A PowerPoint for Coherent curriculum programs

1. Learning-Centered Leadership Development Program for Practicing and
Aspiring Principals
Western Michigan University
A Project funded by the United States Department of Education (USDOE), Washing, DC: 2010
Dimension 5: Coherent Curriculum Programs

2. 2
Agenda
Inspirational Agency
for School Renewal
Orderly School
Operation
High, Cohesive, and
Culturally Relevant
Expectations for
Students
Coherent Curricular
Programs
Distributive and
Empowering
Leadership
Real-time and
Embedded
Instructional
Assessment
Data-Informed
Decision Making

3. Coherent Curricular Programs
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Session Designers:
Dr. Patricia (Pat) Reeves
Dr. Robert (Bob) Leneway

4. Session Goals
• Explore the research supported importance of insuring that our
schools offer Coherent Curricular Programs, i.e. Guaranteed and
Viable
• Explore the research supported characteristics of Coherent
Curricular Programs
• Examine the status of our own schools on the Dimension of
Coherent Curricular Programs
• Explore possible ways to increase learning opportunity and learning
results for our students by insuring Coherent Curricular Programs in
our schools
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5. Coherent Curriculum
Programs
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Why? What?
How?
What’s
Next?

6. Why and how much should we care?
• Per McREL research (Marzano, et al), Guaranteed and Viable
Curriculum shows one of the highest correlations to improving
student achievement
• Effect sizes for evidence based instructional strategies drop
precipitously when not coupled with a guaranteed and viable
curriculum
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7. What are the Markers?
COHERENT CURRICULAR
PROGRAMS
• Core, essential, or “power standards” aligned to state and/or
national standards
• Horizontal and vertical alignment
• Aligned and student appropriate learning resources (hard and
electronic)
• Aligned and effective classroom instruction
• Aligned and authentic curriculum based assessments
• Immediate and consistent feedback
• Continuous progress monitoring (for every student/by every
student)
• Clear and consistent communication about learning expectations
and learning progress
• Engaging and meaningful learning experiences
• Learning focused leadership
• Student participation in setting personal learning goals
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8. Where are we?
Let’s look at one tool for
understanding where we stand
in our schools when it comes
to providing a Guaranteed
and Viable Curriculum
for all students
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9. And where are we going?
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Student
Centered
Mandated
Standards

10. Sheer Number of Curriculum
Expectations
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11. Rendering unto the State
Assessments
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12. Or innovating around
21st Century Skills
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13. Are they mutually exclusive?
Or Can Our Students Have the Best of Both?
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14. Local Control

15. Decisions to Avoid
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Focus on the Tests, giving short shrift
to the rest

16. Decisions to Avoid
Continuing to let learning
remain predominantly
teacher centered,
teacher controlled, and
teacher designed
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17. Decisions to Avoid
Limiting learning to
traditional time slots,
traditional learning
resources, and
traditional learning
Activities; in fact,
limiting learning
at all!
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18. Decisions to Consider
Make the Curriculum an
Open Door to the World
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19. What is a Classroom?
Is it This?

20. Is it Any of These?

21. Ask any Child

22. What Would They Tell Us?
LeadForwardVideo21stCentury.wmv
Don’t prepare us for your
world,
Prepare us for ours!

23. Decisions to Consider
Balancing Core Curriculum Standards with:
• Learning to learn standards
• Life skill standards
• Learning through technology standards
• Higher order thinking and reasoning standards
• Post-secondary learning and career preparation standards
• Problem solving and productivity standards
• Social development (personal/interpersonal) standards
• Arts and humanities standards
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Core Curriculum Area Learning, Research,
and Technology
Arts, Creativity,
Thinking
Life and Career
Eng Lang Arts
Math
Science
Social Studies

24. Differentiated Instruction

25. Harness the Power of Technology

26. When we unleash the power
of Technology…
http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/making-sense-of-media-and-technology-painting-clouds

27. Engage Them or Enrage Them!

28. How will we make learning fit
today’s learners?
How will we give them the
tools?
LeadForwardVideoVimeo.wmv
• 21st Century Technologies to support a
multi-dimensional learning system
• Personalized Learning and differentiated
instruction with on-demand access to
learning
• Empowered learners

29. The Power of Curriculum Integration
Start with these research findings:
Students in any type of interdisciplinary or integrative curriculum do
as well as, and often better than, students in a conventional
departmentalized program. (National Association for Core
Curriculum, 2000; Vars, 1996, 1997; Arhar, 1997)
Now, how might curriculum integration better serve students?
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30. The Power of Curriculum Integration
Give students an interesting text and the chance to argue about the
characters and issues within it, and they will do the rest (William
2007).
How might this be a clue to a more student centered and integrated
approach to providing guaranteed and viable curriculum
experiences for all students?
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31. Curriculum Integration
How might we use these nine high impact instructional strategies
(Marzano, Pickering, & Pollack, 2001) to improve curriculum
integration?
1. Identifying similarities and differences
2. Summarizing and note taking
3. Reinforcing effort and providing recognition
4. Homework and practice
5. Nonlinguistic representations
6. Cooperative learning
7. Setting objectives and providing feedback
8. Generating and testing hypotheses
9. Cues, questions, and advance organizers
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32. A Sad State of Affairs
• “Curricular chaos” — not coherence — still prevails in most schools,
a result of our no-oversight, high autonomy culture (Schmoker and
Marzano 1999).
• Fortunately, many successful schools have seen achievement levels
soar after developing coherent, high-quality curricula — but only
when they instituted monitoring mechanisms for ensuring that it is
taught.
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33. A Systems Approach
• Curriculum and Assessment Mapping
• Process monitoring
• Benchmarking Progress toward achievement goals
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34. Wayne-Westland’s Curriculum and
Instruction Model (Map)

35. Wayne-Westland’s Program Monitoring and
Evaluation Model (Progress Monitoring)
Annual
Review
Internal
Review
Summary
Evaluation
Forms
District
Improvement
Team
Continue or Discontinue
Program or Intervention
Increased
Student
Achievement
Mechanism
Decision
Expected
Outcome

36. Wayne-Westland Process and
Progress Monitoring Examples:
Collaboration using “Data Walls”

37. Wayne-Westland Process and Progress
Monitoring Examples
Collaboration using “Data Walls”

38. More Examples from Wayne-Westland
Collaboration using “Data Walls”

39. Collaboration using “Data Walls” meets the PLC
Process at Wayne-Westland

40. Where do you need to go and how
will you get there?
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41. Coherent Curricular Programs
Final Questions to think about and consider
• How will you harness the power of coherent curricular programs in
your school renewal work?
• How will you use the seven dimensions in a systems approach to
school renewal?
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