What constitutes a successful curriculum?

What constitutes a successful curriculum?

For the past several weeks, the staff members of our school have been analyzing, evaluating, and discussing our current reading, writing, and math programs in attempts to devise a plan to assist our preschool through sixth grade teachers with meeting the academic needs of their students.  As we are re-evaluating and transforming our elementary curriculum for reading, writing, and math, I, as the curriculum coach at the school, began to reflect upon not only the academic needs of our students, but whether or not we are succeeding at meeting these academic needs.  Of course, this reflection led my thoughts down the mysterious and winding road of state and national standards.  What is academically important for preschool and elementary aged students?  According to Nel Noddings in The Aims of Education, “At the beginning of the twenty-first century, educational discussion is dominated by talk of standards, and the reason given for this emphasis is almost always economic.  The underlying aims seems to be (1) to keep the United States strong economically and (2) to give every child an opportunity to do well financially” (p.431).  Interesting!  Instead of teaching our students the social, emotional, language, cultural, and cognitive skills to become successful and compassionate members of society in attempts to revolutionize our current, inadequate systems, we are focusing on teaching our students how to become rich.  Let’s not forget that we need to keep the United States economically rich as well!  Hmmmm?  Is that what we really want to instill within the young minds of our future generations?  To answer my own question, I would adamantly say, “Absolutely not!”  This may be my early childhood background emerging from within, but what happened to teaching the “whole” child?  Is the concept of teaching the “whole”  child to become well-rounded individuals unimportant to us as a society?  Are we, as a society, strictly concerned with providing future generations of children with the skills to be financially prosperous?  Even if this is the case, we might be in a bit of trouble.  If we are unsure of the purpose of education in the United States, the process of evaluation of our curriculum becomes even more complicated and quiet honestly worthless.

In addition to re-evaluating and transforming our curriculum over the past several weeks, we have also been preparing our students not only to successfully complete, but also to positively pass the Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards, as known as AIMS.  (The AIMS is equivalent to the MEAP.)  Even though I feel that the purpose of the education system in the United States of America is unclear, and therefore, any type of evaluation or measurement of education is invalid, I do understand the need for valuation.  Currently, in the state of Arizona, our system of education is driven by Arizona’s State Standards.  Therefore, each and every third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grader at my school has to “prove” that their teachers spent the school year teaching state standards.  Even though I consider myself one of the lucky ones since I teach first grade and do not have to “evaluate” my students’ learning with a standardize state test, I still have to assist the upper elementary teachers with evaluating  our students.  As I walked up and down aisles of students, sitting silently, with a test booklet and a number two pencil in front of them for what seemed like forever, I couldn’t help to think, What is the purpose of this?  What does AIMS really meausure . . . .a student’s ability to accurately understand and answer multiple choice questions?  a student’s ability to remain absolutely silent for an hour?  a student’s ability to color in a circle?  a student’s ability to perform well in class?  Certain inly, the AIMS does not measure a student’s knowledge!  Elliot W. Eisner, in What Does it Mean to Say a School is Doing Well, wrote, “Because those of us in education take test scores seriously, the public is reinforced in its view that test scores are good proxies for the quality of education a school provides.  Yet what test scores predict are other test scores” (p.329).  Ahhh – The AIMS simply measures and predicts how students will score on tests.  In real life, how important is this skill?

Even though I find the answer to the question, - What constitutes a successful curriculum?  - complex, complicated and challenging, I do believe that Central Park East Elementary School (CPEES) and the Harlem Children’s Zone is taking a step in a new direction of not only curriculum, but also the process of evaluating curriculum.  Meier wrote, “A good school for anyone is a little like kindergarten and a little like a good post-graduate program – the two ends of the educational spectrum, at which we understand that we cannot treat any two human beings identically, but must take into account their special interests and styles even as we hold all to high and rigorous standards” (p.49).  What a phenomenal way to educate children, yet it all seems so simple – teach individuals as individuals!  Additionally, Mr. Canada stated in Sharon Otterman’s article, Lauded Harlem Schools Have Their Own Problems, “We are attempting to save a community and its kids all at the same time” (p.  1).  Now – that is my idea of education!