"This engaging book will guide your journey through the morass of curriculum alignment, development, and assessment. Our school struggled through missteps in curriculum alignment and implementing common assessments without the benefit of Makas' wisdom and experience. I highly recommend this book for teachers, administrators, and interested parents." -Robert A. Martin, Leadership Consultant Oakland Schools, Waterford, MI Raise schoolwide performance with a systematic, teacher-driven approach to curriculum development! Purposeful curriculum design is essential to attaining consistent academic improvement. Educators often find, however, that a viable curriculum based on mandated standards can be exceedingly challenging to create, implement, and sustain. In this book, curriculum consultant Elaine Makas provides a step-by-step guide to establishing the processes and documents necessary to build a stable, cohesive curriculum system that aligns to educational benchmarks. Based on the DAILY model (Data, Alignment, Instructional Pace Guides, Local Common Assessment, and Yearly Review), this system deconstructs the curriculum process into sequential steps that facilitate the development of instructional priorities, reveal students in need of intervention, and help ensure continuous process improvement. With numerous templates, samples, and reflective exercises, this book clearly demonstrates how to: Collect and analyze data, identify expectations, and recognize learning gaps Develop curriculum maps that align with standards and grade-level subject goals Pace instruction throughout the year according to specific objectives Create assessments that predict standardized test performance Conduct yearly improvement reviews and documentation revisions An essential resource for all schools or districts, whether struggling or successful, From Mandate to Achievement enables K-12 principals, district administrators, curriculum facilitators, and teacher teams to establish a consistent and accurate curriculum process that increases academic achievement and drives continuous school improvement.
Elaine Makas Howard has 25 years of experience in education. She has served numerous districts in Michigan in curriculum, career development and counseling processes as a regional director of Instructional Services. She is also a systems consultant with Curriculum Connections, a business she co-owns. Ms. Howard has a specialist degree from Saginaw Valley State University in Educational Leadership with an emphasis on curriculum. She has a master's degree from Central Michigan University in school guidance and a bachelor's degree from Western Michigan University in history. She is certified in central office and secondary administration, counseling, and 7-12 social studies secondary education. Ms. Howard's work experience includes secondary teacher, community education director, and curriculum consultant. She lives in Cass City, Michigan with three of her four sons.
Acknowledgments About the Author Introduction Part I. Foundations of Purpose and Implementation 1. An Introduction to Teacher-Led Curriculum Processes: The DAILY Curriculum System 2. A Brief Theoretical Foundation: Why Build a Curriculum System Through Teacher-Led Processes? 3. Getting Ready: Planning for the Components of the DAILY Curriculum System Part II. A Planned Journey of Curriculum Processes 4. Data First: What Is Our Data Telling Us About Our Teaching and Our Students? 5. Curriculum Alignment: Do We Have a Match Between Standards and Instruction? 6. Developing Instructional Goals: Keeping a Bridge Between Curriculum Processes and Instruction 7. Creating Curriculum Maps: The Connection Between Instruction and Standards 8. Instructional Pace Guides: Adding Instructional Depth With Key Concepts and Essential Questions 9. The Final Link: Building Local Common Assessments Part III. Maintaining Stability and Success 10. Creating Stability: Sustaining, Monitoring, and Adjusting a Curriculum Process System Conclusion: Reflections on a Curriculum System Resource A: Further Reading Resource B: Sample Agendas Resource C: Blank Forms Resource D: Sample Curriculum Maps Resource E: Sample Local K?8 Common Assessment Manual for English Language Arts and Mathematics References Index
"Elaine Makas gives educators a much-needed guide to providing meaningful, productive assistance in the improvement of instruction for the 21st century. She addresses the challenges that face teachers and administrators to implement standards and align them to the criteria of high-stakes testing. She does this through the dynamics and complexities of working with teacher teams. Her hands-on experience leads her to provide many tables, charts, and facilitator tips that are extremely helpful to practitioners." -- Eric J. Follo, Professor of Education "Elaine Makas has created an engaging tool that many educators need! This book will guide your journey through the morass of curriculum alignment, development, and assessment. From Mandate to Achievement is exactly the book I required as a principal! Our school struggled through missteps in curriculum alignment and implementing common assessments without the benefit of Makas' wisdom and experience. I highly recommend this book for teachers, administrators, and interested parents." -- Robert A. Martin, Leadership Consultant "This is definitely a how-to book with helpful pacing guides and plenty of strategies for implementing the ideas presented." -- Laurie Emery, Principal
