The Albert Shanker Institute has issued a “Call for Common Content.” The proposal would go beyond the academic standards adopted by all but 9 states to seek more specific details regarding the knowledge, skills and understandings required of students to meet each standard. Specifically, the “Call” states, “Attaining the goals provided by these standards requires a clear road map in the form of rich, common curriculum content, along with resources to support successfully teaching all students to mastery. Shared curriculum in the core academic subjects would give shape and substance to the standards, and provide common ground for the creation of coherent, high-quality instructional supports — especially texts and other materials, assessments, and teacher training.”
Common core curriculum guides would be designed to account for 50-60% of a school’s available academic time, leaving the other portion available for local discretion.
The statement has been signed by dozens of educators, advocates, policymakers, researchers and scholars from across the educational and political spectrum. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, urged broad support and dissemination for the statement, “A Call for Common Content”. “We are arguing for the tools and materials that teachers need,” she said. “With rich, sequential common curricula, amplified by state and local content-and with teacher preparation, classroom materials, student assessments, teacher development, and teacher evaluation all aimed at the mastery of that content-we can finally build the kind of coherent system that supports the achievement of all learners; the kind of system enjoyed by the world’s highest performing nations.”
The statement makes clear that its signers are not urging states to use a single or a national curriculum. Rather, a number of different curricula could be developed-all aligned to the common standards and all of high quality.
All states must develop, or have access to, curricula that:
-lay out a clear and practical design for learning the disciplines that teachers can use to help students acquire the knowledge and skills they are expected to learn in core academic subjects;
-illuminate grade-level expectations and learning progressions for teaching and learning in a coherent and substantive manner;
-involve teachers and other learning experts in their development;
-fit available instructional time as well as leave adequate time for the inclusion of local content, and
-include sample lessons, examples of student work, and assessments that help teachers focus instruction and measure student outcomes.
Still, given the many, competing definitions that exist, the statement also makes clear that curricula does not mean “performance standards, textbook offerings, daily lesson plans, or rigid pedagogical prescriptions.”
To read the full statement, see the signatories or add your name, visit http://shankerinstitute.org/curriculum.html
