{"id":572382,"date":"2021-05-24T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/?post_type=article&p=572382"},"modified":"2021-06-23T10:57:28","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T14:57:28","slug":"spurrier-curriculum-isnt-infrastructure-but-states-should-treat-it-as-such-and-build-a-strong-foundation-for-student-learning","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/article\/spurrier-curriculum-isnt-infrastructure-but-states-should-treat-it-as-such-and-build-a-strong-foundation-for-student-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Spurrier: Curriculum Isn\u2019t Infrastructure \u2014 But States Should Treat It as Such and Build a Strong Foundation for Student Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

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T<\/span>he Biden administration\u2019s recently announced $2.6 trillion American Jobs Plan<\/a> is being touted as the long-awaited arrival of \u201cinfrastructure week<\/a>.\u201d While the bill includes spending on traditional projects like roads and bridges, it also stretches the definition of the word \u201cinfrastructure\u201d to include funding for long-term care workers and violence prevention<\/a>. It\u2019s leading many to wonder what \u2014 if anything \u2014 isn\u2019t infrastructure.<\/p>\n

The final version of the plan will certainly include some provisions to support physical K-12 infrastructure, including school building upgrades and expansion of broadband internet connectivity. However, the bill omits the most foundational, long-neglected and underappreciated element of instructional infrastructure: high-quality, coherent curriculum.<\/p>\n

Curriculum should serve as a foundational organizing force in student learning, informing instruction, assessment and professional development. Well-structured, strong curricula provide educators with instructional materials and resources to cover a clear scope and sequence of the knowledge and skills students are expected to master. But in far too many cases, schools don\u2019t support educators and students with a well-structured curriculum \u2014 or any, for that matter. Only 7 percent of English language arts teachers in elementary schools report regular use of high-quality instructional materials<\/a>. And even if schools do adopt such materials, they rarely equip teachers to use those resources. A Harvard study found that in 2016-17, math teachers received an average of just 1.1 days of professional development<\/a> focused on their school\u2019s curriculum.<\/p>\n

How did we get to this point? Part of it is certainly political. A seemingly never-ending series of skirmishes<\/a> over textbook content \u2013 including “canceling the classics<\/a>” like Homer\u2019s Odyssey off schools reading lists \u2013 have taught district leaders that when it comes to the curriculum wars, the only winning move is not to play<\/a>. As a result, curriculum selection is often pushed down to the school level.<\/p>\n

But choosing curriculum requires thoughtful, systemic implementation, and there are many ways for it to go wrong<\/a>. In the absence of thoughtful leadership, high-quality instructional materials can be underutilized and replaced by lower-quality materials<\/a> found online.<\/p>\n

This pernicious status quo is a lose-lose that harms students and educators alike. Teachers end up spending large amounts of their time searching for or creating instructional materials<\/a>. This can undermine the quality and coherence of what students are actually taught \u2014 an outcome that has a disproportionately negative effect<\/a> on low-income students, students of color and English learners.<\/p>\n

As Robert Pondiscio observed<\/a>, forcing teachers to take an \u201cartisanal\u201d approach to instructional materials sets them apart from practitioners in other professions: \u201cNo one expects their doctor to return to the lab every night to prepare pharmaceutical compounds on the theory that she alone knows what her patients need. The master carpenter begins his day in the lumber yard, not in the forest.\u201d But a dearth of high-quality, well-supported curricula leaves educators stuck in<\/p>\n

the instructional equivalent of the forest: The average teacher spends 12.5 hours per week<\/a> searching for or creating instructional materials.<\/p>\n