Running head: IMPROVING OUR CURRICULUM

Improving Our Curriculum

Carly Davis
Chadron State College

Fall 2014

IMPROVING OUR CURRICULUM

Table of Contents

Math Curriculum Goals 3

Choosing New Textbooks...

Helping Low Ability Learners.....

Changing the Schedule..

Conclusion

Timeline

References

IMPROVING OUR CURRICULUM

Math Curriculum Goals

Constantly and Consistently Learning and Improving
- + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +
Find Textbooks that have review throughout instead of in 1st
couple chapters (Adoption year)
o Help the students who get bored with the review and
need to be constantly challenged
How can we serve our low ability learners better?
o Where should they be placed? in inclusion classes?
pulled out?
o Should having a pull out class be allowed? it is too hard
for them to transition into high school where there are
no pull out classes?
o How can we help transition these students from elem ->
middle and middle -> high
o Make inclusion classes smaller throughout the district
(15 or less students)?
Change Math class schedule in the high school
o pre-algebra (lowest available class)
o algebra
o consumer math (Make these classes upper class only)
o integrated math (Make these classes upper class only)
o Make a class with balancing checkbooks and
understanding credit cards

IMPROVING OUR CURRICULUM

To survive, all schools must be concerned with achieving their goals,

maintaining themselves internally, being adaptive, and responding to their culture
(Sergiovanni, p. 54). Changing and/or improving our curriculum should happen
yearly, monthly, and daily. We need to consistently be looking back at our goals
and adjusting them according to the culture at our school. Knight explains six
stages all schools go through when experiencing change. (Knight, p. 107)
1. Precontemplation, when we are unaware of our need for change
2. Contemplation, when we weigh the advantages and disadvantages of
3.
4.
5.
6.

changing to a new way of doing something

Preparation, when we prepare to implement a change
Action, when we implement a change
Maintenance, where we sustain our implementation plan
Termination, when we are no longer changing because we have
completed the change process
Step one happens daily until someone notices an issue. Once an issue

arises, step two comes in to play. Sometimes it is hard to come up with ways to
fix the issues we find. This is where talking to the principal and other teachers are
extremely important. Knight explains, that instructional improvement would be
much easier if we could just give teachers a script to follow (p. 59) Some days I
think this would be so nice, but then I think about all classrooms being the same
and that would be so boring!

IMPROVING OUR CURRICULUM

Choosing New Textbooks

My curriculum group is stuck in step two right now. We are trying to decide
what we like and dont like about the textbooks we have now and what we want
in our new textbooks. We have been writing the pros and cons down on paper
and looking through them all over and over again. Zeringue has a great article
about what to look for when choosing a new textbook. She explains the
importance of including others in the process.
Because the adoption of new mathematics instructional materials
(particularly the adoption of materials that are substantively different from
those used prior) may require some changes in classroom practice,
teachers, principals, and district-level administrators must commit to
supporting those changes. (p. 3)
Everyone in the process is important and if we dont include everyone we
might not make the best decision. It is up to the principal to make sure everyone
is included and participating in the process. Principals adhering to the
partnership approach recognize that although they have different roles than
teachers, everyone is equally valuable (Knight, p. 107).

Helping Low Ability Learners

Another issue we are working on is how to serve our low ability learners
better. We are including a lot more people in this process. Our special education

IMPROVING OUR CURRICULUM

teachers will be on high alert to make sure everything we want to change is

following all of the laws and regulations the government has in place. This
process will take us longer than the others in our list. We need to figure out
exactly what we want to change and how we want to implement the change.
Knight makes a great point to keep in mind when making this list. If you want to
get important work done, you need to be clear on what that work is so that you
dont get distracted by other less important tasks (p. 150).
Our curriculum goals sheet has a few questions we are asking ourselves
to find exactly what we want to do to help the low ability learners. We have been
doing the same thing for a while with these students and it is time for a change.
The whole school is in need of a change and this is one part that needs to
change quickly; classical educational systems must shift to learning schools
from teaching schools (Okutan, p. 93).

Changing the Schedule

Our high school math schedule is in dire need of a change. We are in the
third step of Knights six stages in the schedule change process. We have
decided on a better class flow and are preparing to make the changes in the
students schedules. Changing the order of the math classes is going to take a lot
of support from the building principal and the central office. Some of the class
descriptions will need to change in order for this to happen as well. The degree
of support received from the central office can make or break a principals
attempt to lead reform (Knight, p. 156).

IMPROVING OUR CURRICULUM

Our principals are fully on board with this change but the school board is a
different story. It is hard to make a drastic change like this since they have been
the same for quite a while. The school board will be the ones to win over in this
situation. Although research has established that strong, competent principals
are vital for high-performing schools, attention is turning increasingly to the
importance of effective district leadership, including school boards and their
contributions to school improvement (Voices, p. 1). We are lucky enough to have
a school board who understands this and is ready to change our school to a
learning school.

Conclusion
Our curriculum group has a few more stages to go through in order to
complete our goals this next year. A lot of meetings and debating will need to
happen soon. As long as we all stay on the same page and take one step at a
time we will complete each goal with flying colors. The goals will continue to
change and new goals will arise. If we ever stop having goals then we have
become a failing school and will no longer be with the times. Goals are ever
changing and evolving for the students we have each year.

Timeline
End of 1st
Semester

End of
March

Have top 3 textbooks chosen

Have meeting with SPED teachers to make a plan on
changes for low ability learners
Order textbooks for next year
Have goals set for low ability learners and start making plans
for the changes

IMPROVING OUR CURRICULUM

End of May

Rewrite class descriptions for new class schedules

Make changes for the next school years low ability learners
Finalize class schedule changes

References
Knight, J. (2011). Unmistakable impact: a partnership approach for dramatically
improving instruction. Thousands Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Okutan, M. (2014). My school principal is not a leader. Education, 135 (1).
Retrieved from
http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.chadronstatelibrary.com/eds/pdfviewer
/pdfviewer?sid=5f51aac4-f2df-4d38-87c4-4f6bc5d1c18b
%40sessionmgr4002&vid=4&hid=4210
Sergiovanni, T., Kellerher, P., McCarthy, M., & Fowler, F. (2009). Educational
governance and administration, 6th edition. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Voices from the field: How school boards can support district wide school
improvement efforts (2009). The center for comprehensive school reform
and improvement. Retrieved from
http://files.eric.ed.gov.ezproxy.chadronstatelibrary.com/fulltext/ED507578.p
df
Zeringue, J. K., Spencer, D., Mark, J., & Schwinden, K. (2010). Influences on
mathematics textbook selection: What really matters? Retrieved from
http://www2.edc.org/mcc/pubs/Final%20Draft%20Research
%20Presession%202010.pdf