qualityncurriculum.ppt

Editor's Notes

• #2: Quality Pathways Curricula
• #3: Quality Pathways Curricula
• #4: Many aspects of what I am talking about will be conceptually familiar to those of your who are experienced with selecting and reviewing curricula of teachers at your school. What may be new is the comprehensive nature, the concrete language, and the focus on project-based, integrated curricula that are part of the quality criteria in our approach. Describe where all of the elements in the Certification Tool came from, especially the section on curriculum. These include some specific references to relevant research and theory and how various people and organizations have played a role in creating the specific quality assessment tool we are using. Although there are several different types of integrated curriculum, I am going to describe one in particular, the one we are using to design curriculum at ConnectEd. It also has direct connections to the curriulum approaches used by our design partners at NAF and EDC. We believe that our approach is particularly well-suited to the career-themed, academy or SLC-type pathways that all of you are designing and implementing Briefly introduce a significant set of curricula that are available from ConnectEd and our partners. Quality Pathways Curricula
• #5: 1. CREATING QUALITY CURRICULA IS HARD TO DO Three stories a. Evaluations that have addressed curriculum integration from its inception in the early 1980s b. Applied Algebra— A great idea. But…Poorly developed projects and untrained teacher. c. Wonderful classroom law assignment on social equity and restorative justice as an alternative way to deal with youth offenders, rather than traditional punishment. But, totally ineffective student teamwork that was essential to completing the project and having all students achieve the learning objectives. 2. CHANGING SCHOOL STRUCTURE IS NOT ENOUGH— SRI International and Amer. Institutes for Research: On the whole, after 5 years of implementation at Gates Foundation funded new and converted small schools… “ These schools have not produced the hoped-for significant improvements in achievement results for students.” “ Extensive effort has gone into structural change and assignment of students and staff to smaller units, with less emphasis on the design and instruction of quality.” Similar observations from Douglas ready and Valerie Lee at the University of Michigan. 3. THE STAKES ARE HIGH: We are talking about a truly comprehensive approach to transforming the high school experience. We know that engaged learning can get students to school—really good CTE courses do that well. However, they don’t address the disengagement many students feel from academic courses. We need to implement curricula that create engagement and also deliver academically challenging content. Students won’t get to college without the need for remediation without mastering high-level academic skills, as well. 4. Every pathway component—the academic core, technical courses, work-based learning and academic supports—involves either designing or selecting curricula. Quality Pathways Curricula
• #6: THEORY and RESEARCH: Applied learning theory and theories of brain development. Research findings on problem-based instruction from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), studies of problem-based learning in medical schools Findings from many evaluations showing the effects of personalized learning within small schools on attendance and student engagement Research conducted by MDRC and others on career academies And finally, Jim Stone’s work showing the positive effects on mathematics achievement of teaching math within an occupational context. CLASSROOM OBSERVATION : The many, many site visits of ConnectEd staff and staff from our partner organizations CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE: again of ConnectEd staff and our colleagues REVIEWS OF EARLY DRAFTS of this quality assessment tool by colleagues at some of our partner organizations MISSION: ConnectEd, NAF, EDC—all have closely related organizational goals– To close the achievement gap and prepare all students for success in both postsecondary education and career by transforming how we deliver high school education in California and the nation. Quality Pathways Curricula
• #7: This is not about creating a new and better model of CTE to replace the old one. It is about comprehensive school reform that breaks down the artificial division between the hand and the mind and gives ALL STUDENTS—with varying interests, aspirations, and abilities— the high level cognitive skills that are needed for success in high-paying, professional and technical jobs that require SOME form of postsecondary education. To achieve these two goals, ConnectEd has created the prototype of a Pathway Certification Tool that will be used in a Pathway Certification Process. In this session, and the one that follows, we are going to drill down on the Curriculum and Instruction part of the tool. The session that follows will give you an opportunity to work with the tool and to provide us with your insights about the information—or artifacts—you will need to examine to assess curriculum and instruction quality. First, I’d like to review the Design Principles that we have used to produce quality curriculum at ConnectEd. There are two over-riding goals: FIRST, TO DESIGN CURRICULUM THAT PREPARES STUDENTS FOR BOTH COLLEGE AND CAREER—IT BRINGS TOGETHER THE BEST OF AN ENGAGING AND CHALLENGING ACADEMIC COURSE OF STUDY AND 21 ST CENTURY-FOCUSED CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION. SECOND, TO PRODUCE CURRICULA, WITHIN A PROGRAM OF STUDY THAT EFFECTIVELY SERVES THE NEEDS OF A WIDE RANGE OF STUDENTS WITH VARYING ABILITIES, INTERESTS, AND ASPIRATIONS Then, quickly go through the 4 principles that support the main goal. Quality Pathways Curricula
