Weighing the Importance of Strategy, Curriculum and Leadership
What is the job of a teacher? And how do you measure success? What’s the best strategy to ensure real, lasting growth and what just looks good on paper?
This article, featured in the Gotham Gazette, focuses on the strategies used in Renewal Schools. A research team from Teachers College at Columbia University examined the implementation of a train-the-trainer model called Strategic Inquiry, a Mayor Blasio initiative that included providing additional funding and support from the New York City Department of Education in an effort to improve student outcomes. The biggest single reason behind the success was how teachers and administrators were able to identify and adjust in real time to students needs on the micro-level, rather than try and change a macro-level curriculum issue.
Our very own Dr. Richard Hawkins, who heads up the School Building Leadership Program in partnership with the College of St. Rose, weighed in: “There is never one way to do anything. Teachers need to be fluent with many tools. You don’t hire a carpenter who only owns a sledge hammer to install crown moldings. Programs are not curriculum.”
In another article that recently appeared in Chalkbeat, a perpendicular viewpoint was expressed around the best methodologies around curriculum and leadership. Chancellor Richard said the education department is working on “tightening” what students should be learning, saying schools’ curriculum choices “are very rapidly going to be within the context of a framework…It should meet these standards and these characteristics… because then we can ensure that students are getting what they need.”
Some feel that this is very different language then what allowed students to succeed above. Is it really the curriculum that needs to be shaped uniformly, or the confidence and intelligent of the teachers teaching it? Jared Gellert, the Executive Director of CITE had his own thoughts: “Carranza is wading into an old debate about how centralized curriculum should be. On the one hand, principals complain bitterly if they feel they are being micromanaged by central office. On the other hand, what if their results (however we measure them) aren’t very good? We talk about best practices, but sometimes, I think, we define this too rigidly, as if there is only one best way to e.g. teach reading, when there are multiple best ways to teach reading, depending on the learner. My son David learned to read using a technique (Wilson) that would have left me illiterate.”
Though it doesn’t seem that it’s likely that a consensus will be reached any time soon, all of these techniques have been proven to work when applied correctly. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming years to better create a symbiotic relationship between the strategy, curriculum, and the leadership to forge ahead against ever-changing obstacles.
CITE is the Center for Integrated Training and Education. For over 25 years, CITE has and continues to train TEACHERS (Early Childhood, Professional Certification, Special Ed,Grad Courses, Bilingual courses, DASA); COUNSELORS (School, Mental Health Masters, Advanced Certificate); and ADMINISTRATORS (SBL, SDL, Public Admin, Doctorate) in all five boroughs of NYC, Yonkers, Westchester, and Long Island.
CITE PD offers CTLE-approved in-school professional development tailored to your school’s needs and your vision. Info: citepd.com
We now also offer an undergraduate degree completion program in psychology.
