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The Curriculum Bridge
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The Curriculum Bridge
From Standards to Actual Classroom Practice

Third Edition
Edited by:


January 2009 | 248 pages | Corwin

"Comprehensive in scope, this book thoroughly lays out what a classroom teacher or curriculum developer needs to do to create an effective curriculum that can then be adapted into actual classroom instruction."
—Stephen D. Shepperd, Principal
Sunnyside Elementary School, Kellogg, ID

Translate standards into classroom curriculum that fulfills accountability requirements and meets students' learning needs!

Meeting the individual needs of students and the requirements of federal mandates is a challenge that educators face every day. This third edition of an award-winning book focuses on curriculum, content standards, teaching, and testing and provides teachers with solid guidelines for best practices.

In this detailed, comprehensive guide, Pearl Gold Solomon discusses the bridge between the written and the taught curriculum and gives readers a big-picture overview of how the current political environment and public opinion affect standards and curriculum. The book offers:

  • An up-to-date review of educational research, including how learning takes place
  • Ways to connect curriculum and standards to best teaching practices
  • Information on traditional, alternative, and high-stakes assessments
  • Expanded coverage of how best to plan and implement professional development

This information-rich resource is an indispensable tool for all educators who want to make informed and meaningful decisions to promote standards-based instruction, improve student outcomes, and create the best possible environments for learning.


 
Preface to the Third Edition
Who Should Read This Book

 
What This Book Is About

 
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Author
 
1. Why Standards and Tests Are on the Front Page
About This Chapter

 
At the Top of the Political Agenda: Education

 
Why the Focus on Standards and Tests?

 
The No Child Left Behind Legislation

 
Economic Influences and Some Words of Caution

 
The Media Influence Opinions on Standards

 
The Origins of the Current Wave of Public Concern

 
Initial Responses of the Educational Community

 
Government Calls for Reform

 
Initial Responses to the Calls for Reform

 
Standards in Other Countries

 
A Summary: Systemic Change, Restructuring, and Reform

 
Notes

 
 
2. Who Chooses the Curriculum? Are Standards and Tests Necessary?
About This Chapter

 
Some Charismatic Differences of Opinion

 
The Public Concerns, Opinions, and Influences

 
Teachers and Teacher Organizations Respond

 
University Professors and Researchers Respond

 
Forms of Curriculum Control

 
Nongovernment Influences on Curriculum

 
Getting Ready to Design Curriculum

 
Notes

 
 
3. About How Learning Happens
About This Chapter

 
Educational Philosophy: Piaget and Constructivism

 
Compromise

 
The Changing Nature of the Concept of Intelligence

 
Cognition, Metacognition, and Goals: Connections to Practice

 
Interest

 
Real Experiences and Technology in the Instructional Process

 
Connecting Research to Practice: Summary Hypotheses

 
Notes

 
 
4. Choosing Standards and ?Designing Them Down?
About This Chapter

 
The Curriculum Committee Meets

 
A Bit of History

 
Defining Standards in New Terms

 
Curriculum Enactment

 
 
5. Constructing Creative Classrooms
About This Chapter?Dealing With the Differences

 
Organizing the Environment

 
The Actors: The Performers and Their Director

 
The Script: The Overall Plot

 
Notes

 
 
6. How Are We Doing? Measuring Success
About This Chapter

 
Standards and Their Measures

 
The Purposes of Measures or Assessments

 
A History of Assessment Forms

 
The Quality and Consequences of High-Stakes Assessments

 
Improving HSSB Tests

 
Where Should Meg, April, and Brad Begin?

 
Challenge 1: Establishing Validity and Testing Reliability

 
Challenge 2: Tasks or Performances Versus Concepts

 
Challenge 3: Writing Rubrics

 
Challenge 4: Disaggregating the Assessment Results

 
Challenge 5: Levels of Performance, Grading

 
Challenge 6: Sharing Results With Students, Parents, and the Community

 
Notes

 
 
7. Where Do We Go From Here?
About This Chapter

 
Where Will the Leadership for Needed Change Come From?

 
Professional Development for Teachers

 
Using Technology and Its Networks for Sharing Curriculum and Research

 
Technology for Communicating With Our Public

 
Notes

 
 
References
 
Index

"This book provides good, practical suggestions and ideas, and shows their connections to educational research."

Gary Schumacher, Superintendent
Monona Grove School District, WI

"Comprehensive in scope, this book thoroughly lays out what a classroom teacher or curriculum developer needs to do to create an effective curriculum that can then be adapted into actual classroom instruction."

Stephen D. Shepperd, Principal
Sunnyside Elementary School, Kellogg, ID

Contents of book did not clearly align with curriculum leadership course. The text is well written, but would be better suited for master level course.

Patrick Jenlink
Secondary Leadership Educ Dept, Stephen F Austin State University
May 11, 2013
Key features
  • Updated edition of Choice award-winning book.
  • Connects curriculum and standards to best teaching practices.
  • Covers traditional, alternative, and high-stakes assessments.
  • Strong potential for course adoptions and in-service workshops.

The third edition of The Curriculum Bridge begins its history of the status of American education with George W. Bush's 2008 "State of the Union" address, an event that took place seven years later than the onset of NCLB in 2001, the period of time that began the second edition. The new edition then looks back at the events of the previous three decades as they relate to the many current and historical influences on the schools of America. It also introduces some international comparisons. An intensive new update on the implementation of NCLB legislation is included. The pros and cons of federally mandated actions and their attached assessments are presented from the different viewpoints of teachers, researchers and the public. Descriptions of the impact of changes in the economy and an expanded media are also elaborated

The new edition presents emerging ideas of educational philosophy and the rapidly expanding findings of cognitive and neuroscience research. It delves deeply into the tools and findings of brain function research and how they may affect the science of teaching -- the theories of learning, and the practices that incorporate them. The specific connections of the research findings to the standards of curriculum as they are enacted in classroom practice are presented within the context of the curriculum products of agencies such as NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics), the National Research Council, and the prescriptions of the states of California, Connecticut and Michigan. Precise examples of curriculum design in the current terms of content and performance standards are given. The need for explicit knowledge of embedded concepts and the frustration of teachers with the disparities and language of standards issued by the different agencies are also discussed.

The chapter on assessment in this edition expands on the methods of constructing formats and items that measure student knowledge of the matching curriculum. It also offers updated results on the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) with comparisons to state test results. It reports on the reactions of teachers and the public to high-stakes tests as well as on their accomplishments and deficiencies including the tendency to "teach to the test." The benefits of disaggregating results and "value added" analyses are also addressed. The final chapter discusses the recent call for applications of test results to measures of teacher quality and the extensions and evaluations of research methods, including mixed-method approaches that combine quantitative and qualitative data.

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