Lesson Learned from a Curriculum Change Process
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Lessons Learned/Gow/NAIS 2001 LESSONS LEARNED (Pay no heed if your interest is not in thoroughgoing reform) Peter Gow NAIS 2001
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 of Lesson Learned from a Curriculum Change Process
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.
