District, campus staffs share responsibility for curriculum

State academic standards set expectations for what students should learn in each subject and grade level, but it's up to educators to decide what to teach first and how to organize the standards into units of study.

The four largest districts in Benton and Washington counties have varying approaches for planning curriculum. The Fayetteville School District is shifting more responsibility for coordinating curriculum from the district level to the campus level for the 2015-16 school year.

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Bentonville School District, 15,500 students

Fayetteville School District, 9,500 students

Rogers School District, 15,000

Springdale School District, 21,100

Source: Arkansas Department of Education

Formal systems for planning, implementing and evaluating curriculum developed in larger school districts in response to laws that require schools to be graded on the performance of students against academic standards set by states, said Ed Bengston, an assistant professor in educational leadership at the University of Arkansas.

"Schools being held accountable for what kids learn has a direct link to their curriculum," Bengston said. "They felt a need to pay a much higher level of attention to what was taught in their schools."

Some school districts rely on teachers to manage and implement curriculum, Bengston said. Others employ curriculum coordinators who work in administration to keep track of changes in state and federal policy and work with campuses to adjust curriculum in response. Still others have a hybrid system involving teachers and central office staff.

No matter which approach a district follows, effective systems for managing curriculum give teachers a voice in the decision-making process, he said.

"Teachers are the lynch pin in terms of quality of curriculum in schools," Bengston said. "Teachers can be very sensitive to being told this is what you're going to teach and this is how you're going to teach it. For that reason, it's important to have teacher involvement."

About six years ago, a curriculum management audit found Fayetteville Public Schools lacking in providing direction for curriculum and instruction, said Kay Jacoby, the district's executive director of curriculum, instruction, assessment and accountability.

Former Superintendent Vicki Thomas hired Jacoby in the spring of 2011 and asked her to lead the district in developing curriculum in every subject and grade while the district prepared to implement new state standards in literacy and math.

The district had curriculum directors for English and for social studies and added directors of math and science. The directors worked with teachers serving on curriculum committees to map out when standards would be taught and to plan units of study, Jacoby said. Their work was shared across the district.

However, Superintendent Paul Hewitt, hired for the 2014-15 school year, decided to shift more responsibility for curriculum planning out of district offices and into campuses for the 2015-16 school year.

The changes mean the department will not have full-time curriculum directors working under Jacoby. Instead, the district will have part-time specialists in English and social studies, with one of the two part-time social studies specialists also teaching two classes at Fayetteville High School.

The math director will teach part-time and also will be a high school math coach. Science curriculum management will be the responsibility of a district team of 15 administrators and teachers, instead of a director, Jacoby said.

Instructional facilitators will help campuses work through any problems with curriculum, Jacoby said. The district staff will be available for additional support as needed.

Other area districts have staff at the administration and campus levels who share responsibilities for developing, implementing and evaluating curriculum.

In Springdale, a group of 20 "teachers on special assignment" work under the district administration to write curriculum, said Megan Witonski, assistant superintendent for innovation and accountability. The teachers on special assignment create year-at-a-glance guides for teachers to use in their classrooms. They train campus-based instructional facilitators on the curriculum. The instructional facilitators assist classroom teachers with learning the best strategies for teaching.

"Teachers ultimately have the freedom to determine how to meet the standards for individual student needs in the classroom," Witonski said.

In Rogers, decisions about curriculum are not made by individual schools but as a district, said Virginia Abernathy, assistant superintendent for elementary curriculum and instruction.

District administrators involve teams composed of curriculum specialists from the administration, academic facilitators who work with schools and one or two teachers representatives from each campus. Teachers follow the same curriculum for their grade level or subject. The district provides teachers with sample lessons, but as long as they teach the same standards, teachers have the option to use those lessons or write their own, Abernathy said.

"We are a school system not a system of schools," Abernathy said. "Whoever attends a Rogers school, we can assure you you are getting a quality education and the same curriculum no matter which one of our schools you attend."

Curriculum specialists for the district work directly with campus-based academic facilitators, Abernathy said. The academic facilitators work with teachers.

A collaborative model of curriculum development is in place in Bentonville Public Schools, said Paul Stolt, spokesman. Individual schools and teams of teachers plan units of instruction aligned to state standards under the guidance of curriculum specialists from administration, campus-based instructional coaches and building principals.

"Our professional educators in district classrooms know their students best and should be central to the process of curriculum development," Stolt said.

Bentonville has two executive directors of instruction, one for prekindergarten through sixth grade and one for seventh- through 12th grade, who work to make sure the district follows state requirements for curriculum and instruction and who work with building principals to implement curriculum, Stolt said.

The district also employs two elementary specialists for math and two elementary specialists for literacy. The district has one specialist for literacy, math and social studies and two specialists for science for both the fifth- through eighth grades, and a similar group for the ninth through 12th grades.

NW News on 07/05/2015

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