francis marion university - school of education

fmu center of excellence
itq grant proposal narrative

2. proposal narrative

c. description of activities

a fundamental tenet of the standards-based movement is that all students can meet challenging standards. this belief, however, will remain wishful thinking unless schools find ways to consistently create high quality learning opportunities and supportive environments that promote high levels of learning in every classroom every day (mac iver and balfanz, 1999). there is a belief that careful attention to classroom curriculum design — the sequencing and pacing of learning experiences — decreases the likelihood that there will be breakdowns in student learning (dean and bailey, 2003).

research suggests the following:

1. at the student level, motivation and opportunity to learn are increased when a common, core, standards-based curriculum that is coherent, consistent, and increasingly complex and challenging across grade levels is effectively implemented schoolwide (see, e.g., schmidt, 1998; lee, croninger, & smith, 1997; schmidt, mcknight, & raizen, 1997; darling-hammond, 1997; balfanz, 1997; balfanz, mac iver, & ryan, 1999).

2. each teacher's ability to create an environment that helps motivate students and gives them strong opportunities to learn is enhanced when:

a. teachers participate in sustained, focused, and curriculum-specific staff development that shows them how to successfully use new and more-demanding curriculum materials; enables them to learn effective instructional strategies; and provides them with the content knowledge they need (research advisory committee, 1998; cohen, wilson, & hill, 1997; ball & cohen, 1995; chubb, 1997; darling-hammond & mclaughlin, 1995)

b. teachers have support and some freedom to customize and localize the organization of teaching, instruction, and curriculum (clark & clark, 1997; national foundation for the improvement of education, 1995, 1996; lampert & eshelman, 1995; little, 1993; lemahieu & sterling, 1991)

3. each school's ability to create an environment in which all students and teachers can teach and learn at high levels is enhanced when there is a school-wide commitment to help students become proficient and meet standards (national forum to accelerate middle grades reform, 1998; schools to watch committee, 1998; palmaffy, 1998; wilson & corbett, 1999).

solid research exists on what instruction should look like, especially in low-income schools. cited frequently are newmann’s and wehlage’s findings for the center on organization and restructuring of schools that describe an “authentic pedagogy” which creates higher levels of achievement, especially in low-income or high-minority schools.

the standards for an authentic pedagogy include:

• higher-order thinking: students manipulate information and ideas by synthesizing, generalizing, explaining or arriving at conclusions that produce new meaning and understandings for them (the opposite of lecturing, worksheets and textbook-dependent teaching). studies of title 1 confirm this finding. they show that low-performing students respond better to more challenging work, but that teachers in title 1 schools tend to rely on traditional forms of teaching and lower-level resources.

• deep knowledge: instruction addresses central ideas of a topic thoroughly enough to help students explore connections and relationships and arrive eventually at a more complex understanding.

• substantive conversation: students engage in extended conversations with the teacher or their peers about the subject matter in a way that builds an improved and shared understanding of ideas or topics (newmann and wehlage, 1995).

• connections to the world beyond the classroom: students make connections between the knowledge they are acquiring and either public problems or personal experiences.

the work of developing a hierarchy of cognitive skills was advanced in 1956 when dr. benjamin bloom headed a group of educational psychologists to develop a classification of levels of intellectual behavior important in learning. during the 1990’s a new group of cognitive psychologists, led by dr. lorin anderson (a former student of bloom’s), updated the taxonomy reflecting relevance to 21st century work (schultz, 2005).

the activities of the proposed project will meet the needs of the partnership and target population. the cited scientific research base provides evidence that all chosen approaches will be effective. the advisory committee has chosen to replicate a successful model developed by dr. lorin anderson to facilitate the design of standards-based instructional units. dr. anderson, in collaboration with teachers and administrators of spartanburg district two, developed social studies units during spring 2005. dr. anderson will be available to guide the proposed project beginning in the early fall of 2005 through to the completion of instructional units prepared for publication.

dr. anderson’s curriculum development strategies are grounded in the notion that instruction offered by a school entity must be based upon a written plan covering the following components: objectives; content (including materials, activities, and estimated instructional time to be devoted to achieving standards); the relationship between the objectives of the unit and academic standards; and procedures for measurement of objectives. as teachers align their own classroom-embedded performance assessments to state standards, they are addressing state tests without sacrificing the curriculum, and time spent on it, to low-level learning.

the proposed project requires teams of three teachers per grade level (grades one through eight) to commit to a series of two-day immersion sessions over a period of seven months. each teacher will have committed a minimum of 123.5 hours to the development and refinement of instructional units by the end of the first year of this project. a total of 24 teachers will engage in project activities. the purpose of the immersion sessions is to learn the conceptual framework for developing high-quality instructional units, which are standards-based and highly effective for teaching children of poverty. teachers working on the units will be from three partner districts. they will share units with each other. teachers will return to their respective districts and schools and field-test their units with support from dr. anderson and center consulting faculty. the curriculum units will be reviewed by andrea keim, pat mohr, and james bryant from the s.c. department of education. their comments will be extremely useful in the final revision process.

fmu faculty members from the school of education committed to this project include: thomas sawyer (social studies), jackson f. lee (science), tracy meetze (math), and janey brandis (english/language arts). faculty members from the college of liberal arts include: larry e. nelson (department of social sciences), lisa a. pike (department of biology), william p. fox (department of mathematics), and matthew c. nelson (department of english, modern languages and philosophy).

through substantial contact hours (123.5 hours) and the classroom implementation of completed curriculum units, this project will impact change and have a profound influence on classroom and school practices. upon completion of field testing and final revisions, all teachers in partner districts will have access to the completed units through electronic and hard copy materials. during year two of the project, work will commence on the development of units for science (standards expected to be approved in january 2006). during year three, work will begin on math units (standards expected to be approved in january 2007). in general, the curriculum development process will be sequenced as follows:

outline of curriculum development strategy
click here to view outline in pdf format

curriculum development work will begin during the fall semester. each teacher will have access to a lap-top computer. all units will be word processed, not hand-written. finally, all units will be self-contained, that is, will include copies of all student handouts, assignments, and assessments. the first unit to be implemented will be the first unit taught during the spring semester. each teacher will stay in touch with other team members through the center’s interactive web site.