The curriculum

development cycle

Eight steps to better

schools and better learning
Let’s examine what happens in each step of the
curriculum development/revision cycle. This
cycle is a dynamic system that helps each school
re-vitalize and replenish what is taught to its
students.
 Needs Assessment

For one child in 90 SAT-9

special education, this 80
70
would include his test 60 Otis-
scores 50 Lennon
40
For a campus, this 30
20 Gradua
might include 10 tion
achievement test 0

1st Qtr

3rd Qtr
data, attendance, Colleg
e
graduation, college- comp.
going rate, and
others
 Types of assessments

Normative such as Criterion-referenced

Achievement tests such as
IQ tests, group and Brigance for
individual individual testing
Learning styles Woodcock-Johnson
inventories can be interpreted as
Adaptive behavior criterion-related
Individual or
analytical reading
inventories
Don’t forget the qualitative information.
For either one child or for a school, interest
inventories can tell a lot, as can opinion
polls.
 Writing Goals (second
step)

Goals do not have to

be behavioral, but
should be translatable
into behavioral
language
Need enough goals to
point the way
Writing objectives (3rd)

Objectives are more

detailed
Audience, behavior,
conditions, degree
In cognitive, affective,
and psychomotor
domains
Assessments should
be written from
objectives
 Selecting content (4th)

For MRs, keep in mind the mental age of

the person or persons being written for.
Chronological ages are deceiving.
For special ed., keep it very utilitarian.
The content must be useful . . . These will
remember, at the most, one-half of what
normal persons would.
Build on students’ past experiences.
Organization of content (5)

Logical sequencing of content always

helps. But for LDs, and most MRs, it is
absolutely essential.
Build in some repetition
Provide for loop-backs for students to re-
visit things that they may have forgotten
Spiral curriculum is one very effective plan
 Selection of learning
experiences

Learning experiences
do not stand alone--
they must relate to
objectives
Fun!
Interesting!
Multi-sensory
Use technology as
often as possible
 Adaptation to teaching
situation

For campuses or districts, this seventh section is where teachers

make adjustments to make the new curriculum their own and in
their own ways in their classrooms.

For special education, this is where the related services

sometimes come in; special transportation, special technology,
nurse care, counseling on demand, wheelchairs, medical
assistance.
 Evaluation of curricula

1 For many years, this

0.8
was the step never
K1
taken
0.6
K2 Check to see how
0.4
K3 many students
0.2 A1 reached each
0 P1 objective
1st Qtr

3rd Qtr

For special education,

it’s the end-of-year
meeting
The evaluation at the end of one curriculum cycle
feeds right into the needs assessment of the next.
In this way, the curriculum of the school--or for
one child--is perpetually replenished and
revitalized.