A Curriculum Leader: The Principals Role in the Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Curriculum

Melissa Chaney, Andrea Butzler, Vicki Wingate, Buck Shockley, and Joey Stokes

Southwest Baptist University EAD 6024 School Curriculum for Administration July 12, 2013

You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself. Galileo

Just as the role of the teacher has changed over the past several decades, the role of the administrator has changed dramatically and must continue to change as we strive for improvement and success of all our students. Where principals used to be primarily viewed as the disciplinarian within a school, todays principal has a wider array of responsibilities. In addition to student discipline; other responsibilities such as teacher development, community relations, administrative meetings, scheduling, supervision, mentorship, fundraising, athletics, and an abundant amount of managerial tasks top the list of a principals schedule. As daily tasks become more overwhelming for principals, it is increasingly more important that the principal view curriculum as the foundation of the school and understand how important a welldeveloped, well-implemented curriculum is to student achievement. Before a principal begins to make any changes in a school, the principal must evaluate the curriculum to ensure that it has been properly developed and is being implemented appropriately. This task requires the principal to take on the role of the instructional leader. As an instructional leader, the principals work centers around three equally and interdependently important parts: curriculum, instruction, and assessment (Lowery, 2013). All three parts must be addressed; however, since curriculum serves as the foundation for instruction and assessment, curriculum development must come first. According to Marzano, a guaranteed and viable curriculum is the most important factor in student achievement. A curriculum is guaranteed and viable when it is aligned with state and district standards and when a student has access to the same education regardless of who his or her teacher is (2003). The development and implementation of the curriculum should be the number one priority of the principal (Johnson, 2008). However, the school principal does not conduct all this work on his or her

own, but rather should establish and monitor teams of teachers as they develop the curriculum. The teachers ultimately complete this process with the principal serving as a leader. These teams, in the form of Professional Learning Communities (PLC) must regularly analyze the relationship between what is supposed to be taught, what is actually taught, and what is being assessed (Marzano Research Laboratory, 2012). The process of curriculum development should begin with the creation of a clear mission and vision statement that serves to align the goals of administration, teachers, and students (Marzano Research Laboratory, 2012). Once clear goals have been established, the teachers and principal can move forward in the development of curriculum. PLCs help to establish a productive environment for this work to take place as the answer to the first question of a PLC, What do we want students to know? becomes the curriculum. The principals role is to establish and communicate the expectations for this work. Essential outcomes must be identified as it is impossible to teach or learn all there is to know about a subject in the time frame allowed in the traditional classroom setting. As the PLC writes Essential Learner Outcomes (ELO) for a particular course, the principal should guide teachers in the process to ensure that a guaranteed and viable curriculum is available to students. Learner outcome based education is thought to provide greater consistency, accountability, and accessibility (Lesch, 1995). In addition to this, as the PLC is working to develop the curriculum in the form of ELOs, the principal should monitor the completion and evaluate the following: ELO alignment with state and district standards, the use of student friendly language, identifiable and measurable skills that demonstrate proficiency, and the timeline for instruction. Once the PLC has developed a curriculum aligned to state standards, the implementation of that curriculum can begin. Teachers implement the curriculum as they facilitate the learning

of the ELOs in their classrooms. The principals role in implementation is to ensure that the taught curriculum is the same as the written curriculum. This role requires competencies in understanding key instructional shifts in curriculum, determining what successful implementation looks like, and monitoring effectiveness (Holliday, 2012). First, the principal needs to study and become knowledgeable of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) as the instructional leader. The principal will facilitate a gap analysis for transition to CCSS, and identify potential barriers to implementation. Next, the principal will determine what effective implementation looks like in the context of highly effective teaching and learning, then coach and support teachers in their implementation process; including team planning sessions in which implementation decisions are made. Principals may also need to establish job targets for teachers in order to affect change. Finally, principals will monitor teacher effectiveness by frequently conducting evaluative walkthroughs for evidence that objectives, lesson plans, and student work are aligned with ELOs and state standards. Principals along with classroom teachers will look at EOC, MAP and other academic data scores to see if students are performing in the proficient to advanced levels. If not, principals will need to address these inadequacies with teachers. As a principal performs their duties in regards to development and implementation of curriculum they are essentially evaluating the curriculum. The principal is the individual best positioned within the school to evaluate the curriculum. Analysis of the curriculum must be performed to ensure that the written curriculum matches the taught curriculum and is aligned with district and state standards (Marzano Research Laboratory, 2012). The evaluation of curriculum is a continuous process as schools, teachers, students, and administrators are constantly changing, growing, and seeking to improve their skills. The principal at all times

should know where his or her building stands in the process of curriculum development and implementation. In a time where test scores are the focus and all students are expected to be proficient schools must be constantly evolving. There is a plethora of instructional strategies and programs out there that seek to offer schools a means to reach the goals and to increase student achievement; however no change or new program will deliver the results it promises if the school has not first developed a clear curriculum aligned to state and district standards. No improvements will offer the results that can be obtained from simply having your teachers align their teaching to the written curriculum. As teachers in a building become aligned vertically and horizontally with their curriculum and identify essential learner outcomes to be implanted in a reasonable amount of time using research-based instructional strategies, students achievement will be evident. The principal must lead this process of curriculum development and implementation through constant evaluation and revision of the process.

References Holliday, T. & Smith F.C. (2012). Leading COMMON CORE Implementation. Principal, 1215. Johnson, J. (2008, Sept). The principal's priority 1. Educational Leadership, 66(1), 72-76. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educationaleadership/sept08/vol66/ num01/The-Principal's-Priority-1.aspx Marzano Research Laboratory. (2012, August). Marzano levels of school effectiveness. Retrieved from http://legisweb.state.wy.us/InterimCommittee/2012/Z02MarzanoLevels.pdf http://tpep-wa.org/wp-content/uploads/Danielson-Rubrics-by-criteria.pdf Marzano School Leadership Evaluation Model by Washington State Criteria http://tpepwa.org/wp-content/uploads/Marzano_Leadership_Rubrics_by_Criteria.pdf

Tenessee Curriculum Center. (n.d.). Developing and implementing district pacing guides. Retrieved from http://www.tncurriculumcenter.org/index.php?option=com_content& view=article&id=134:deve.