Curriculum and Instruction, Part 2

Question 1: Discuss some of the issues confronting the Principal when a revision of curriculum is called for.

Answer 1: Curriculum redesign takes a long time to plan and implement, and it takes a long time to see any results. If it is not approached as a long-term project, then when results are not achieved quickly teachers and staff may get discouraged. Any curriculum redesign projects must have realistic deadlines and timetables built into them. Before designing the new curriculum, a review of the existing curriculum – a needs assessment - should be conducted – what will be retained, what will be modified, what will be discarded. The input of a school’s stakeholders must be solicited when conducting the curriculum redesign and any proposed accompanying instructional program. Curriculum design is usually undertaken by a committee, either at the school or the district level; it’s not a one-person job, and the Principal will have a large say in the people who will serve on the committee. The Principal might be the curriculum committee coordinator, or she may choose another person. In any case the Principal will have to be deeply involved with the committee’s work and will almost certainly be a member of the committee.

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Question 2: Discuss why curriculum development can be a contentious issue among school staff

Answer 2: The teaching staff will include individuals with widely diverging talents, ideas and experiences. Teachers will be experts and specialists in different subjects and their expertise will influence what each of them thinks is the most important component of the school’s curriculum. The school’s administration, in addition to their own teaching backgrounds, will also have a wide variety of experience, ideas and beliefs about the nature of education, how students learn and should be taught, and what a curriculum should or should not include. Which subjects to teach; what those subjects should cover; what kind of materials should be used; the necessary methodology of instruction – all will provoke competing opinions and strong reactions from a teaching staff devoted to their students. It is the Principal’s duty to weigh all these ideas and expectations, give respectful attention to all opinions and lead the staff in reaching consensus on a balanced curriculum. Strong interpersonal and leadership skills are necessary.

Question 3: Discuss the importance of sound testing methods for measuring students’ academic progress.

Answer 3: You cannot know if students are learning what the curriculum is designed to teach unless you test the students regularly; by testing the students, you will be testing the curriculum and the instructional program. If student scores are less than satisfactory, and show no improvement over time, then either the curriculum or the instructional program needs to be redesigned. But you won’t know this unless you test, and in order to get accurate results you must use sound testing methods. Such methods have been tried and proven to work; they have been used in other schools and other districts; they have been approved, or mandated, by states and school boards; and they are appropriate to the areas being tested.

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