Leading Curriculum Development

by Jon W. Wiles

Overview

Develop a curriculum that can transform an ordinary school into a school of excellence!

This resource introduces school leaders to dynamic curriculum leadership and a curriculum development process that leads to highly successful school programs. The author demonstrates how administrators can adapt curriculum to meet their school’s changing needs, incorporate emerging technologies, and reflect new and creative ways of thinking about education. The book walks educational leaders through the curriculum development process, showing them how to:

• Create a school curriculum team
• Establish a regular curriculum cycle of analysis, design, implementation, and evaluation
• Develop a path for curriculum improvement

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412961417
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	10/23/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Jon Wiles is a highly experienced educator who has provided curriculum leadership to schools and educational agencies for over thirty years. His specialty is the creation and implementation of curriculum plans. Wiles’s work as an educational consultant has taken him to hundreds of agencies in more than forty states and a dozen foreign nations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Wiles is the author or coauthor of twelve widely used books addressing curriculum and educational leadership. His text, Curriculum Development: A Guide to Practice (Seventh Edition), has been used for nearly thirty years in colleges and universities throughout the world to train curriculum leaders. Other areas of publication by Wiles include teacher training, administration, school supervision, theory of change, politics of education, middle grades education, and technology.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
About the Author
Preface
List of Figures
1. Defining Effective Curriculum Leadership
What Is Curriculum?
Curriculum is the Essential Function
Dynamic Curriculum Leadership
School Leaders Must Also Be Curriculum Leaders
The Leader as Helper and Guide
Accepting the Challenge of Curriculum Leadership
Summary
End Notes
2. Basic Tasks of Curriculum Leadership
Defining the Program
Collarborating for Success
Providing the Path
Coordinating Activity
The Leader's Role
Summary
End Notes
3. Making Curriculum Purposeful
Finding Your School Philosophy
Techniques for Finding Consensus
If-Then Logic
The Role of Standards and Benchmarks
Clarifying Goals and Objectives
Pre-Assessing School Capacity
Establishing a Destination
Validation as a Critical Element
Summary
Sample Problems and Leader Actions
End Notes
4. Building the School Curriculum Team
Selecting the Team
Using Committees to Activate Change
Small Groups
Conducting Meetings
Conferencing
Other Methods of Effective Communication
Leadership Style and Climate Formation
Achieving Consensus for School Improvement
Summary
Sample Problems and Leader Actions
End Notes
5. Constructing the Path for Curriculum Improvement
Visioning
Clarifying the Steps
The Use of Feedback in Curriculum Work
Management and Time-Dating Goals
Standards as Boundaries, Not Goals
Summary
Sample Problems and Leader Actions
End Notes
6. Detailed Planning to Implement Change
Curriculum Mapping
Alignment Criteria
Standards in the Curriculum
An Emerging Blueprint for School Improvement
Planning Tools That Empower
Summary
Sample Problems and Leader Actions
End Notes
7. Curriculum Improvement Means Staff Development
Teachers as the Critical Ingedient
Why Many Teachers Dislike Staff Development
Preferred Staff Development Designs
Assessing Staff Development Efforts
A Word About Adult Learners
Curriculum as the Rationale for Staff Development
Summary
Sample Problems and Leader Actions
End Notes
8. Closing the Circle Through Evaluation
General Functions
A Generic Design
Four Purposes of Evaluation
Eight Areas for Study
Using Technology in Evaluation
Summary
Sample Problems and Leader Actions
End Notes
9. Coordinating Successful Curriculum Work
Some Reasons for Curriculum Failure
The Elements of a Comprehensive Plan
We're All in This Together
Planning Tools
Reporting to the Board and Superintendent
Timing Is Everything in School Improvement
Program Evaluation and Review
A Bath Tub Filling Up
Boosters That Can Accelerate Change
Summary
Sample Problems and Leader Actions
End Notes
Resource A. Reproducible Planning Sheets
Resource B. Standard Curriculum Planning Resources
Resource C. Curriculum Resources Sites on the Internet
Resource D. Recommended Resource for Keeping Up-to-Date
Resource E. Glossary of Terms
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

"A timely addition to the field of school improvement. The author creates a blueprint of easy-to-apply ideas and strategies that every school leader will find accessible and useful. "

Lyndon Oswald

"A book that every practitioner should own. The author has managed to describe the complex process of curriculum development in plain English."--John Lundt, Professor of Educational Leadership (5/6/2008 12:00:00 AM)

"A timely addition to the field of school improvement. The author creates a blueprint of easy-to-apply ideas and strategies that every school leader will find accessible and useful."--Lyndon Oswald, Principal (7/7/2008 12:00:00 AM)

From the Publisher

"A book that every practitioner should own. The author has managed to describe the complex process of curriculum development in plain English. "

John Lundt