As everyone adds preparing for the winter break to his/her responsibilities, secondary instruction has been working diligently to plan the curriculum for middle and high schools for the 2020-2021 school year. The process includes many different steps with a goal of listening to stakeholder interests and passions, while taking into account the needs of the community.
The first step in reviewing and developing the curriculum offerings for a new school year is meeting with all department leads from each content area from both middle school and high schools. These meetings began during the last week of October and continued through the last week of November. During each of these meetings, lead teachers, an administrator, and often other members of the department of focus came together to discuss their proposed changes and edits to the curriculum. In addition, the teachers had the opportunity to pitch their ideas for new courses. By having sister schools in the same room together, along with one of their administrators, many decisions were able to be made during the meeting. This collaborative time also became an opportunity for teachers to brainstorm about the possibility of other courses and content that they had not originally planned on discussing. There were also proposed suggestions that teachers wanted to reflect on more closely before an agreement was reached. Oftentimes, the group may begin with one idea, but through conversation and collaboration, a better, more refined idea emerges.
Based on these meetings, surveys were created for both students and teachers to gauge interest in the new courses that were proposed. Some examples of new course proposals are as follows: Technical Theatre and Speech / Debate (middle school); American Sign Language and Baking / Pastry Arts (high school). These interest surveys have been shared with both of the middle schools and high schools and will go to students and teachers during the week of December 9 - December 12. Once this data is collected, it will be shared with Dr. Donaldson and the secondary principals during the next step in the process.
Shortly after the return from winter break, the process to develop the proposed curriculum for the 2020-2021 school year will be completed, and the new curriculum will be shared with Madison City Schools’ superintendent, Mr. Parker, and Madison City Schools Board of Education for their perusal and for their approval.
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