Curriculum and Instruction, Part 16

Question 1: Discuss the need for monitoring and evaluating change.

Answer 1: Once you’ve made the decision that a change is necessary, and you have designed and implemented the change (whatever it might be), it is necessary to monitor the results and evaluate their effectiveness. You’ve decided to redesign the seventh grade math curriculum because the majority of your seventh graders failed the math portion of the most recent TAAS test. So you do a wholesale redesign of the curriculum, and your math teachers completely redesign their instruction program, and they start doing team teaching and breaking the math classes down into smaller groups. You have to monitor this as you go along – how are the students doing on their homework assignments, have there been complaints from students and parents about the new format, how are the students’ in-school (as opposed to statewide mandated) test scores, etc.? You can’t wait until next year’s TAAS test to see how if the new program is effective – you must be monitoring and evaluating it from its inception.

There are lots of good resources about Curriculum that you can find available.

Question 2: Describe possible strategies for enlisting support for change.

Answer 2: You first want to enlist the support of the people who will be responsible for helping to make the change – if you’re talking about redesigning the seventh grade math curriculum, that would be your seventh grade math teachers. They are probably already aware that the students’ math scores are way below where they should be and if they are not aware, you need to show them the data. You will discuss the ramifications of those unsatisfactory scores – on student performance, on the school’s ranking, on district funding, on the teachers’ assessments. When they see the data, and you have discussed the scope and ramifications of the problem, you invite them to help you come up with a solution. People are more likely to welcome and implement change if they are made a part of it, if they own a piece of the solution. Ask the teachers for ideas on curriculum modification or redesign, on ideas for new ways of presenting math material, on help looking at how other schools have taken steps to raise math scores. Once the teachers are on board, you do the same thing with other school and district personnel who will have roles in implementing any needed changes.

Question 3: Changing expectations of the Principal, and changing views about his role, mean that the skills required of Principals today are not the same skills as required 10 years ago or earlier. Explain.

Answer 3: Some time ago the Principal was seen as the boss, or the head teacher, or the general of the school. The district told the Principal what needed to be done; the Principal designed the rules, told people what they were, and disciplined those who did not follow them. Most schools had a very top-down style of authority and leadership – this was common and widely accepted. Today’s Principal, however, is expected to be more CEO and less general, more leader and less dictator. A Principal has to have skills more commonly associated with business leaders – data analysis and financial skills, leadership and management skills, team building, consensus building, and personnel management skills. The Principal has to be seen as a good communicator, a good people person, a trustworthy leader and a dedicated educator all at once. And he has to be comfortable with transparency and accountability; he has to let the district, the school staff and the students’ parents and the wider community know what’s going on in the school (both the good stuff and the bad stuff), and he has to take responsibility for making needed improvements and designing solutions to problems. He also has to expect and accept input from everyone in the school community.

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