• #8: STANDARDS-BASED CURRICULUM—FAMILIAR TO ALL OF THE TEACHERS HERE. THROUGH AUTHENTIC APPLICATIONS—A NEW PIECE FOR MANY ACADEMIC TEACHERS WHO HAVE NOT CREATED OR DELIVERED CURRICULA WITHIN A PATHWAY SETTING For example, It’s about English, Spanish, math and health science OR graphic design teachers working together with their students to research, write, design, produce, and distribute a bilingual pamphlet about nutrition and diabetes through churches that serve both English and Spanish speaking congregations BUSINESS, HIGHER EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS— BUSINESS CONTRIBUTIONS CTE TEACHERS, BUT UNFAMILIAR TO ACADEMIC TEACHERS WHO ARE NOW NEED TO IDENTIFY AUTHENTIC APPLICATIONS OF MATHEMATICS OR THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 21 ST CENTURY WORKFORCE AND LEARNING SKILLS: e.g., all students need to have sophisticated information and media literacy skills, effective social and cross-cultural skills, and be able to collaborate successfully Quality Pathways Curricula
• #9: Serving students with varying education and career goals and who bring varying levels of academic achievement to the high school classroom often turns out to be one of the trickier aspects of this work. Some students will choose “the easy way out”—that is, they will choose the “easy” pathways, unless strong efforts are made to provide an academically challenging, but also engaging curriculum in every pathway. Only with strong, quality curricula in every pathway, can pathways breakdown the stratification that continues to exist in many comprehensive high schools—and dismantling tracking is one of the key goals of all of our district-level pathway initiatives. Curriculum needs to honor students’ choices in a variety of ways: Pathway curriculum design that includes specialized courses in upper grades that speak to students’ career interests Student input into selecting projects to participate in or roles to play in project work—a great way to address differences in learning styles Curriculum choices and vehicles for students to change from one pathway to another—e.g., community college or on-line courses for upper-level students who are shut out of late entry into a pathway because of enrollment restrictions Quality Pathways Curricula
• #10: So, let’s turn to the Pathway Certification Tool and again look at the elements and quality criteria, this time focusng especially on ENGAGED LEARNING . Using this section of the tool and providing us with input on it will be part of the activity that all of you will participate in during the next session, when you will be grouped together across districts according to your pathway themes. Many of the quality elements for curriculum and instruction are self-explanatory, unambiguous, and don’t need any elaboration. For examples, all of us know what standards-aligned curriculum means. However, in some other cases, there are definite opportunities for misinterpretation. These are the few elements that I would like to explore. First, when it comes to college-preparatory curriculum , we are referring to access and encouragement for all pathway students…ensuring that every student in every pathway can complete the courses that lead to success at UC and CSU. We also mean a college preparatory curriculum that will ultimately prepare students for UC, CSU, and our community colleges without need for remediation. We know that fully one-third of California high school students fail to graduate from high school, and half of those who progress to community colleges or CSUs must take at least one remedial course. Quality Pathways Curricula
• #11: When we refer to a sequence or cluster of demanding technical courses, we do not mean a single, fixed sequence of courses that all students in a pathway will take. As you will see from the NAF curricula in Finance, Hospitality and Tourism, or Information Technology and the Project Lead the Way Engineering sequence, these curricula—as well as ROP courses and dual enrollment opportunities at community colleges, allow us to honor students choices and interests while allowing them to progress to higher level, more challenging courses with a particular pathway. Quality Pathways Curricula
• #12: Multidisciplinary is a very important element in the Certification Tool. It is one that I will spend additional time on in just a moment. Horizontal alignment is another quality element where there can me multiple interpretations. For us, horizontal alignment means ensuring that all students taking the same course (algebra II, U.S. history, or Principles of Finance) and are exposed to the same material with the same depth. It does not mean using daily pacing guides that have all teachers cover the same course material on the same day. Quality Pathways Curricula
• #13: Two of the most important points about instruction and assessment relate to the role of projects within courses and the role of authentic assessments. It is very difficult—although, probably not impossible—to teach an entire course using projects. From our experience and conversations with teachers, achieving adequate coverage of course content and standards usually requires blending traditional instructional methods with project-based instruction. Similarly, assessments of student learning should balance traditional approaches with performance-based assessment strategies, such as individual and group performances, demonstrations, and presentations. Traditional assessments are particularly useful as formative assessment tools that provide both the student and the teacher with feedback on whether students are developing the skills needed to successfully complete a challenging and complex project. Quality Pathways Curricula
