagement in a thoughtful way that will lead to the very changes and improvements all the candidates are advocating.

For instance, I strongly disagree with the satisfied characterizations of our revised ELA curriculum.  Given that we began from zero—a hodge-podge of disorganized notebooks—it’s true, we have come a long, long way.  I applaud the Administration for enforcing greater consistency and providing more professional support for its teachers in offering explicit instruction. However, my own son made it through his entire elementary experience writing exactly one research paper—in second grade—simply because of the personal initiative of a teacher.  On the other hand, he has written countless personal essays and fiction about overcoming personal obstacles and important turning points in his life. (All nonfiction writing was relegated to test prep, random worksheets or uninspired textbook questions). 

This focus on the self is because our writing curriculum relies on the Readers and Writing Workshop, a method that is superb for revision and self-critical editing, but offers virtually no skills in argument, persuasion or essays based on evidence or comparing point of view.  To me, this approach is not a method that will encourage the kind of discipline-based writing in Social Studies and Science all the candidates so heartily advocate. Why aren’t we talking about this issue? That’s precisely the kind of deep discussion and debate I expect our Board, our Administration, and our community to engage in.  I have yet to see this truly happen. 

I have a few suggestions for moving forward on putting curriculum front and center:

• All Board members partake in workshops on Common Core, which are offered frequently in the state.  I do not see how Board members can vote and scrutinize curriculum changes and review without having a stronger basis for understanding the nature of Common Core and what it must look like in the written documents and within the classroom.

• Similarly, within the BOE committee structure, create an IB implementation sub-committee for oversight, and have a few Board members attend the initial tier of IB training which introduces the features of the program, and helps them to understand the IB roll-out and what to look for in terms of implementation and assessments.  Once again, this will allow the Board members to be grounded in the IB philosophy and its pedagogical approaches, and it will allow them to better scrutinize the quality of our implementation. 

• Establish a regular schedule of reporting on the IB implementation for the entire Board. The IB application process requires that a school to conduct a feasibility plan and draw up their own implementation plan (which our administration is currently engaged in).  However, the Board now needs to establish, with the Administration, a way to monitor that process, with regular reports on how the implementation is going, and what benchmarks are being met.

• Develop as part of our next round of a Strategic Plan a much clearer vision statement in terms of curriculum and benchmarks for a 21^st century content. 

• Create a clear forum for community and Board input on the quality of curriculum. Traditionally curriculum has remained as the purview of the Administration, since they are regarded as the professionals executing our curriculum. And Board members themselves are not necessarily experts in either the subject areas or pedagogy.  However, we are an extraordinarily educated and skilled community, and can be an excellent resource for our administration. And our parents and their children’s experiences can give insight into the neglected areas and weaknesses.

• Show greater leadership in regularly articulating curriculum content to parents and what makes for high quality content, with specific, concrete examples.  The Curriculum Nights are an excellent start.  However, School Action Night should not just be people walking through and picking up the atmospherics of the classroom—enjoyable, yes—but more detailed presentations and regular bulletins so that parents walk out knowing clearly what the curriculum entails for each grade.  Enlist our teachers in giving a model example of how a broad curriculum unit translates down to specific lessons.  This will be especially useful in understanding the impact of IB-MYP. There also need to be much more focused presentations of curricular expectations for each grade, with periodic public presentations about the revisions and changes in our curriculum, under the pressures of Common Core.  Principals, who are now supposed to be instructional leaders, should spend a lot less time on the mechanics of school and much more time translating curriculum to parents.

• Communicate regularly about the professional development that teachers are undergoing as a result of Common Core and the changes that administrators are instituting in the classroom.  For instance, I recently learned—by happenstance—that all the fourth grade teachers attended a workshop on nonfiction.  Great news! However, I have no idea of the impact in the classroom, how many grades will ultimately be affected, nor what is the philosophy or approach of this particular training. As a parent, I have no way to gauge or judge or engage with these important curricular changes.

I understand that Board members are volunteers, many of whom hold full time jobs and that requiring attendance at workshops is a burden on their personal time.  As well, the administration has a very full plate with all the incoming changes and we must beware of the micro managing that can actually impede their professional work. 

At the same time, we are at such an important crossroads; we have committed to such an ambitious proposal in our middle schools, that a well-educated, well-immersed and well-versed Board can only help the Administration as they push forward in implementing these important steps.  A fully grounded Board will know how to ask the right and focused questions when it comes to curriculum.

Similarly, a well-educated parent body that understands the nature of curriculum, and how it should be delivered in the classroom, also helps our teachers, who need us as partners in supporting our individual children. 

Finally a world class curriculum that is thoroughly vetted and reflects a community’s values and aspirations are the true building blocks of an excellent school system.

In my next blog, I hope to elucidate my own personal thoughts on adolescent literature for the middle school--how far we’ve come—and how far we have to go.