Content

Initiatives, Programs, and Plans
“For all our initiatives, programs and plans, there has been an historic inattention to what is actually taught and how well it is taught." (Gordon; Elmore; Marzano; Tyack & Cuban; Hess; Berliner)

Disagree? Ask these questions at the next staff meeting (grades 1-8): "How did you assess "Concepts and Skills to Maintain" at the beginning of the school year? Which areas did you target for improvement? How did you help students master "concepts and skills to maintain" before moving on to new content?

Curriculum Matrix

Research shows that teachers have more content to cover than hours to teach. In fact, Bob Marzano, in his work for the International Center for Leadership in Eduation concluded that . . .
"15,465 hours of time was necessary; nearly 6,500 more hours than is available."

The Curriculum Matrix, developed by the International Center for Leadership in Education, compares our state tests to NC standards so that teachers can discover the priority (high, medium, low) that our state testing program gives to individual standards. With this information, teachers can determine whether a standard is likely to be tested and can identify the skills that are essential, nice to know or not as important for students when they leave school.

Essential Questions

1. Where is technology use producing significant results?
2. What are the general learning areas that technology can be expected to significantly advance?
3. How do high performing schools purchase and use technology? Briefly, they . . .
   • Redirect investments of technology funds to PROVEN learning technology solutions.
   • Harness proven technology solutions to address the profound, critical challenges faced by students.
   • Extract the full learning potential of technology solutions through the triangulation of content, sound principles of learning, and high quality teaching, all of which are aligned with assessment and accountability.
4. Get answers in this free report provided by Metiri Group: Technology in Schools: What the Research Says
   

Results-Based Collaboration (A Sample Planning Form)
Do you participate in true professional collaboration or merely the appearance of teamwork?

1. Target a standard of student under-performance. (What profound, critical challenges do our students face year after year after year?)
2. Select a sub-component to focus upon for a set of lessons (or across disciplines and units).
3. Determine the prerequisite skills or knowledge necessary for the learner to be successful.
4. Locate or draft an assessment for each item identified in #3.
   • Can we expect technology to significantly advance this general learning area? See Technology in Schools: What the Research Says.
   • What technology resources are available to support instruction?
5. Teach / Assess / Did it work? If not, refine strategy / Reteach / Assess