In the ongoing effort to improve instructional standards in our nation's urban public schools, the Council of the Great City Schools has released resources to help districts determine the quality and alignment of instructional materials at each grade level; to ensure that materials for English language learners are rigorous and aligned to district…

This practitioner brief is one in a series highlighting concrete ways that education leaders can increase educational equity by building supportive learning environments that meet all students' social and emotional needs. The introductory brief to this series suggests that changes at three levels of the education system are needed to promote…

As your school district undertakes the process of evaluating its K-12 reading program, literacy curriculum, or literacy instructional practices, this book will be your go-to resource. Pennell offers a step-by-step guide for educators, school leaders, or professional learning communities to evaluate high-quality instructional materials and…

This resource is a compilation of three documents that support the teaching of spelling in today's schools: a discussion of "Why Spelling Instruction Matters", a checklist for evaluating a spelling program, and tables of Common Core State Standards that are linked to spelling instruction. "Why Spelling Instruction Matters"…

There is a growing interest in health literacy and in developing curricula for health care providers and for the general public. However, developing curriculum without accompanying evaluation plans is like starting a race without a finish line, and current measures of health literacy are not up to the task of evaluating curriculum. This research…

Because communication has been determined to be an essential part of all subject areas, not just English classes, this curriculum guide recommends a method for integrating communication across the curriculum in Saskatchewan (Canada) schools, from kindergarten to grade 12. The introduction defines communication skills as essential learning in…

Designed to help today's educators apply to current problems the wisdom gained from more than five decades of experience with the core concept, this pamphlet sets forth basic underlying philosophy and useful guidelines to develop or refine core programs at any level of schooling. The introduction establishes the philosophical framework within…

Offers suggestions for types and content of curriculum guides as well as for curriculum use and evaluation. (Author/WD)

This book is for curriculum leaders at the state, district, and school levels who want specific guidelines about the recommended content of each field. Contributing authors were asked to address the following issues: standards; the influence of cognitive psychology, technology, and assessment on curriculum content; curriculum structure; current…

Addressed are the complexities of defining curriculum. Curriculum decision-making involves value judgments and distribution problems. Four principal considerations of systematic curriculum development include what to study, who is taught, how to teach, and the interrelationship between subject matters. (SI)

Curriculum development should be a comprehensive process requiring a broad-based view of the educational system and its place within society, thus necessitating the use of a systematic curriculum development model. Such a model is provided here. Three references are provided. (DCS)

Resisting the notion that there is a single English language arts curriculum that all schools can or should follow, this book focuses on processes for designing, implementing, and evaluating curriculums suited to the needs of individual schools and students. Part 1 of the book (The English Language Arts Curriculum in the 1990s), provides the…

These course specifications are based on and are an update of the 1981 Alberta Social Studies Curriculum. They are intended to: (1) identify the core content and objectives for the Grade 9 Social Studies Curriculum; and (2) present the core content and objectives in a form that helps to develop test items. Three major course objectives are…

From a practical, eclectic, and teacher-centered vantage point, this paper reviews previous attempts to classify curriculum development processes, proposes an analytic schema for examing such processes, and explicates an alternative process which has been found to be effective in working with teachers. First, critical distinctions are drawn…

This study presents a process used to assess the general education component of the undergraduate curriculum, focusing particularly on the components of the methodology that provided the data used to suggesting changes in the program. The study was undertaken at an urban institution with an undergraduate population of 6,000, and involved analysis…