Deciding What to Teach and Test
Developing, Aligning, and Leading the Curriculum

Third Edition

Fenwick W. English

Other Titles in:
Curriculum Leadership | Standards & Accountability | Teaching Methods & Learning Styles

August 2010 | 168 pages | Corwin

The issue of balancing testing, curriculum design, and teaching practices is a pressing one for today's schools. Now in its third edition, this influential book on developing and aligning curriculum is updated with new insights on providing effective curriculum leadership, increasing student success, and closing the achievement gap.

Addressing the fundamentals of curriculum design in the context of a standards-based environment, Fenwick W. English focuses on how administrators and teachers can best collaborate to create a high-quality curriculum for all students.

Readers will find:

- Guidance on curriculum mapping and other user-friendly tools

- New information on differentiating teaching, learning, and assessment to meet the needs of special education students, English language learners, and others

- Additional content on addressing cultural differences in curriculum content and assessment practices

- A new chapter on the challenges educators face in their roles as curriculum leaders.

Preface: America’s Continuing Educational Canterbury Tales

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Introduction to the Third Edition

1. The Function of Curriculum in Schools

1.1 What Is Curriculum?

1.2 Curriculum Design and Delivery

1.3 Curriculum Coordination and Articulation

1.4 Combining Design and Delivery Issues in Schools

1.5 Formal, Informal, and the Hidden Curriculum

1.6 Curriculum and the Cultural Arbitrary

1.7 Conventional Practices and Complaints About Curriculum

1.8 The Necessary Requirements of an Imperfect Curriculum

1.9 A Clarifying Model of the Critical Curricular Relationships and Terms

2. A Template for Curriculum Construction

2.1 The Traditional View of Developing Curriculum

2.2 Using a Needs Assessment to Develop a Curricular Framework

2.3 Constructing Curriculum With Gap Data

2.4 Constructing “User Friendly” Curriculum Work Plans

2.5 Moving From Curriculum Content to Work Tasks

2.6 Constructing “User Friendly” Curriculum Guides

2.7 Essential Elements in Curriculum Guides

2.8 Setting Content Priorities and Expressing Time Values

2.9 A Word About Sequence and Stress

2.10 A Recommended Curriculum Guide Format

3. Aligning the Curriculum

3.1 The Process of Alignment by Frontloading

3.2 The Process of Alignment via Backloading

3.3 How to Do Alignment

3.4 Other Issues in the Alignment Procedure

4. The Challenge of Curriculum Leadership in the Teaching and Testing Nexus

4.1 Considering The Full Responsibility for Curriculum Leadership

4.2 Who Benefits From the Perpetuation of the Cultural Capital Embraced by State Imposed Accountability Models?

4.3 Avoiding Deficit Mindsets, Models, and Cultural Marginalization of Others

4.4 Not All Data Are Valuable or Relevant

4.5 Avoiding Outmoded Management Models

4.6 Understanding the Drawbacks of Top-Down Supervisory Approaches

4.7 The Nexus of Curriculum Leadership

4.8 Some Concluding Thoughts

Glossary of Terms

References

Index

Praise for the Second Edition:
“The strengths in this book are characteristic of all of English's works. The language is easy to follow, the text is set up in logical development by chapters, and the focus of his work is constant. He never strays from the topic or goes off on a tangent. Most important, his information is practical, doable, and sensible. The book is easy for practitioners, teachers, administrators, and those involved in the daily work of schools to adapt to their needs and make it work for them.”

Salvatore F. Luzio, Sr., Adjunct Professor of Graduate Education

Keystone College

“For educators who want students and schools to be successful, this book provides a clear and proven process to accomplish this goal. It is succinct, yet packed with what’s really important to create, develop, assess, and lead curriculum. As a university professor of educational leadership, Deciding What to Teach and Test remains my text of choice for graduate students.”

Jane McDonald, Education Consultant in Leadership Development

“This book makes the reader think deeply about the role of curriculum planning and its connection to assessment in this age of accountability.”

J. Jeannette Lovern, Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction

Eastern Kentucky University

Excellent book! My students appreciated his clear and direct approach to the importance of curriculum alignment. I highly recommend this book for educational leadership programs.

Dr Melanie Brooks

Leadership and Counseling, University Of Idaho-Boise

July 19, 2014

Report this review