Ensuring a coherent curriculum across grade levels is a key challenge for educational leaders. A coherent curriculum is one that is aligned with the standards, builds on prior knowledge, and supports student learning and achievement. In this article, you will learn some strategies to create and maintain a coherent curriculum in your school or district.
The first step to ensure a coherent curriculum is to analyze the standards that guide your instruction. You need to understand the scope and sequence of the skills and concepts that students are expected to master at each grade level. You also need to identify the gaps, overlaps, and redundancies that may exist in the standards. By doing this, you can ensure that your curriculum is aligned with the expectations and goals of your state or district.
To ensure a coherent curriculum across grades, employ strategies like curriculum mapping, defining learning progressions, and implementing a spiral curriculum. Foster interdisciplinary collaboration, establish shared assessment practices, and use consistent language. Additionally, invest in professional development, involve student voice, integrate technology, and conduct regular data analysis for continuous improvement. Adapt these strategies to your context, considering student age, developmental stage, learning goals, and available resources.
Create a scope and sequence that maps out the skills and content students should learn in each subject at each grade level. Align learning objectives vertically between grades. Provide time for cross-grade collaboration. Teachers can review expectations and standards, share planning, and ensure smooth transitions. Develop a shared vocabulary for discussing curriculum expectations across grades. Analyze assessment data vertically to identify learning gaps or repetition across grade levels. Adjust as needed. Provide professional development focused on vertical curriculum alignment, mapping standards, and understanding the full curriculum trajectory.
In addition to practices such as curriculum mapping, I think one of the most valuable ways to ensure a coherent curriculum is to provide time for educators to connect vertically. In doing so, they can both share their curricular priorities but also benefit from discussing concrete examples of what success looks like with a particular skill at that grade level and how they see it building on the previous year's focus and providing an effective staircase to the following grade level.
Here is a concept for the readers of chew on. If you are given the choice to develop your curriculum and map it across the grade levels in your jurisdiction or school would you jump on the opportunity or rather implement and use the already developed curriculum that are mandated. I fell in the latter group and not by choice. Being spoon fed is not my forte and l likened it to the hands being tied to one’s back. Creativity is out of the window making each grade level operating in silos. The concept although with good intentions lack imagination by catering to uniformity across the board.
The next step is to map the curriculum across grade levels. This means creating a visual representation of the content, skills, and assessments that are taught in each grade and subject. A curriculum map can help you see how the curriculum is organized, sequenced, and integrated. It can also help you identify the connections and transitions between grade levels and subjects. By mapping the curriculum, you can ensure that your curriculum is coherent and comprehensive.
The third step is to review the materials that you use to deliver the curriculum. These include the textbooks, resources, and technology that support your instruction. You need to evaluate the quality, relevance, and alignment of the materials with the standards and the curriculum map. You also need to consider the diversity, accessibility, and differentiation of the materials for your students. By reviewing the materials, you can ensure that your curriculum is effective and engaging.
The fourth step is to monitor the implementation of the curriculum in the classroom. This means observing, evaluating, and providing feedback on the instruction and assessment practices of your teachers. You need to ensure that the teachers are following the curriculum map, using the materials appropriately, and addressing the needs and interests of the students. You also need to collect and analyze data on student learning and achievement to measure the impact of the curriculum. By monitoring the implementation, you can ensure that your curriculum is consistent and responsive.
To ensure curriculum coherence across grade levels, in my experience, it routinely comes back to monitoring the implementation (assuming HQIMs have been adopted). Research, like that of John Hopkins University (2021), affirms positive outcomes when curricula are implemented with high levels of fidelity. In my own research, a major finding centered around the variability in curriculum implementation, with 86% of teachers agreeing that they often adapted lessons and 56% of teachers agreeing that they skipped lesson components altogether (Hines, Jones, & McClane, 2023). Recurrent and consistent/normed monitoring MUST happen to ensure the materials are used in the way in which they were proven effective.
The fifth step is to collaborate with stakeholders to improve the curriculum. These include the teachers, students, parents, and community members who are involved in or affected by the curriculum. You need to communicate the vision, goals, and expectations of the curriculum to the stakeholders. You also need to solicit their input, feedback, and suggestions on how to enhance the curriculum. By collaborating with stakeholders, you can ensure that your curriculum is relevant and responsive.
Obtaining meaningful input - Stakeholder feedback may be vague, unfocused, or not aligned to curriculum goals. Specific protocols and surveys need to be designed to glean useful insights. Relevance of input - Not all stakeholder suggestions may be developmentally appropriate or feasible to incorporate. Input needs filtering.
Es necesario desarrollar un plan de área robusto, en el que se definan los resultados esperados para cada grado. Este plan debe ser evaluado teniendo como insumos algunos instrumentos que permitan recolectar datos de diferentes fuentes, estudiantes, profesores, evaluaciones internas, evaluaciones externas, etc., de tal modo que cada profesor de cada grado pueda hacer una entrega curricular al profesor del grado siguiente, reconociendo entre los dos los avances y dificultades para tomar decisiones al respecto.
The sixth and final step is to revise the curriculum based on the data and feedback that you have collected. This means making adjustments, modifications, and improvements to the standards, map, materials, or implementation of the curriculum. You need to ensure that the changes are aligned with the best practices, research, and evidence in your field. You also need to document, communicate, and train the stakeholders on the changes. By revising the curriculum, you can ensure that your curriculum is updated and refined.
7. Professional Development: Offer professional development opportunities for teachers to stay updated on best practices, instructional strategies, and curriculum changes. This ensures that educators are well-equipped to implement a coherent curriculum effectively.
Let me start on the premise that curriculum being used in my Province were mandated by the government and for each grade levels. In our jurisdiction, what we the School Principals recommended was to have lead teachers established in each of the subject areas and form teams by subject areas. These team’s mandates were to meet during their released time and mesh the curriculum based upon the general outcomes, objectives and goals across the grades. The schools in the jurisdiction then came up with the assessment tools that were used to determine the effectiveness of our initiatives. We had the benchmarks and periodically administered ongoing assessments. We perfected curriculum across grades in our jurisdiction though with continuous tweaking