What is the difference between a curriculum and a set of standards?
In recent years, this has become a confusing question.
Curriculum used to be the driving force in a classroom.
Today, standards are the driving force.
It is more important than ever to distinguish and understand.
Standards are not curriculum.
(Standards)
(Curriculum)
The illustration is one interpretation of the Teaching and Learning Cycle published on the Ohio Department of Education's Website.
A curriculum outlines what the teacher is expected to teach.
Standards are the minimal expectations students are expected to learn.
The curriculum is the content.
Standards are the expectations.
Teachers used to receive a curriculum and then set the standard.
Today, teachers receive a curriculum and the set standards.
Upon assessment, standards determine if the student met the learning expectations.
Teachers used to determine if the student met the standard expectations using grades.
Today, state assessments determine if the student has met the expectations.
Steve Denning's article, "The Single Best Idea for Reforming K-12 Education" made the point of "Respecting Goodhart's Law. The current focus on testing has tended to make test results the goal of the system, rather than a measure. The change in goal means recognizing that a test is only measure. Using tests as the goal infringes Goodhart’s Law: when measure becomes the goal, it ceases to be an effective measure."
So here is the question I am mulling, and I ask for your help...
Now that the Common Core State Standards are here, how can we use them for good measure in the classroom while respecting Goodhart's Law?
I welcome your thoughts.
1 comment:
To put some ideas on the table to find a way to answer your question..
Teachers need to come up with better and better ways to know if the appropriate learning is happening. To the extent that we don't the state will. For many state departments of education that means more or less relying on folks like Pearson et al to fill that need. To be clear I do not blame Pearson as long as public state based departments of education take too long to develop their own methods of assessing how students are progressing towards meeting or not meeting standards.
it's pretty clear that competence based evaluations are in the process of replacing seat time and content based tests. In my view it is an uber trend. Teachers have the opportunity and imo the responsiblity of increasing the speed of this uber trend in the States.
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