Future and Current Curriculum Leadership Issues of K-12 Students and Schools

Future and Current Curriculum Leadership Issues of K-12 Students and Schools

Today, the different challenges associated with implementing new assessments, higher standards, and teacher evaluation systems deny K-12 school leaders time to engage in various activities such as preparing for transformative and disruptive emerging trends, which will affect the staff and students for years to come. Leaders need to make long-term decisions that will not haunt them as the emerging and disruptive trends change the dynamics around and in K-12 schools. Some of the decisions, which revolve around the emerging and disruptive trends that leaders should make to address issues associated with the curriculum, including digital learning, application-based learning, career readiness, development of personal skills, and implementation of growth models using data analytics. Leaders need to manage and understand the effects of these different trends instead of waiting until they gain momentum. To foster early, high-quality, and comprehensive learning, the leaders and educators should understand and employ the various components associated with learning trajectories, including progressive development of children's understanding and thinking, improving the subject-matter content, and employing strategies that enhance the learning experience.

Some of the Immediate Issues with the Curriculum

The K-12 curriculum is one that is associated with areas for continued development. Developing a plan to take the curriculum in the right direction is the most challenging process. One of the challenges would revolve around identifying various problems that keep students from learning. Such a challenge arises because these problems can significantly change depending on the people who are labelling them, whether parents, students, lawmakers or educators. Some of the immediate issues associated with the curriculum revolve around test scores, need to implement technology, age of current curriculum, revision of national and state standards, and social forces.

Test Scores

Although test scores help parents and teachers to address the different learning needs of students in areas that they do not meet the standard, they are temporary and can result in fluctuations that have nothing to do with changes in students’ learning in the long-term (Rahman, 2017). Test scores can focus on specific areas, and this may over-simplify or narrow the curriculum. Over-simplifying and narrowing the curriculum reduces the attention given to other areas. Test scores are mostly generated from standardized tests that are considered to be unreliable measures of the performance of students. Tests scores may not affect federal funding but can alter the funds that the curriculum can access. Test scores may be interpreted as the sole judgement of children's or student's ability, instead of providing information concerning the learning process. Some students can demonstrate a clear understanding of concepts and subjects through different assessments but are not skilled to take tests.  Standardized test scores can affect the confidence of such students.

Need to Implement Technology

Technology implementation in the curriculum will help to close the existing gap. Technology can promote relationships between students and teachers. Technology will make learning and teaching fun and more meaningful. The implementation of technology in the curriculum will help students to collaborate with other classmates using different technological applications. Most students value different forms of interaction, and learning using technology can be part of their lifestyle. Teachers and educators consider technology to be essential in the learning environment. Technology can help students to learn better and acquire different multi-tasking skills. The integration of technology in the curriculum provides students with the ability to go over various concepts and lessons while freeing up teachers and educators to assist them on a one-on-one level. Examples of these technologies include online instruction, flipped classrooms, and differentiated learning.

Online instruction helps to provide students with personalized and high-quality educational experiences. With this type of technology, teachers are inspired, and it provides an interactive platform that allows students can thrive, learn, and find their passion. Flipped classrooms act as a form of blended learning that deliver different instructional contents online. The use of iPad in the classroom helps students to collaborate, and it promotes engagement and personalized learning. The current methodology used in my subject area is differentiated learning. Differentiated learning gives students to acquire knowledge regardless of their weaknesses, abilities, and strengths.

Age of Current Curriculum

The K-12 curriculum was first implemented in 2013 (McCarthy, 2017). The curriculum is accessed by many children today. The curriculum provides children with a means of adjusting to formal education. The curriculum provides children with better school completion rates. Those children who complete the curriculum are better prepared for college. This curriculum acts as the foundation associated with child development and lifelong learning. With the curriculum in place, students can benefit from in-depth skills, knowledge, attitudes, and values through consistency and continuity across different levels and areas. It strengthens early childhood education, builds proficiency, gears students for the future, and ensures seamless and integrated learning.

Revision of National and State Standards

In Texas, students are expected to learn from the similar curriculum. As a result of student mobility, Texas adopts curriculum standards, which are to be used in all the public schools of the state. Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills abbreviated as TEKS sets the expected standards and outline what the different students are meant to learn in each grade and course. The State Board of Education adopts the different standards set in Texas after it seeks extensive input from other stakeholders and educators. After the standards are set, a full revision is carried out to make sure that they reflect current topics, and are rigorous and up-to-date. The standards are essential in addressing some of the essential skills and knowledge at appropriate grade levels. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in Texas requires the schools within the state to provide disabled students access to the curriculum (DeMatthews & Knight, 2019). The standards support the idea that students with disabilities should receive different instructions, which are based on the curriculum used by other students. The curriculum should be organized by grade level and subject matter.

