Archive for Thursday, December 6, 2001

Archive for Thursday, December 6, 2001

New curriculum review schedule coming

By Theresa Freed

December 6, 2001

Parents can now expect to encounter more frequent changes in their children's curriculum as the district attempts to improve state assessment test scores, De Soto USD 232 curriculum director Doug Powers told the school board Monday.

Powers presented a new curriculum revision process to the school board members Monday night.

"Take social studies, for example. It's due to be evaluated next year, but we learned last year that our social studies curriculum didn't match what was being asked of students in state assessment questions," he said.

Powers proposed that the current system of evaluating curriculum every five years was not sufficient.

"During five years, a lot happens," he said.

Powers said the Band-Aid approach to fixing problems in the curriculum as they arise was not the best way to handle the situation.

He introduced a four-step approach to make sure district children are not left behind the rest of the state at any point in their education.

School board member Sandy Thierer said she wanted to see parents involved in the revision process as well.

"The biggest question parents have is how can they find out what teachers expect of their children, so the parents can help," Thierer said.

Board members discussed making revisions to the school district Web site, making it more user friendly for parents.

"If the site is too difficult for teachers to read, then it definitely needs to be more user friendly for parents," Powers said.

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