• #14: The most important points to make about work-based learning is that it is not what we traditionally know as work experience. While work experience can be very valuable in addressing employability skills and giving transition students specific vocational skills, it is not about academics. We are talking about work-based learning that connects to the classroom curriculum, delivers both career-related and academic content, reflects design input from both teachers and industry representatives, and involves evaluation by both classroom teachers and industry supervisors. Here are two examples: Students complete an assignment that receives a grade from the science teacher on a preparatory laboratory experience related to blood analysis. This leads up to a workplace assignment where the workplace supervisor grades the application of this knowledge during an internship in a forensics laboratory. Or, the visual arts teacher in a digital media academy grades the conceptualization and sketches a student completes for a short animation piece in a Foundations of Visual Arts course, while the animation expert, who is a virtual mentor, writes a short written evaluation of the actual animation that the student produces. Quality Pathways Curricula
• #15: This one is particularly important. To achieve our goal of serving diverse student groups within each pathway, we must have both differentiated instruction and appropriate and appropriately timed academic interventions. Increasingly, the effective Pathway efforts we are working with are talking about or actually moving career-themed academic interventions down into the middle schools. These efforts seek to bring students up to grade level before they enter high school, while also exposing them to the work that professionals do in various career areas. Pathways provide a great opportunity to be creative and make academic interventions more engaging and effective by using project-based, career-themed materials to address students’ English language and mathematics deficiencies. Double periods of traditional mathematics and English probably are not the best way to ensure that pathway students move up to grade level and are able to access pathway elective courses. Two examples of a career-themed academic intervention, are the engineering-themed pre-algebra and algebra curriculum materials that ConnectedEd has produced for NAF as part of the Academies of Engineering that are sponsored by NAF, Project Lead the Way, and NACME. Some of you will hear about this curriculum from its developer, Khanh Bui, in our next session. Quality Pathways Curricula
• #16: Quality Pathways Curricula So the two last things I want to do are to spend a few minutes presenting the multidis ciplinary curriculum model that is a central element in our Multiple Pathway Design and then mention the curriculum options that are possible choices for you and your other teachers to consider when planning the curriculum you will be using.
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• #18: Quality Pathways Curricula The easiest type of integration to start with is single subject. In fact, all great teachers do some degree of single subject integration spontaneously. Basically, this is when teachers draw connections to other subjects or topics during the course of the instruction taking place just in their own classrooms. For example, a geometry teacher might make a connection to mosaics and arts during a lesson on tessellation . A tessellation is created when a shape is repeated over and over again covering a plane without any gaps or overlaps. Or an English teacher might provide students with a some historical context about the Elizabethan Period in 16 th Century England during a unit on Shakespeare.
• #19: Quality Pathways Curricula In parallel integration, two teachers get involved , but there is no actual planning about how they will go about connecting what they are doing in their classes. The teachers acknowledge that they share one or more topics, and students will study the topic from two different perspectives. Student s might be studying how radiation produces geneti c mutations in a biology unit on genetics, while sometime that same semester they also study the political, social, economic, and community impacts of the nuclear bombing in Japan that ended the Second World War.
• #20: When teachers undertake interrelated curriculum integration they start to plan their instruction together. Two or more teachers acknowledge that they share some topics that enroll some of the same students, and it would be valuable to coordinate instruction. The previous example could turn into interrelated integration, if the world history and biology teachers coordinated their instruction and planned to cover related material within a somewhat proximate timeframe.
• #21: Quality Pathways Curricula Finally, in conceptual integration, students address a key concept or problem and attack it in a coherent way from multiple perspectives based on several disciplines. Teachers might present the essential question: How do major wars affect human populations? Physiological influences of food deprivation in health sciences or biology Social and economic influences in world history Graph population curves in mathematics Study the use of propaganda during periods of war in English
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• #28: Only through fidelity of implementation, including quality curricula, will we be able to achieve proof points that demonstrate that the Multiple Pathways approach is an effective way to improve high schools and outcomes for our students. Presentation title?