Deciding What to Teach and Test: Developing, Aligning, and Leading the Curriculum / Edition 3

by Fenwick W. English

Overview

Focusing on curriculum leadership and closing the achievement gap, this influential book is updated with new insights on developing and aligning curriculum in a standards-based environment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412960137
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	06/07/2010
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	152
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Fenwick W. English (Ph.D.) is the R. Wendell Eaves Senior Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a position he has held since 2001. As a scholar/practitioner he has held positions as a school principal and superintendent of schools in California and New York and as a department chair, dean, and vice-chancellor of academic affairs at universities in Ohio and Indiana. He is the former President of the University Council of Educational Administration (UCEA) and of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA). His research has been reported in national and international academic forums. He edited the 2006 SAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Leadership and Administration, the 2009 SAGE Library of Educational Thought and Practice: Educational Leadership and Administration; and the 2011 SAGE Handbook of Educational Leadership (2nd Ed.). In 2013, he received the Living Legend Award from NCPEA for his lifetime contribution to the field of educational leadership.

Table of Contents

Preface: America's Continuing Educational Canterbury Tales vii

Acknowledgments xi

About the Author xiii

Introduction to the Third Edition 1

1 The Function of Curriculum in Schools 5

1.1 What is Curriculum? 9

1.2 Curriculum Design and Delivery 11

1.3 Curriculum Coordination and Articulation 12

1.4 Combining Design and Delivery Issues in Schools 14

1.5 Formal, Informal, and the Hidden Curriculum 15

1.6 Curriculum and the Cultural Arbitrary 18

1.7 Conventional Practices and Complaints About Curriculum 20

1.8 The Necessary Requirements of an Imperfect Curriculum 33

1.9 A Clarifying Model of the Critical Curricular Relationships and Terms 36

2 A Template for Curriculum Construction 39

2.1 The Traditional View of Developing Curriculum 39

2.2 Using a Needs Assessment to Develop a Curricular Framework 49

2.3 Constructing Curriculum With Gap Data 55

2.4 Constructing "User Friendly" Curriculum Work Plans 56

2.5 Moving From Curriculum Content to Work Tasks 60

2.6 Constructing "User Friendly" Curriculum Guides 63

2.7 Essential Elements in Curriculum Guides 64

2.8 Setting Content Priorities and Expressing Time Values 68

2.9 A Word About Sequence and Stress 73

2.10 A Recommended Curriculum Guide Format 74

3 Aligning the Curriculum 77

3.1 The Process of Alignment by Frontloading 78

3.2 The Process of Alignment via Backloading 84

3.3 How to Do Alignment 97

3.4 Other Issues in the Alignment Procedure 103

4 The Challenge of Curriculum Leadership in the Teaching and Testing Nexus 105

4.1 Considering the Full Responsibility for Curriculum Leadership 107

4.2 Who Benefits From the Perpetuation of the Cultural Capital Embraced by State Imposed Accountability Models? 109

4.3 Avoiding Deficit Mindsets, Models, and Cultural Marginalization of Others 111

4.4 Not All Data are Valuable or Relevant 113

4.5 Avoiding Outmoded Management Models 119

4.6 Understanding the Drawbacks of Top-Down Supervisory Approaches 120

4.7 The Nexus of Curriculum Leadership 122

4.8 Some Concluding Thoughts 124

Glossary of Terms 127

References 135

Index 147

Editorial Reviews

For educators who want students and schools to be successful, this book provides a clear and proven process to accomplish this goal. It is succinct, yet packed with what’s really important to create, develop, assess, and lead curriculum. As a university professor of educational leadership, Deciding What to Teach and Test remains my text of choice for graduate students.

Jane Mc Donald

Praise for the Second Edition:
“The strengths in this book are characteristic of all of English's works. The language is easy to follow, the text is set up in logical development by chapters, and the focus of his work is constant. He never strays from the topic or goes off on a tangent. Most important, his information is practical, doable, and sensible. The book is easy for practitioners, teachers, administrators, and those involved in the daily work of schools to adapt to their needs and make it work for them.

Salvatore F. Luzio

This book makes the reader think deeply about the role of curriculum planning and its connection to assessment in this age of accountability.

J. Jeannette Lovern

"For educators who want students and schools to be successful, this book provides a clear and proven process to accomplish this goal. It is succinct, yet packed with what's really important to create, develop, assess, and lead curriculum. As a university professor of educational leadership, Deciding What to Teach and Test remains my text of choice for graduate students."--Jane McDonald, Education Consultant in Leadership Development (2/12/2010 12:00:00 AM)

"This book makes the reader think deeply about the role of curriculum planning and its connection to assessment in this age of accountability."--J. Jeannette Lovern, Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction (2/12/2010 12:00:00 AM)

Praise for the Second Edition:
"The strengths in this book are characteristic of all of English′s works. The language is easy to follow, the text is set up in logical development by chapters, and the focus of his work is constant. He never strays from the topic or goes off on a tangent. Most important, his information is practical, doable, and sensible. The book is easy for practitioners, teachers, administrators, and those involved in the daily work of schools to adapt to their needs and make it work for them."--Salvatore F. Luzio, Sr., Adjunct Professor of Graduate Education (2/16/2010 12:00:00 AM)

From the Publisher

“For educators who want students and schools to be successful, this book provides a clear and proven process to accomplish this goal. It is succinct, yet packed with what’s really important to create, develop, assess, and lead curriculum. As a university professor of educational leadership, Deciding What to Teach and Test remains my text of choice for graduate students.”

Jane McDonald