Getting The Most From Your Curriculum

Jim Riedl
Jan 01, 2007

Even though most schools and districts have curriculum documents, many do not use them well. One of the key reasons is that they contain far too much content and teachers realize they cannot possibly cover everything. As a result there is a tendency to teach what the teacher is most familiar with or likes best. In either case, there is a real danger that students do not learn what is most important to their success. Students must be provided with the knowledge, skills and understandings that are assessed in the high stakes testing we use to measure student achievement. If the curriculum is to be effective, the content of the curriculum should have a very strong correlation to the content that is tested.

The answer to this dilemma is a prioritized and mapped curriculum based on state standards and the use of state test results to focus on what students need to know, do and understand. The Learning-Focused Toolbox Tool for Power Curriculum helps school districts develop their curriculum documents.

Having the curriculum is only the beginning of the process necessary to help students learn. How you use the curriculum is the most important factor.

Once the curriculum is developed everyone in the school needs to know the expectations of how they will use the document. They need to understand where it came from, what's included, what it can do, what it can't do and who was involved in the original development. They also need to know how the curriculum supports the development of units, lessons and assessments. Beyond this they must realize they can be a part of the ongoing revisions that need to be done to improve the initial document.

A process for Getting the Most From Your Curriculum might look like this:
1. Introduction - Identify the source, the process, elements and developers
2. Implementation Process - Outline the steps in distribution, uses and connections to instruction
3. Feedback - Decide what parts of the curriculum work well, what needs to be revised and focus on student results
4. Revisions - Establish who, when and how revisions will be done
5. Applications - Articulate the uses of the curriculum in the further development of Units, Lessons and assessments.
6. Accountability - Delineate how teachers will be held accountable for the implementation of the curriculum
      1. Define expectations
      2. Provide support
      3. Frequent classroom visits
      4. Review of teacher units
      5. Look Fors/ Ask Fors

As with most school based initiatives the burden of this process will ultimately fall to the leadership of the district and the schools. When the leaders take these tasks seriously and are willing to hold everyone accountable the quality of the curriculum initiative will be significantly enhanced.

Jim Riedl is the co-author of Supervising for Achievement, Monitoring for Achievement, Power Curriculum, and is author of the upcoming book Learning-Focused Unit Study. Jim is also a National Learning-Focused Consultant.