A history of a policy-level curriculum change in California

With the publication of A Nation at Risk (1983) educational reform has had a prominent place on the agenda of virtually every one of the sovereign states. As in many other states California focused much of its reform effort on the teaching of reading. In a political battle over the reading curriculum, California went from the English/Language Arts Framework of 1987, widely viewed as giving the state's imprimatur to whole language (an approach rooted in the learner's experience), to the English/Language Arts Frameworks (a more traditional or basic approach) of 1998 that called for the inclusion of phonemic awareness as the building block of reading instruction in all elementary schools. This study examined the historical record to determine the major forces behind this curriculum change. The results of this study are helpful to those who wish to better understand the relationship between political forces and curriculum change in the current age of educational reform. ^ This study utilized qualitative research methods and is presented as humanistic historical research (Landes & Tilly, 1971). The organizational framework for the study is taken from the work of M. Frances Klein (1991) which identifies seven different levels of curriculum decision-making. In this analysis particular attention was paid to the interaction of academic, formal, and societal levels, as the problem under consideration casts curriculum decision-making in the political realm. Three sources of information were used to provide the historical record. They include articles from popular newspapers and magazines, government documents, and interviews with individuals directly involved in the political process. ^ The results of this study demonstrate the power of societal forces over formal authority in making curriculum policy decisions. ^

Effect of the Florida A+ Plan on curriculum and instruction in Title I public elementary schools

The purpose of this research was to study the effect of the Florida A+ Plan accountability program on curriculum and instruction in four Title I public elementary schools in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system. It focused on the experiences of the school principals and the classroom teachers of the four schools as they related to curriculum and instruction. The study included an analysis of the school improvement plans in curriculum and instruction for each school during the school years 1998-2004. ^ The study was conducted in the format of interviews with the school principals and principal selected classroom teachers who taught third, fourth, or fifth grade during the first six years of the Florida A+ Plan. The analysis of the school improvement plans focused on the implementation of curriculum and instruction for each of the four schools. It focused on the goals and measurable objectives selected by each school to improve its instructional program in the academic subjects of reading, mathematics, writing, and science. ^ The findings indicated that under the pressure to improve their school grade on the Florida A+ Plan, each of the target schools, based on individual needs assessments, and restructured their instructional program each school year as documented in their school improvement plans. They altered their programs by analyzing student performance data to realign curriculum and instruction. The analysis of the interviews with the principals and the teachers showed that each school year they restructured their program to align it with the FCAT content. This realigning was a collaborative effort on the part of the administration and the instructional staff. ^

The use of curriculum modifications and instructional accommodations to provide access for middle school students with autism to the general curriculum

The number of students identified as having autism increased by 500% in the past 10 years (United States Government Accountability Office, 2005). All students with disabilities are required to be placed in least restrictive environments and to be given access to the general curriculum in the major subjects of math, reading, writing, and science as mandated by federal legislation such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) and No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2001). As a result of this legislation, an increasing number of students with autism are being educated in inclusive classrooms. Most studies on general education access and curriculum modifications and/or instructional accommodations center on students with intellectual disabilities (e.g. Soukup, Wehmeyer, Bashinski, & Boviard, 2007; Wehmeyer, Lattin, Lapp-Rincker, & Agran, 2003). Wehmeyer et al. (2003) and Soukup et al. (2007) found included students with intellectual disabilities had more access to the general curriculum than mostly self-contained students. This meant included students were more likely to be working on the general curriculum as mandated by NCLB than those in only self-contained classrooms. This study builds and expands the research of Wehmeyer et al., as well as Soukup et al., by examining how students with autism are given access to the general curriculum through curriculum modifications and instructional accommodations used by general education teachers in three schools. This investigation focused on nine inclusive classrooms for students with autism using a parallel mixed methods design (Newman, Newman, & Newman, 2011). Classroom observations using both an IEP related checklist and field notes, teacher interviews, an archival document review of the Individual Education Plan (IEP) for the selected students with autism were performed. Findings of this study were organized by interview questions and subsequent coding categories. Quantitative data were organized in a nominal scale. Participants asserted that their middle school students with autism functioned well in their classrooms, occasionally exhibiting behavioral differences. Most instructional accommodations on IEPs were being implemented by participants, and participants often provided additional instructional accommodations not mandated by the IEP. The majority of participants credited county workshops for their knowledge of instructional accommodations.

Students' Perceptions and Opinions of Unscientific Bias in Evolutionary Curriculum

This is a qualitative study with eighth-grade students assessing their views of bias within the evolution chapters of two Florida state-adopted texts. The students determined that a significant degree of bias exists. The texts fail to develop the scientific "habits-of-mind" as stated in the school district's "science as inquiry" competencies.

Changing Parental Perceptions of Math and Science Curriculum Through Hands-on Workshops

Many parents hold negative perceptions of math and science because they have never been taught these domains from a hands-on, constructivist approach. Only 20 - 30% of adults have actually experienced activity-based science inquiry. Instead, these individuals were exposed to didactic science programs that emphasize drill, skill and memorization (Shymanksy, 2000). This has had a negative impact upon their content knowledge in these areas and their perceptions of math and science. Consequently, parents are hesitant to incorporate math and science into their home life. There is a dire need to determine if parental perceptions of math, science, and their content knowledge will be positively effected as a result of participation in hands-on science workshops.

Medical Curriculum at Selected Colleges: Foundations and Integrated Presentation of Basic Medical Sciences Distribution over Pre-Clerkship Period

Overview and statistics on the medical curriculum at Arizona, Emory, FIU, Rochester, and Vermont.