Program Management colleagues,
While we wait for you and others here to weigh in on what you would like to see this community of practice be and do, no doubt some of us are chomping at the bit to talk about the big challenges that affect us, the programs we manage and the programs we work with as state administrators or professional developers. Well, I am and I hope you are. I hope when you "weigh in" that you will let us know what those challenges are for you.
Meanwhile, here's a big challenge that program managers tell me is on their mind: curriculum.
Here's one of the contexts for this challenge, perhaps the most prevalent one: we now have standards (Adult Education College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS), Common Core State Standards, and state content standards or curriculum frameworks. (As a school superintendent many years ago wrote, "Our problem isn't that we don't have standards; we have too many sets of standards.") States are asking programs to align their curricula to to the standards they have chosen. At the same time, high stakes tests, for example the high school equivalency exams, and perhaps also state and national external diploma program competency-based assessments have been aligning what they assess to standards, at least to the CCRS.
Some challenges as I see them:
1. Some adult education programs and schools have a curriculum they like, and that they are willing to update and revise, but to align it takes time (teacher and program developer/curriculum developer -- and program manager -- time.) It also takes knowledge and skills for how to develop and align curriculum. They may not have either the time or the skills. How has your program or state addressed that challenge?
2. Some programs -- many I think -- don't have or don't use any curriculum, and their teachers don't know how to develop a curriculum. It will take a lot of intense training, and curriculum writing time, for them to do this. What are states doing to help those programs? What are program managers doing to get their program ready for this help?
3. Funding is limited or just doesn't exist to pay teachers to develop curriculum. What's the solution?
States are handling these challenges in different ways:
1. Some are choosing a curriculum or curricula and recommending it to programs because they believe it already aligns with the CCRS. (Is your state doing this? what curricula have been recommended?)
2. Some states are providing training and technical assistance in curriculum development. Is your state doing this? What is being provided?
3. States could work together to share curricula that are being developed by their programs that align with the CCRS. For the first time, most states are using the same set of content standards -- the CCRS -- so why not work together to develop excellent adult education curricula that is useful to adult education programs in all CCRS-using states. (Do you like that idea? Are any states doing this? I believe there is an OCTAE-sponsored inititiative to work with, and provide training to selected states that have adopted the CCRS standards. Who can tell us about that initiative and what it is trying to do?)
Finally, what prompted this post was a blog post I read about curriculum mapping, so I'll pass that on. If you are struggling with writing/re-writing your program or school curriculum, a curriculum map could be a helpful tool. See http://askatechteacher.com/2015/03/31/how-to-create-a-curriculum-map/ Let us know what you think of this tool.
David J. Rosen
Program Management CoP Moderator
djrosen123@gmail.com