Purpose

The International Center for Leadership in Education designed the Curriculum Survey  to enable school districts to engage faculty and community in a serious discussion about a concern of most schools today – the overcrowded curriculum. The Survey helps districts identify the most essential curricular content in terms of the rigor and relevance needed to prepare students for post-school, real-world experiences. The Survey results have the potential to lead districts through a series of discussion points about the curriculum changes necessary to enable all students to achieve higher standards.   To date 20,000 plus participants have completed the survey in over 100 school districts across the nation.

Rationale

When everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. Traditionally, American schools have relied too heavily on presenting students with an abundance of knowledge-driven material. Teachers are always being asked to deliver more content. The extensive number of topics to be covered leaves little time to teach students how what they are learning is relevant to the world beyond school. Students, therefore, are not developing the process skills needed to apply their knowledge to practical situations and to succeed in today’s workplace. Schools need a way to differentiate between those topics that are essential and those that are nice to know. The Survey results can serve as a “road map” to guide a district through an efficient process that leads to improved instruction and assessment.  

Why include the community in completing the Survey

To determine what curriculum content is most essential in terms of real-world rigor and relevance, it is necessary to obtain input from the entire community. Educators and community members (including business and industry representatives) must jointly identify the content that is essential. Reaching out to constituents in this way creates awareness of the need for rigor and relevance throughout the community and promotes a sense of ownership and support for curriculum reform. 

Sources of the topics listed in the Survey

The topics compiled for each content area in the Survey were taken from professional exit standards as determined by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) as well as from various state standards available at the time. All topics have been reviewed by teams of teachers.  

Please remember that these findings are not intended to be used to eliminate low-rated topics from the curriculum. Rather, the results are intended to be a “point of departure” in discussing which English language arts, mathematics, and science topics are priorities and make the district aware of what the community as a whole views as the most essential skills and knowledge for high school graduates to have. Moreover, in most cases, the lowest-ranked topics can be used as part of instructional strategies to teach the content identified as higher priority.

Additional Information and the Survey Results  

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Analyzing Curriculum Survey Results

For additional Information on Curriculum Matrix and Sample State Specific Charts, visit: www.daleicle.org/cm.htm

Sponsored by the International Center for Leadership in Education

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