What role should the board play in approving the curriculum?
In-Township (Vote for 2)
Laura Lang: The board’s role is to stay educated to wisely approve curriculum. As a board member considering the curriculum recommendations, one must think about budgetary considerations, yearly scope and sequence processes, and adoption processes. The good news is that we have equipped professionals in our district that understand this well, so we need to be asking them questions. We need to rely on our professionals. The board should work with the superintendent and other education professionals to help set priorities for review. This is really a team effort as we consider how and if our curriculum meets our district’s priorities and goals.
Rebecca Richardson: The board hires curriculum experts to develop the school curriculum, but the board should be involved in the process by considering higher level points about the curriculum, such as reviewing state assessments and other data and making sure the proposed curriculum addresses any weaknesses; determining how the district will know when students have mastered the content; what the district will do if students are not meeting standards and what it will do if students are excelling at standards. The administration needs to communicate with the board about the process and provide sufficient and general justification for the curriculum design and overarching goals.
Max McComb: The Board of Education are not the experts in curriculum. We employ experts in curriculum and instruction on our staff–administrators and teachers. We have a process in place for curriculum development and approval. Our role is to listen to recommendations, ask questions, trust in the professionals who are trained in this area and, as an elected board, ensure that curriculum reflects our local constituency. Much of our curriculum is mandated through state law, we don’t have a wide range of flexibility on many issues. We also need mechanisms in place where parents can hear about, review and ask questions about curriculum. In the past, we’ve held curriculum nights in our buildings, we look forward to continuing these initiatives post-pandemic.
Sunny McMurry: Their role in this should be similar to all other decisions– trust the experts. We need to trust that we have indeed hired the most highly-qualified people for the jobs and we need to use data to determine if what we are offering actually meets the needs of our student population. Whether it is adding more AP or dual-credit classes, what reading curriculum we will adopt, or what vocational courses we may want to add, the ones who will know this best are going to be the people who are making it happen– our teachers and staff.
As a board member, then, it would be my role to expect data and feedback on how well our curricular offerings are supporting our students. There are multiple data points that we can look at, not just IAR/ SAT standardized test data. We need to consider data that takes place more regularly and watch trends in that data over time. If we see a dip in learning, or if we see trends that indicate a large portion of our students are not making expected growth or that our programs are not meeting their needs, that is when I would start to ask questions of our superintendent, such as, “What does this data look like when triangulated with other data we have gathered? Is this a curricular issue? Is this something more that is beyond curriculum?” I would rely on the superintendent to dig deeper into the issues with the teachers and administrators to determine appropriate next steps based on what they find and then share those findings with the board.
Out-of-Township (Vote for 1)
Patrick MacKay: The school board is responsible for approving the curriculum and should support and facilitate a periodic review of said curriculum to not only make sure our kids are in the best position to perform well on state mandated tests, exams, and assessments, but also leave the district prepared and ready to serve as good citizens of the world, i.e., kind, respectful, and curious. Any review should seek out and value the input of teachers, parents, and community members. Do teachers have access to up to date and current materials? Do teachers receive instruction and training to support new curriculum opportunities? Are we reviewing our class offerings to make sure they support multiple career paths post-graduation?
Justin Lamb: The board should continue working with the U of I and develop a curriculum in collaboration with the teachers to best serve our students.
