College- and career-readiness skills can easily get lost if you don't have a clear school-wide plan for teaching them. While curriculum in schools is primarily meant to ready students for college and career skills, ensuring those skills actually transfer is another story. Andrew Miller lays out a system for teaching and assessing key…

When state leaders and national partners in the development of the Next Generation Science Standards met to consider implementation strategies, states and school districts wanted to know which materials were aligned to the new standards. The answer from the developers was short but not sweet: You won't find much now, and it's going to…

The concept of personalization in learning appeals to many K-12 teachers and students weary of regimented, one-size-fits-all instruction. The in-vogue term personalization is used to refer to many different learning strategies and structures--from personal learning plans to greater student voice. Differentiation expert Carol Ann Tomlinson is…

Forty-six states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Department of Defense schools have adopted the Common Core State Standards. Adoption was only the first step. Ensuring that the standards will improve student learning will require new assessments, curriculums, instructional materials and resources, and professional development.…

Eugene (Oregon) Public Schools want to replace the traditional content-driven curriculum with a general concepts-based curriculum stressing the relationships among ideas. To help district educators understand the new model, a coin metaphor describing the two interlocking areas of curriculum (learning core conceptual knowledge and strategic…

The National Curriculum is perhaps the most important element of the United Kingdom's Education Reform Act of 1988. Although there are many challenges in describing and assessing the skills, knowledge, and understanding that each child is expected to develop, the national curriculum's early implementation has won wide support. (MLH)

Describes one district's struggle to implement Maine's Common Core of Learning, model of education that blurred subject area lines and moved toward integrated framework for curriculum and instruction. Common Core presented a set of outcomes divided into four interdisciplinary categories: human record, reasoning and problem solving, communication,…

The "Passages" program is a curriculum that integrates heart, spirit, and community with strong academics. The program inspires feelings of connectedness in teenagers by addressing their unspoken needs: the search for meaning and purpose, longing for silence and solitude, urge for transcendence, hunger for joy and delight, creative…

What would happen if schools offered all students the same challenges and opportunities that some schools now offer only their "best" students? The Southern Regional Education Board addressed that question in 1987, when it developed the High Schools That Work Model. Blending challenging college-preparatory content with modern vocational and…

Since 1990, when a Fort Meyers (Florida) school became the nation's first core-knowledge site, over 50 other schools have taken pioneering steps to teach this curriculum. Core-knowledge guidelines include school-community understanding, acceptance, and involvement; alignment of curriculum with local and state guidelines; and collaboration and…

As the limited success of Boston Public Schools' Compact shows, school-business partnerships need to consider the time interval between investment and results. Several partnerships focusing on particular portions of the curriculum have had remarkable effects. A sidebar provides general guidelines for establishing school-business partnerships.…

One fifth-grade teacher feels it is unfair if some students learn one thing, while others learn something else. Teachers must agree on some core of specific content and resolve to teach it at appropriate levels. Core Knowledge Sequence for grades 1-6 provides model of grade-by-grade content including literature, U.S. and world civilization,…

The Aurora Public School System (Colorado) has devised a plan to ensure implementation of the adopted curriculum. By developing a program monitoring process and incorporating it in a handbook, staff can rate their behavior and use "green flags" or "red alerts" to characterize subject area strengths and deficiencies. (MLH)

A principal of a charter school in Colorado Springs, Colorado, recounts the triumphs and pitfalls of the school's first year. The school charter lacked a clear-cut avenue for making changes. Intending to create a parent-run school, the founding board (themselves parents) made drastic curricular changes without consulting other parents. Passionate…

Change began in Saint Charles (Illinois) School District with a few teachers implementing new ideas in their own classrooms. Organized change began as principals and other administrators encouraged teachers to learn and grow. While teachers were developing process writing and whole-language programs, district embraced systemic change by entrusting…