With the Language Arts Adoption Curriculum Alignment for grades 9-12 taking effect this year, the Seattle Public Schools District aims to close the achievement gap by upgrading curriculum to college-ready standards and reducing the amount of site-based decisions that fragmented the district for years, said a school district spokesman.
"Previously we had a lot of site-based decision making taking place at each of our schools. There wasn't a consistent district-wide set of standards or content that was being taught," said spokesman David Tucker. "If you don't have an aligned curriculum then you're going to have kids with different skill sets and different content knowledge."
Site-based decisions meant different texts for the same course at different schools, meaning teachers could not collaborate on lesson plans or strategies. The individualistic system also enabled achievement gaps to sprout throughout the district.
According to Kathleen Vasquez, High School Language Arts Adoption Coordinator, 46 percent of the district's high-school graduates who enter into community or technical colleges have to take a remedial core class. The realignment targets the site-based management that Vasquez explained as "schools kind of operating like their own city with their own mayor, creating their own curriculum, choosing their own books."
Standardization, without micro-management?
The new curriculum synchronizes standards across the district, not day-to-day lesson plans - an important distinction for wary teachers.
"We're not saying on Sept. 22 you're going to be doing this. We're saying here's what all students in ninth-grade language arts should know and be able to do," Vasquez said. "We're not saying we're selecting all the books for you, we're saying here is the minimum requirement across the district for all kids and then there's room to add to that."
Currently, the core booklist is still being developed. But at this point, an example of how the realignment works is that at least one book per semester for the languages arts classes would have to be a core novel that all teachers use.
Though standardizing generally raises red flags, a standardization of core curriculum to the College Board Standards for College Success ideally means students - no matter which school they attend - graduate with the same knowledge-base. Until this year, disciplines were aligned to minimum state and national standards.
Establishing
educational equity
"We want every child in every school to graduate with the same high education," Tucker said. "We don't want to have disparities with standards in the district and in skill sets of students that graduate."
Furthermore, the realignment does not affect the curriculum of international baccalaureate or advanced placement programs, which already operate with program-specific college-ready standards. And the realignment does not mean the elimination of specialty classes - like Shakespearean literature or poetry.
"What we're talking about right now are core courses we believe students should have access to from grades 9-12 but we absolutely encourage schools to maintain electives," Vasquez said.
And the district is looking at ways an elective course can qualify as a core replacement, Vasquez added. There may be potential for elective classes to fill the same requirements, as long as they uphold the college-ready standards of the district.
A 'work in progress'
As the teachers and students adjust to an aligned curriculum, debate continues on some aspects, particularly the Common Assessments. The SPS Web site states this portion of the alignment, "In addition to measuring student progress, guiding teachers' instruction, and focusing student learning, common assessments will also inform building improvement and district-wide decisions pertaining to curriculum and instruction."
"That is a work in a progress," Vasquez said. "We're really not ready to even get there yet. What we need to do now is really have clarity around the standards and how we get there. That's this year's bulk of work. Then the following year we can really look at what those assessments will look like."
While this year's focus addresses high school curriculum, this type of realignment will eventually trickle down to middle and elementary schools - further establishing a horizontal and vertical alignment. Not only will classes taught in the district maintain the same standards, but preceding classes will also align to those standards so students would hypothetically receive the necessary preparations to successfully matriculate and perform at the next level.
"The purpose is to ensure that all students across the district have access to a rigorous curriculum and, we're very interested in closing that achievement gap so that's our purpose when we talk about an aligned curriculum," Vasquez said. "It's to ensure equity of access to a rigorous curriculum that enables students to be successful in college careers and life."
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