APPENDIX E. CASE STUDY METHODOLOGY AND PROTOCOL CONT’D Pieces of the Puzzle
Curriculum and Instruction Opening Questions: 1. How did your district’s curriculum documents inform teachers about district expectations for student learning? (central office) 2. How did you know what students were expected to learn and the level of mastery they were to achieve in reading, math, and science? (principals, teachers) 3. What was the design for curriculum documents? How were connections made to the state curriculum expectations? 4. How did teachers know what was nonnegotiable and what they were free to modify? 5. Describe the reading, math, and science programs and textbooks in place in the district at that time. 6. How were textbooks selected? 7. To what extent was NAEP considered in the writing of the curriculum? To what degree, if any, did the district’s curriculum/instructional practices reflect NAEP? (central office) 8. Where do you think your curriculum was closely matched to NAEP? (central office) 9. What process was in place to establish and monitor the level of rigor for instruction? (central office, administrative offices, principals) How was the fidelity to a program monitored or measured? 10. How did your curriculum link to special populations—including English language learners, special education, gifted and talented? 11. How did you know that children were learning what they are supposed to know at each grade level and course? 12. What kinds of interventions were in place for students who were performing below grade level? Listen for:
Alignment of written, taught, and tested curricula Presence, quality, and use of pacing guides or other curriculum documents Support for the classroom use of curriculum and textbook/support materials Coherence and clarity of the curriculum as a guide to classroom teaching and learning
State academic standards in core subjects were clear and specific and could guide the development of curriculum by grade in the districts and schools.
The district had a curriculum that adequately translated the state’s standards into an explicit guide for what students are to be taught by grade. E-9 Council of the Great City Schools and the American Institutes for Research
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PIECES OF THE PUZZLE: FACTORS IN THE IMPROVEMENT OF URBAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS ON THE NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS