what is process a district goes through to adopt a new curriculum
Curriculum adoption process takes a village, plus months of planning and testing
The 2d graders in Kate Rhoades' class at Yacolt Main are working as a group to solve a serial of math issues projected onto the whiteboard at the front of the classroom. Soon, they all turn their attending to their new math textbooks and become to piece of work solving problems individually. Different with textbooks of years past, students are encouraged to write in these books, filling in their answers and showing their piece of work each step of the style.
While practicing and applying newly learned math skills is a common classroom occurrence, these item students are working on an fifty-fifty larger project without even knowing it. Ms. Rhoades and her students are helping the Battle Ground Public Schools district assess new math teaching materials for all of its Yard-8 students. The new Chiliad-8 math curriculum volition supersede sometime textbooks that are often different from school to school and even grade level to grade level. The new curriculum will align with current learning standards and help teachers implement proven instructional practices that lead to increased student understanding and more in-depth learning.
While information technology may sound similar a simple plenty process to place, adopt, and implement new learning materials beyond all of the Battle Ground commune for any subject matter, it's actually a massive undertaking that involves dozens of educators and teaching experts, several committees that run across regularly over the course of a twelvemonth, a community review period, and eventually, terminal approval from the district's Board of Directors.
To have the nigh beneficial bear on on educatee learning, curricula should be reviewed and updated every vi-to-7-years to go along electric current with not only the subject area thing, just also learning standards, teaching practices, and irresolute engineering. Battle Ground Public Schools has worked over the past three years to determine which of its materials are in the near demand of updating. This year, Battle Ground Schools has purchased updated textbooks for 8th grade Washington Land history, adopted new curricula for high school English language arts and high schoolhouse health, and is in the process of reviewing curricula for both G-8 math and loftier school sexual wellness.
Each step of the fashion, the committees and decision makers work to identify materials that see the state learning standards and volition best prepare students for college and careers.
The math curriculum adoption process began last June with the formation of the M-8 Math Adoption Review Committee. Led by David Cresap, Battle Ground'due south co-manager of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, and Susan Watson, a Mathematics Instructional Support Specialist, the committee comprises xxx teachers representing each Thou-8 school, grade level, and specialized instruction area (such as Special Education, English Linguistic communication Learners, the Aspire program, and math intervention) in the district.
"Having a teacher-led commission to provide content expertise is paramount to the procedure," Cresap said. "A fundamental piece of the evaluation process is making sure the curriculum supports the current standards. From a practical standpoint, nosotros look at things such as how long it'south been since our materials were updated, whether or not there has been a shift in the style math is taught—like with the adoption of Common Core standards—and even obvious things like whether our electric current texts are simply in poor condition."
The committee focused its early on efforts on refining its definition of what makes for the most effective math instruction materials. Later putting out a request for bids from education materials vendors, the group created a comprehensive, evidence-informed rubric to appraise potential new materials while also taking advantage of screening resource such as the National Quango of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and EdReports, an independent nonprofit designed to better instruction past providing reviews and comparisons of K-12 instructional materials.
Based on its research, the committee identified its elevation three choices for new materials, and the vendors that supply those materials were invited to requite a presentation to the commission. Subsequently seeing these presentations simply before winter break, the commission narrowed its options downward to 2 finalists. The side by side step: Perform field tests with each of the textbooks. When feasible in the adoption process, Battle Ground conducts a field test of the curriculum in classrooms to see students interact with the materials..
"It's of import for classroom teachers to utilize these math textbooks in a live classroom setting to provide opportunities to both verify a program'southward strengths and let for potential concerns to surface," Cresap said. "In order to properly evaluate materials, teachers demand to see how students interact with the curriculum."
About l K-eight teachers participated in the field tests, which began with a grooming session to ensure teachers were prepared to teach with the new materials. In one case teachers were trained, the new materials were introduced in the classroom and used for three weeks of math instruction. The training and three-week trial menstruum was then repeated for the 2d set of math materials under consideration.
"Testing the new curriculum provides an opportunity to get an accurate look at the available options," said Kate Rhoades, 2nd grade teacher at Yacolt Primary. "The process allows teachers to run across kids interacting and making connections with the new materials, which informs us of how the students tin achieve the almost growth and improved learning outcomes."
Once the field tests had concluded, the teachers evaluated the materials based on the established rubrics. The K-eight Math Adoption Review Committee convened for an entire mean solar day to discuss the merits of each of the tested curricula with the goal of reaching a consensus on which of the materials would all-time fit the district'southward core teaching beliefs and instructional practices.
"Common Core standards ask students to learn almost math with problem solving," Rhoades said. "Students demand math materials that give ample opportunity to build math understanding with representations, models, and discourse with their peers, rather than only demonstrations from a teacher of how to 'do' the math."
After the Adoption Review Committee made its selection, the public has the opportunity to review the materials by engagement at the district part. The public review period for the new math materials is open up from April ix-26. Also during the public review period, another committee—the Instructional Materials Committee, or IMC—reviews the selection process to ensure that district procedures have been followed. The IMC does not evaluate the bodily materials that have been selected, just the process of how the materials were selected.
Once the public has had the opportunity to weigh in and the IMC has endorsed the selection process, the Adoption Review Commission presents its recommendation to the district's Lath of Directors for final review. The lath follows a 2-step process (a first and second reading) before making a concluding decision. Once approved, the district implements the new materials.
"New curriculum should bring deeper understanding about the learning standards and best instructional practices to all of our teachers," Cresap said. "This will then translate into ameliorate learning for the students. I am grateful for the defended and thoughtful work from our committee members over the past nine months. These professionals sacrificed and made contributions to help make an important decision that will bear on the lives of kids for years to come."
Source: https://www.battlegroundps.org/curriculum-adoption-process-takes-a-village-plus-months-of-planning-and-testing/
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