Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment, and Standards

1 Curriculum, Instruction, assessment , andStandardsIn this chapter, curriculum is defined so that readers can have a sharedunderstanding of this key term. Next, we examine approaches to curriculumthat schools use to address Standards and high-stakes testing as a way todiscuss the interrelationships of curriculum , instruction, assessment , and suggest why these approaches may not work over the long term and propose amodel demonstrating how the balanced curriculum integrates curriculum , instruc-tion, assessment , and : WHATIT IS AND WHAT IT IS NOTC urriculum describes (in writing) the most important outcomes of the schoolingprocess.

2 Thus, the curriculum is a document in which resides the district s collectedwisdom about what is most important to teach. When reviewing book titles orchapter headings in a textbook, the titles summarize the most important conceptscovered by the textbook, just as unit titles or courses in the curriculum indicate themost important ideas to be is based on Standards ; as a result, curriculum and Standards arelinked. curriculum specifies how Standards are met. Standards are not the curricu-lum. Rather, Standards provide a vision of the appropriate content and 8/19/2004 6:25 PM Page 3(usually for a subject area, such as mathematics) by outlining what students shouldknow and be able to do across a range of grade levels.

3 curriculum is more specificthan the Standards . Whereas Standards usually describe appropriate content andprocesses for a range of ages or grade levels, curriculum specifies what should hap-pen during a shorter period of time, such as a year, quarter, or a month. Decisionsabout what is most important to teach and learn should be made with the standardsin mind. Furthermore, a good curriculum documents the alignment process andbalances the curriculum in reference to the curriculum is the plan that focuses and guides classroom instruction and assess-ment. For example, if a social studies curriculum specifies a unit on World War I,teachers need to instruct on World War I and not the Great Depression or currentevents.

4 Even though those topics are valuable, having a unit on World War I inthe curriculum says that learning about World War I has the most value. Students,therefore, should spend time learning about World War the curriculum focuses on World War I, then the classroom assessment alsoneeds to focus on World War I. In this way, the curriculum , the curriculum -embeddedassessment, and the instruction are aligned with each other. Assessments answerthe question of how much knowledge and skill are good enough to meet the standardsaligned in the unit. Teachers use assessments to determine how good is good assessment is inexorably linked to the sequences the outcomes so they build on each other.

5 This ensuresthat students have the prerequisite skills necessary for success on the next unit orgrade level. Although a sequential order may not be inherent in every discipline, acurriculum can overcome problems of sequence. For example, for mathematics,automaticity in number facts is a prerequisite to fluent application of multiplicationor long division algorithms. curriculum can provide a sequential plan for instructionthat specifies student memorization of number facts before going on to multiplicationor division tests and state Standards influence curriculum design. To be fair tostudents, content and skills assessed on high-stakes tests need to be covered in thecurriculum, requiring curriculum decisions to be aligned and balanced with thesetests.

6 In this way, the weight given to the standardized tests content and skills isappropriate given other influences on the curriculum , such as student tests are linked to the curriculum and influence its design, but they arenot the only curriculum plan is rooted in students human development. Some viewcurriculum as the district s plan for student development. This expands the scopeof curriculum . For example, if we know that 5th-grade students wrestle with theissue of fairness (see Nothing s Fair in Fifth Gradeby Barth DeClements), then partof a 5th-grade curriculum might directly address this developmental task throughdiscussions of rules or examination of literature that deals with fairness curriculum is designed to meet many different criteria, such as informingdevelopmental tasks as well as fitting into a state-prescribed scope and sequence, thecurriculum is is discipline based.

7 Subject areas (English, mathematics, social studies,science, and the arts) drive curriculum . Disciplines encapsulate different ways ofseeing and knowing the world. A geologist sees a grain of sand differently from a curriculum is a plan for helping students to understand the differences in the waysvarious disciplines view the TOOLS AND 8/19/2004 6:25 PM Page 4 curriculum applies learning theory to instructional design. For example, weknow from learning theory that paced practice is generally better than massed prac-tice. So, to practice for high-stakes tests, we know that it is better to practice over alonger period of time than to practice a large amount over a shorter period of review sessions before high-stakes testing is a misapplication of learningtheory.

8 curriculum can help to institutionalize appropriate applications of learningtheory and instructional design and provide a structure for eliminating instructionalpractices that do not make sense. In the Balanced curriculum , periodic assessmentsgive students practice on the format of high-stakes tests throughout the year, notjust a month before development and implementation is the province of the district,not the school. Schools generally do not have the capacity to develop their own cur-riculum, just as individual teachers find it difficult to invent a curriculum if noneis provided.

9 Furthermore, by law, districts are generally charged with developingand implementing a curriculum . When districts abdicate this responsibility, schools,students, and families suffer. In the Comprehensive School Reform Design, forexample, schools could apply for money to implement one of many school reformmodels. In some districts, many models were adopted, leaving the district to try tomanage and understand many different approaches to what is most important toteach students. This further fragmented and complicated the district s responsibilityfor authoring and implementing a strong is not Standards , tests, textbooks, or programs.

10 Standards tell whatis important for students to know and be able to do, but they don t tell a district steachers how the Standards should be met (see Chapter 3). Tests, both standardizedand state developed, are not the curriculum . Tests are designed to sample a smallportion of students knowledge. From that sample of knowledge, tests are designedto support inferences about how much students know (see Chapter 4). For example,if I get the only two problems dealing with multiplication correct on a test, the test-ing entity assumes that I probably know how to multiply.