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City Schools Seek Standard Curriculum

Posted on: Friday, 24 December 2004, 03:01 CST

Come next fall, Lancaster city school teachers will teach the same subjects the same way from kindergarten to 12th grade.

Members of the education committee are creating a districtwide curriculum that will first start with reading and then add other subjects.

Parents can hear discussion of the first draft of the districtwide reading curriculum at a board meeting at 7 tonight. The board meets at McCaskey High School (Concert Hall), 445 N. Reservoir St.

"It will bring uniformity to the reading program in the School District of Lancaster," Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Rose Sampson said. "On any given period, teachers should be teaching the same concepts."

This is a big deal, officials said.

There hasn't been a comprehensive reading curriculum in the district since 1988, Superintendent Rita Bishop said. By fall, the curriculum will add writing, math, science and social studies, officials said.

And the students will reap the benefits by the start of fall classes.

"There won't be 20 different approaches," Bishop said. "It's very important for the mobility of our population."

Students could change schools in the middle of the year, for instance, and recognize the concepts that their new teacher is teaching.

But there's so much more to it.

The proposed curriculum will address state and national standards, the order in which students learn, methods for setting up workshops, suggestions for textbooks, motivational programs and grade-level expectations.

Grade-level expectations for reading will progress year to year. Some examples for reading are:

Third-graders will read books independently with 95 percent accuracy, making predictions on how the story will finish.

Sixth-graders will identify story elements: plot, climax, antagonist, protagonist and conflict.

Ninth-, 10th- and 11th-graders will compare, contrast and analyze cultural values, norms, stereotypes, beliefs and symbolism within and across several pieces of fiction.

Students might examine stereotypes in "Of Mice and Men" and "The House on Mango Street," committee member Deb Kauffman said.

It's been a slow process.

Members of the education committee have toiled away for a year to create the reading curriculum draft. Officials expect it to come before the board for a vote sometime in spring.

By then, it will include writing curriculum. Math, science and social studies curriculum will come later, but in time for fall classes.

Bishop believes this will change lives.

Take writing.

"The paramount in this whole thing is writing, writing, writing," Bishop said. "Excellent writers are excellent thinkers."

And that means good writers can succeed in any subject.

The district math program won't change much. It's in good shape and just needs refinement, Bishop said.

Science is moving to the forefront as federal legislation requires that states test students in science in 2007.

Lancaster public school students need to prepare.

"I want the (science) curriculum in place, so that the kids have a serious academic heads up," Bishop said.

Social studies is essential to a quality education, too, said education committee chairwoman Veronica Urdaneta.

"You have to give them culture," Urdaneta said. "You have to teach them everything about the world around them."

For now, the education committee has a lot of work to do.

Committee meetings are open to the public and held on the second Thursday of every month at 6 p.m. at the district office, 1020 Lehigh Ave. The next one is Jan.13.

Urdaneta wants parents to attend.

"Sometimes parents think that they don't have any part to play in this," Urdaneta said. "Of course they do."

(Copyright 2004 Lancaster Newspapers)

Source: Lancaster New Era

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