Feature: My
School
Providence Schools Upgrade to 21st Century
Curriculum
Under the new leadership of
Superintendent Thomas M. Brady, the Providence School Department
is taking on the critical task of upgrading its core curriculum up
to 21st century standards starting with the math and
sciences. The new curriculum will enable teachers to operate
under a work plan that's consistent across the district, and most
importantly, allow student achievement to be more
measurable. In the long term, the new curriculum will better
prepare students for college, or to enter competitively into
tomorrow’s workforce.
City News caught up with
two of the school department’s curriculum stewards, Paula Shannon
(Director of K-12 Teaching and Learning, pictured right) and
Natalie Dunning (Science Supervisor, pictured left), to find out
more about what Providence students will soon be learning in the
classroom.
Why is it important
to bring Providence School’s math and science curriculum up to
21st century
standards?
Paula: Our school board has
made it clear to us that they’re committed to ensuring that all
students in Providence are college-ready. We have a vision
of being a national leader in educating urban youth and we have a
mission statement of preparing all students for college or the
career of their choice. To do that, you have to ensure that
students are receiving a sound education that prepares them for
the 21st century.
If you had to
explain this new curriculum to a parent of a child attending a
Providence school, how would describe it? What are some key tools
that their children will be
inheriting?
Paula: Another good way to
describe a curriculum is to view it as a work plan. We are
writing a work plan that includes all essential knowledge every
child should have. That essential knowledge is also based
upon standards developed by national organizations of teachers of
mathematics and sciences. We're ensuring that every
child is proficient in essential knowledge and skills at every
grade level, regardless of the school they go to or the teacher
that they have, and that we are providing them with the
opportunity to learn how to be successful at their grade level and
ultimately to be college-ready.
For example, in the area of
mathematics, we want to ensure that by the time at student leaves
the 8th grade, he or she is ready for Algebra I. So we have
to ensure that the students starting from kindergarten are
developing basic numeracy skills. We have to ensure that by
the end of 4th grade that students are proficiently adding,
subtracting, multiplying and dividing, and that they not only
understand how to do their calculations in a very traditional way
but that they also understand the concept of what that
means. So when they read a word problem or they are faced
with a real life situation (let’s say a 4th grader who wants to
buy his mom something for her birthday, and it costs $25.49, how
much would he have to save over three months to buy that for her)
that he has the basic math skills to do that and that he also
understands how he would go about figuring out if he had to add,
subtract, multiply or divide to determine how much money he’s
going to have to save.
By the time kids finish
middle school, again we want to ensure that they’re very
proficient with the basic concepts and calculations of fractions
and that they’re ready for Algebra I. When they hit high
school, we designed a plan that is very rigorous and that would
prepare them for college. The requirement for graduation is
four years of mathematics and the sequence is: Algebra I,
Geometry, Algebra II, and Pre-Calculus.
Natalie: What Paula
explained in terms of the curriculum development in math is very
similar to what we’re doing in science. We’re developing a
curriculum with a common set of tools and direction. In
science, students are tested in grades 4, 8, and 11. The
sciences fall under three domains – life science, earth/space
science, and physical science. It is a very hands-on,
inquiry-based program that pushes students to be ask questions
like a scientist and use all the skills they’re learning in their
math and English courses, etc., in order to potentially solve
problems that one would normally investigate in the
sciences.
There are about 14 basic
areas of knowledge in science that students will see several times
between kindergarten and graduation. So for example, one is
the properties of matter. They would start doing that in
kindergarten by talking about the differences between a solid and
a liquid, and then as they progress they will address that issue
again in the 2nd, 5th, and 8th grades. By the time they get into
chemistry in high school they would have the knowledge they need
in order to investigate the components of chemistry that one would
see in a college-ready chemistry program.
For the students
who will be the beneficiaries of this curriculum, in your opinion,
how will their futures change because of this improvement in their
education?
Paula: Everything we do
here is obviously for the students. Our mission is to ensure
that students are college-ready and workforce ready. I think
that we’re going to see much greater rates of student achievement
over the upcoming years because we have that work plan in place
and it’s not a watered-down work plan. It’s very
rigorous and assumes that all of our students should have the
opportunity to attend college if they so desire and that they all
have the basic skills to very successful in a 21st century job
market.
How is this
different from what is being taught
now?
Paula: Presently, a class
throughout 13 high schools would be taught 13 different ways
because there’s no curriculum or work plan that provides teachers
with the specificity they need to teach it in a common way.
You can’t measure results
very well because everybody’s teaching things differently and it
makes it difficult for teachers to collaborate because they don’t
have a common work plan. It also makes it difficult for
principals and central admin staff like Natalie and me to be able
to walk across schools and know what to expect. So what
we’re doing now, starting with core areas like math and science
(and next year, we intend to work on English/Language Arts and
social studies), we will know definitively what will happen in
every grade level so we will have a common understanding of what
we should see in classrooms.
Natalie: We’re already
planning regular feedback sessions for teachers to discuss issues
or problems that they’re having with the curriculum, or to share
practices that are going well. We want to have conversations
around really good teaching practices and what’s really moving
students forward. So I think that we will see continuous
improvement as we work together over a long period of time.
Paula: It’s also important
to note that this is a monumental effort on the part of teachers
and department chairs in the Providence School department.
We have over 200 teachers involved and providing input in the work
in math and science. A tremendous amount of work has been
done. We’re now at the level where we’re writing out the
actual curriculum guide. In the whole development of this,
the Providence teachers are the ones doing the work. They
are collectively working through what’s to be expected, what
should be taught, what tools and textbooks should be used.
What do you believe
has to be done in order to sustain this new curriculum moving
forward? How is this beneficial to the future of
Providence?
Paula: Our future lies in
public education. I think that message has been communicated
clearly by our leadership in Washington. We can’t survive if
we don’t have educated citizens. In a city like Providence,
we have the prime opportunity to begin to attract new
industry. I would love to see Providence become a city where
biotechnology companies want to locate to. And I think the
only way you can do that is if you ensure that your schools are
providing students the opportunity to learn a rigorous curriculum
and that you’re graduating students who have the skill set to work
in that industry. We have to prepare kids for jobs that
don’t exist yet – which is exciting – but if we have well educated
kids then we can really market ourselves as a city to attract new
industries as they develop.
If you ask a roomful of
teachers how many of them actually attended Providence schools,
you’ll get a lot of people raising their hands. It’s a very
exciting time because for people attended or graduated from
Providence schools they have the opportunity now to make
Providence schools great. Everybody is dedicated to doing
that. It bodes well for the future of the city.
