kat321
Posts: 66
Joined: 2/4/2011
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I suggest checking these... and then ask how different curriculum is from 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago, etc.
Below are the two documents on which most states base their math and language arts curriculum. If you would like to look at what came before these, look at the NCTE or NCTM websites.
http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards/english-language-arts-standards
http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards/mathematics
In the next year or so, most states will alter their science curriculum to mirror this document from the National Academy of Sciences. The new science framework can be found here.
http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/Standards_Framework_Homepage.html
Before this framework was released a few weeks ago, state standards were modeled on outlines from disciplinary organizations in each of the sciences made up of professionals in the science fields, university faculty in each discipline and teachers.
State social studies standards are still based upon frameworks from the National Council for the Social Studies (history, civics, economics, geography) and the National Center for History in the Schools. Each can be found below:
http://www.socialstudies.org/standards
http://nchs.ucla.edu/Standards/
In the next year or so, a new guiding standards document will likely be released in the social studies as well.
All of the above are given to states as baselines as each state can choose its own curriculum. To see what your states require, you should visit your state education agency's webpage.
If anything, from the standards outlined above, schools are asked to cover more than before in more depth than in the past. While in math, K-12 curriculum has not changed, many districts under public pressure are clamoring to have all students complete algebra before eighth grade, while in the past, it was always a high school subject. In other subjects curriculum keeps moving forward; to pass a biology course today a high school biology student is responsible for more content knowledge than before the human genome was cracked (as an example the AP and IB biology exams cover much more information than they did in the 1980s.) Also, the methods that states should be using to assess students require more of students than they did previously. The idea of performance based objectives, where student proficiency is gauged on whether or not students can apply multiple principles to complex tasks in a range of never-before-seen-scenarios is new to the majority of districts in the country- and far removed from pen-and-pencil tasks. (Note, I am not saying that all districts have moved to this form of assessment even though it is highly recommended across all disciplines.)
If you would like to get into a conversation about the political affiliations of teachers and the so-called liberal bias in schools, textbooks and curriculum, we can do that, but I think many conservatives on the board will be surprised when the empirical data on the topic does not prove the point they wish to make.
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