Social Forces

Some of the significant issues that affect the curriculum include diversity, low literacy level, poverty, and high crime rates. North central Texas is a high poverty-stricken area (NCES, n.d.a). Most of the residents find it challenging to meet their different basic needs and also experience challenges of financing children education. The unemployment rate in the area is also high, and this is one of the main leading forces (NCES, n.d.b). Unemployment is a serious challenge that can promote lawlessness and poverty cycles. High crime rates threaten public safety. The district is associated with incidents of violent crime (Claritas, 2019). Some of the issues related to unemployment in the area include substance abuse, psychological disorders, and indebtedness of affected people. Most of the people who are not employed tend to abuse drugs (Cheteni, Mah & Yohane, 2018). The district is occupied by people from diverse cultural backgrounds. The majority of people who stay in the area are Hispanic residents, followed by whites and black (NCES, n.d.b). Some minority groups also live in the area. Discrimination is prevalent in most diverse societies (Eboh, Mahmood, Umar & Ibrahim, 2018). The residents in the area have low education levels compared to the state and city.

The Curriculum Team and their Key Positions

People who can be in the curriculum include qualified teachers, superintendents, the principal, school office staff, paraprofessionals, guardians or parents, students, and community members. These people are important because they have valuable information concerning the curriculum. Some of the best ways of ensuring that the curriculum team is diverse are to recruit from various talent pools, advertise positions through different channels, offer targeted positions, and request for diverse referrals. The chief administrator will be expected to run the curriculum. The chief administrator should a person who has strong communication skills, understanding, good at building relationships, and educated. The teachers should be educated, be able to develop relationships with students, kind, caring, patient, and dedicated to teaching. The teachers should provide the children with encouragement and guidance while providing them with the necessary knowledge.

Conducting a Needs Assessment

The first step when conducting the needs assessment will revolve around identifying the different needs of the students. This analysis helps to focus on the various resources and needs that the students require to learn successfully. It would be important to understand the priorities and goals of the curriculum to assess the resources that will contribute to the success of the students and their educational attainment.

The second step would involve performing a gap analysis. The gap analysis will help to assess the current state of the curriculum and comparing it to the preferred level. The best method of identifying the gap in this context would be through the use of interviews, self-assessments, surveys, observation, and questionnaires. Individual interviews will be carried out with teachers, superintendents, the principal, school office staff, paraprofessionals, guardians or parents, students, and community members. The gathered information will help to identify the existing gaps that should be addressed. The survey will help to obtain the different opinions of the students on what they need.

The third step would involve analyzing the different needs presented by the various respondents. The requirements will be evaluated based on the curriculum's priorities and goals, both in the future and currently. The needs can be measured with a scale that ranges from 1 to 3, with 3 being not important, 2 being important, and 1 being crucial. After all the students’ needs have been evaluated, it will be easy to come up with different solutions.

Lastly, it would be important to report the needs and provide recommendations. The recommendations that are made should both the long- and short-term while starting with those needs that are considered to be critical. The different needs that require immediate action should be budgeted accordingly. The summary will include how and why the needs assessment was carried out, the people involved, and the methods that are used.

Practical Considerations

The costs associated with training the teachers to ensure the success of the curriculum should be considered since it is one of the most significant factors in this context. It would be important to invest some amount of money in training teachers since it passes as one of the curriculum’s priorities. The total cost associated with the training will be calculated by multiplying the cost of training by the number of teachers that are trained.

Conclusion

In conclusion, to foster early, high-quality, and comprehensive learning, the leaders and educators, should understand and employ the different components associated with learning trajectories. Some of these learning trajectories include the progressive development of children's understanding and thinking, improving the subject-matter content, and employing strategies that enhance the learning experience. Leaders must make long-term decisions that will not haunt them as the emerging and disruptive trends change the dynamics around and in K-12 schools. Obstacles and challenges associated with the K-12 curriculum should be assessed, and specific recommendations provided.

References

Cheteni, P., Mah, G. & Yohane, Y. (2018). Drug-related crime and poverty in South Africa. Cogent Economics & Finance, 6(1), 1-16.

Claritas (2019). 2019 demographics. Retrieved from http://www.healthywilliamsoncounty.org/index.php?module=DemographicData&controller=index&action=index

DeMatthews, D. E., & Knight, D. S. (2019). The Texas special education cap: Exploration into the statewide delay and denial of support to students with disabilities. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 27, 2.

Eboh, H., Mahmood, N., Umar, A. & Ibrahim, A. (2018). Prospects and challenges of workplace diversity in modern day organizations: a critical review. Holistica, 9(2), 35-52.

McCarthy, T. (2017). A Qualitative Study of the Implementation of an Evidence-Based Program in a K-12 Setting.

National Center for Education Statistics (n.d.a). Dallas Independent School District, TX. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/Programs/Edge/ACSDashboard/4816230

National Center for Education Statistics (n.d.b). Dallas Independent School District, TX. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/Programs/Edge/ACSDashboard/4816230

Rahman, M. S. (2017). The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches and Methods in Language" Testing and Assessment" Research: A Literature Review. Journal of Education and Learning, 6(1), 102-112.