Today’s education leaders know that going digital is a reality. For example, the amount of digital teaching materials used in the classroom has increased over the past three years. Although these changes come with challenges, they also bring huge advantages for districts, curriculum directors, teachers, students and parents.
Therefore, using a dynamic curriculum management solution will ensure district-wide standards and promote personalized teaching and learning. Above all, consistency in teaching is essential, as it allows you to assess the performance of students and teachers against common standards. With this knowledge, you can quickly identify individuals, groups, or subject areas that need special attention, and uncover best practices from throughout the district. One key to making this happen is high-quality curriculum management.
Every district has its own vision and goals. As a result, there is no single ‘best’ curriculum management model, and it can be hard to choose the right one for you. To give you a starting point, we’ve outlined the four most common methods that we’ve seen districts use successfully:
1. Mass Migration
Mass migration is a practical approach to curriculum management. Courses and course plans are created centrally to ensure they match the curriculum and standards. Then, teachers are given access to additional curriculum materials that they can use to supplement and personalize their teaching.
2. Jump-started and Crowd-sourced
The jump-started approach gives teachers a great deal of freedom in how they teach the curriculum. Teachers structure their courses with resources that have been linked to the curriculum and learning goals. The key to success is to provide a wide variety of teaching materials, as well as training and support for teachers.
3. Focused Best Practices
In this approach, the district creates course templates for its teachers based on best practices. The templates include a standards-aligned course planner, as well as teaching resources.
4. Universal Design for Learning
Universal Design for Learning is an education plan based on forming flexible learning environments that can adapt to individual learning differences. To achieve this, teachers are given access to a variety of teaching resources designed to give students multiple ways to collect information and demonstrate their learning.
When it comes to curriculum management, there is no right or wrong answer; the best solution depends on where you’re at and what you want to achieve.
Whichever model you choose, a K-12 Learning Management System, like itslearning, can improve your teaching workflow. Most importantly, an LMS can help align all teaching resources with standards and integrate everything into your teaching strategy. Furthermore, standards-aligned reports can provide everyone (teacher, student, parent and district) progress and performance information. Ultimately, this allows students to take control of their learning with standards mastery reported in real time.
Download this eBook to discover four examples of each of these proven curriculum management models. You’ll read their unique case studies and get a checklist to ensure your team is ready to go digital.
