CHAPTER 6 Curriculum, Standards, and Testing DAVID MILLER SADKER KAREN R. ZITTLEMAN TEACHERS, SCHOOLS, AND SOCIETY NINTH EDITION Sadker/Zittleman, Teachers, Schools, and Society, Ninth Edition. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6.1 EDUCATIONAL TIME LINE TIME EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY FOCUS OF CURRICULUM Seventeenth Century “Two Rs” Secondary education for males only; reading and religion Eighteenth Century Life in the present Reading, religion, morality, writing, and arithmetic; vocational skills; academy open to females Nineteenth Century Secular education Secondary education in Latin or English curriculum Early Twentieth Century Progressive education Creative expression; junior high school developed; secondary education for all students Sadker/Zittleman, Teachers, Schools, and Society, Ninth Edition. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6.2 EDUCATIONAL TIME LINE (continued) TIME EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY 1940s-1960s Discipline-oriented Congress funded programs in science, math, languages, and guidance 1960s-1970s Social concern and humanistic education Gender-based courses; multiethnic curricula 1980s Back to basics Academic subjects emphasized; increased discipline; elimination of electives; competency exams 1990s Widening of the core curriculum Expansion of the core curriculum to include more people of color and women Current _____________ ________________ FOCUS OF CURRICULUM Sadker/Zittleman, Teachers, Schools, and Society, Ninth Edition. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6.3 HIDDEN CURRICULUM? Student Generated Responses: What else did you learn in school? GRADE LEVEL “HIDDEN” LESSONS Elementary Middle High School Sadker/Zittleman, Teachers, Schools, and Society, Ninth Edition. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6.4 THE IMPORTANCE OF EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES AND ACADEMIC SUBJECTS Do you consider extracurricular activities as important as the academic subjects, or do you consider them as only a supplement to the academic subjects? National Totals % No Children in School % Public School Parents % As important as academic subjects 42 40 46 A supplement to academic subjects 56 58 52 Don’t know 2 2 2 Source: Lowell C. Rose and Alec M. Gallup (2000), The 32nd Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kpol0009.htm#1a Sadker/Zittleman, Teachers, Schools, and Society, Ninth Edition. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6.5 Figure 6.1 SHAPING THE CURRICULUM Sadker/Zittleman, Teachers, Schools, and Society, Ninth Edition. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6.6 WHO AND WHAT SHAPE THE CURRICULUM? Student Generated Responses WHO & WHAT 1. Students 2. Parental and community groups 3. Teachers 4. Administrators 5. Federal government 6. State government 7. Local government 8. Colleges and universities 9. Standardized tests EXAMPLES OF HOW 10. Education commissions and committees 11. Professional organizations 12. Special interest groups Sadker/Zittleman, Teachers, Schools, and Society, Ninth Edition. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6.7 THE DIGITAL DIVIDE ON COMPUTER USE Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, 2008 (Issued March 2009). Figure 6.2 Sadker/Zittleman, Teachers, Schools, and Society, Ninth Edition. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6.8 TEXTBOOK ADOPTION STATES Source: American Association of Publishers, Washington, DC, 2009. Figure 6.3 Sadker/Zittleman, Teachers, Schools, and Society, Ninth Edition. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6.9 FORMS OF BIAS Student Generated Responses BIAS EXAMPLES Invisibility Stereotyping Imbalance/selectivity Unreality Fragmentation/isolation Linguistic bias Cosmetic bias Sadker/Zittleman, Teachers, Schools, and Society, Ninth Edition. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6.10 THREE TYPES OF STANDARDS Student Generated Responses 1. Content standards 2. Performance standards 3. Opportunity-to-learn standards Sadker/Zittleman, Teachers, Schools, and Society, Ninth Edition. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6.11 WHEN STUDENTS DO POORLY If students in your district did poorly on a standardized test, which might be your reaction? • The schools failed to prepare students. • • Something was wrong with the test design. The students lack ability. • Don’t know. How do we vote? Sadker/Zittleman, Teachers, Schools, and Society, Ninth Edition. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6.12 NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND (2001) • Annual testing • Adequate yearly progress (AYP) • Report cards • Highly qualified faculty • What other areas of the law are less well known? Sadker/Zittleman, Teachers, Schools, and Society, Ninth Edition. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. SEVEN REASONS WHY STANDARDIZED TESTS 6.13 ARE NOT WORKING 1. At-risk students placed at greater risk 2. Lower graduation rates 3. Higher test scores do not mean more learning 4. Standardized testing shrinks the curriculum 5. Test errors 6. Teacher stress 7. What’s worth knowing? Sadker/Zittleman, Teachers, Schools, and Society, Ninth Edition. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6.14 TEACHING TO THE TEST Source: Education Week, Quality Counts, 2001. Sadker/Zittleman, Teachers, Schools, and Society, Ninth Edition. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6.15 TEACHER STRESS Source: A female teacher with a literature specialty teaching in a suburban elementary school. http://ganesh.ed.asu.edu/aims/view_image.php?image_id=72&grade_range_id=3 Figure 6.4 Sadker/Zittleman, Teachers, Schools, and Society, Ninth Edition. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6.16 DO YOU BELIEVE IN EVOLUTION? Source: “Trend Lines: Acceptance of Evolution,” The Washington Post, January 16, 2007. Figure 6.5 Sadker/Zittleman, Teachers, Schools, and Society, Ninth Edition. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6.17 EXAMPLES OF CENSORSHIP Mary Rodgers’ Freaky Friday: “Makes fun of parents and parental responsibility.” Plato’s Republic: “This book is un-Christian.” Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days: “Very unfavorable to Mormons.” William Shakespeare’s Macbeth: “Too violent for children.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment: “Serves as a poor model for young people.” Herman Melville’s Moby Dick: “Contains homosexuality.” Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl: “Obscene and blasphemous.” E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web: “Morbid picture of death.” J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit: “Subversive elements.” Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: “Racist.” Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: “Racism, insensitivity, and offensive language.” Webster’s Dictionary: “Contains sexually explicit definitions.” Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell’s And Tango Makes Three, for being anti-ethnic and anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to the age group. Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy for the political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence. Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories for occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence. Sadker/Zittleman, Teachers, Schools, and Society, Ninth Edition. © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.