I thought curriculum was lessons. I have to be honest, I'm a bit confused. What is curriculum?
Curriculum typically refers to the knowledge and skills students are expected to learn (currently the Common Core State Standards or Washington State Learning Standards). It includes the units and lessons that teachers teach, books and materials used in a course, and tests and other methods for evaluating student learning.
In its simplest form, curriculum means books. If you walked into an elementary school and asked about their math curriculum, you would probably be shown a math text book and/or a math work book. These books are often accompanied by corresponding tests. Some subjects are more complicated. Instead of one text book, they may need a series of books (like a list of classic readings for a high school English class). A teacher may also design their own assessment of student learning.
Included in curriculum is often a scope and sequence. This is fancy teacher talk for what are we going to teach? What order should it be taught in? Sometimes this is as simple as teaching all the chapters in a book in the order that they are written. Sometime it is more complicated like teaching specific concepts using a variety of resources. Despite the variation from one subject to the next, a scope and sequence is what ensures that every student is receiving the expected instruction and not being led down wandering paths by a rogue (or simply inexperienced) teacher.
What curriculum is not, is scripted lesson plans. While a teacher may be given list of topics to teach and a book to teach them from, there is still plenty of freedom for teachers to tailor instruction to the specific needs of the students in their classroom.
Okay, that makes sense. Why do we need it?
While standards are mandated at the state level, curriculum is "adopted," or chosen and purchased, by local school districts to best meet the needs of their students. The curriculum should be aligned with the standards and ideally will be coherent from grade to grade and may even coordinate from subject to subject. The basic idea is to create a more consistent and coherent academic program by ensuring teachers teach the most important content and eliminate learning gaps that may exist between sequential courses and grade levels.
For example, a district should review their mathematics program to ensure that all Algebra I courses offered in the district not only reflects expected learning standards for that subject area and grade level, but also prepares students for Algebra II and Geometry. When the curriculum is not aligned, students might be taught significantly different content in different Algebra I classes and students taking different Algebra I courses may be unevenly prepared for Algebra II.
Ideally this curriculum should be OSPI recommended. Investigations Math (the program Pasco currently uses) was not recommended by OSPI, and is ineffective compared to other programs. To justify this, the argument the district often brings up is about the bilingual component available in this program. However there are other companies/publishers who provide curriculum in multi-languages.
Not only is this just common sense, but it is actually law. (See the law here) School districts are required to adopt curriculum and teachers are required to teach the district adopted curriculum. If either party does not comply, they can lose their job and their license/certificate.
So, Curriculum. Do we have it?
The short answer is No. While PSD1 has adopted partial curriculum for some grade levels and subject areas, others are left without. Even the subjects that have district adopted curriculum are in terrible shape because materials are either out of date, out of print, or out of compliance with state standards.
What happens when teachers don't have curriculum to teach from? Google happens. Pinterest happens. Teachers Pay Teachers happens. Disney movies being show in middle and high school happens. Teachers spend hours and hours every night designing their own curriculum to try and fill the next day's instructional time. This means teachers are working well beyond their contracted days and hours. And not just a little beyond. Teachers are spending twelve hours a day in their classrooms, and coming back on weekends to try to be prepared for the coming week.
Especially vulnerable are our English Language Learners (ELL) and our Special Education students (SpEd). Unfortunately these classrooms are often taught by inexperienced and even uncertified teachers.
There are teachers in every building who are writing their own curriculum each and every day. These teachers are literally writing curriculum as they teach, which is comparable to trying to build an airplane as you fly, and it's happening every day in Pasco.
That sounds troubling. What can we do?
The first thing to do is to become aware and current on what is happening in our district. Talk to your child's teacher. Find out the state of their curriculum resources and how they feel. Do they have what they need to effectively teach students? Next, inform your neighbors with facts. The more people who know, the better chance we have of making a change. Then speak out. Go to school board meetings. Write to the school board and district administrators. Let them know you expect better for your children. Write a letter to the editor. Too many things can be swept under the rug if no one knows about them, so spread the word.
If you are reading this right now it means two things: you speak English and you have access to the internet. That puts you and your children light years ahead of many of Pasco's students. Imagine how much they are suffering from not have quality instruction given by quality teachers. We need to help support all of Pasco's students. Every day children spend class time watching Disney movies while an overworked teacher tries to catch up, is a day everyone suffers. Teachers want to do what's best for your kids. However, the odds are stacked against them.
When good teachers are continually asked to do the impossible, they burn out. Our students can't afford to lose anymore good teachers. Parent and community support is especially important right now as teachers are currently bargaining and asking the district to provide our students with comprehensive, coherent, quality curriculum. By standing united we can do what is best for students throughout Pasco.
Links to additional information:
State law requiring districts to adopt a curriculum
PSD's list of adopted curriculum
Other resources on this topic
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