The Curriculum Bridge

This comprehensive resource provides teachers with solid guidelines for choosing standards and designing a curriculum that balances the needs of students with federal mandates.

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