lesson learned from a curriculum change process
DESCRIPTION
An older presentation from the NAIS annual conference detailing the lessons one independent school learned as it underwent a process of curriculum reform.TRANSCRIPT
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
LESSONS LEARNED
(Pay no heed if your interest is not in
thoroughgoing reform)
Peter GowNAIS 2001
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
Real curriculum development is forever. Realize this, develop a standing mechanism to
direct how your programs will change, and nourish
it.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
If you are committed to meaningful curriculum
reform and development, you can’t do a
meaningful curriculum review in a year, package
it as a scope-and-sequence, and consider
yourselves done.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
The “review” may be done, but your programs will
continue to change. Make this happen strategically,
not randomly.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
MISSION AND STRATEGIC LESSONS
•If it’s not connected to mission, forget it
•Without Board support, forget it
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
Beware the “tyranny of good ideas.” Maintain
focus, and don’t jump into something that looks really
hot without thinking through the mission and strategic implications.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
Use self-studies, such as that for accreditation, as
opportunities for real self-examination and
growth.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
Connect the pieces: mission to strategic plan to program to student life to professional evaluation
to program evaluation.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
CURRICULUM REFORM
Driven by enthusiasts
Driven by Strategic Plan
Admininstrative Support
Administrative Mandate
Enthusiastic reception
Enables non-participants
Requres accountability
WHERE DOES THE IMPETUS
COME FROM?
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
IT’S BIG
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
Curriculum reform is not about a few eager
adopters in isolated classrooms, their odd
ideas tolerated by colleagues and celebrated as examples of a school’s commitment to innovative
curriculum.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
Curriculum is everything you do. Initiatives in
technology and diversity are completely
intertwined in curriculum work.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
The sooner you recognize the links between
curriculum and pedagogy and your diversity work,
the further ahead you’ll be in creating curriculum that
is about
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
high expectations and high standards, thoughtful assessment, and more
meaningful and engaging feedback for every
student.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
IT’S HARD FOR EVERYONE
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
A tightly focused and mission-driven approach to curriculum and pedagogy is in some conflict with the
traditional autonomy afforded independent
school teachers.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
You need to be up front about this or risk a
relatively high level of attrition—they won’t
necessarily go away mad, but they may feel the “urge for going” a bit
more strongly.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
FIRST THINGS FIRST
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
Build in accountability for progress from the outset; don’t enable resisters or opters-out. Somebody may have to play the
heavy.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
Address the hardest issues first—go straight at ’em. Address the issue of depth versus breadth, of
coverage, of standardized curricula and testing at
the outset.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
Beware of overload. Do a few things well, and
contain strategic goal-mongering to a do-able
level.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
STRUCTURE AND RESOURCES
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
Creating an administrative structure that mirrors
strategic goals related to curriculum reform is much
harder than you might think but a very important
idea.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
You need buy in from your sales force: admission and college counseling. Make sure development “gets
it.” The more experienced they are, the harder it may be for them to promote a “different” kind of school.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
Look at your resources: people, space, time. In case you didn’t already know it, TIME is of the
essence
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
Start with broad-based and comprehensive
discussion and training. Everyone must be equally engaged in the learning and in the process from
the beginning.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
Then develop structures that allow individuals to concentrate on specific ideas in small, focused,
and ongoing professional development structures.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
Protected time for discussion and
development is great, but awfully hard to find. Make
it possible for departments or other
affinity groups to retreat for a day or an afternoon.
Hire a permanent substitute.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
Make sure that your ongoing professional
development plan—and your system of
professional evaluation—is based on the goals of
your reform program, and on your mission.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
AGENTS OF CHANGE
(The Good Guys)
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
Don’t let your agents of change get lonely,
because inevitably they will.
Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001
Identify and reward your agents of change, but
don’t celebrate them to the exclusion or perceived
undervaluation of the established educational
leadership.