"Just what the educational doctor ordered. Written in an easy-to-understand format, this guide contains excellent explanations and valuable models, guidelines, checklists, unit designs, and lesson designs to help teachers implement standards-based education in their classrooms." -Vaughn G. Rhudy, Teacher Shady Spring High School, WV "Zagranski, Whigham, and Dardenne tame the beast of accountability for principals, teachers, and parents by articulately defining what is really expected. A real guide for demystifying the complex world of standards-based education." -Erica Ann Faginski, Principal Michael E. Smith Middle School, South Hadley, MA Transforming your curriculum into a standards-based model: What every educator needs to know! This comprehensive handbook offers a data-driven curriculum design process to help educators meet today's standards of performance and assessment. Based on decades of hands-on experience, Richard Zagranski, William T. Whigham, and Patrice L. Dardenne provide a clear set of expectations and responsibilities for stakeholders at all three levels of the educational pyramid: teachers, teacher leaders/coordinators, and administrators. Their user-friendly approach, which both incorporates and looks beyond NCLB, shows readers how to take a standard, transform it into a performance objective, and design a corresponding assessment piece. The text includes: Standards-based guidelines and action plans Ready-to-use charts, rubrics, and templates Real-world examples and assessment methods Step-by-step instructions to ensure sustainability Chapter summaries and a glossary for easy reference Understanding Standards-Based Education leads educators through a well-defined course of curriculum revision and presents all participants with specific, need-to-know information for accomplishing mandated goals.
This comprehensive guide to standards-based education takes a collaborative and respectful stance toward teaching, learning, and accountability that both incorporates and looks beyond No Child Left Behind. Grounded in the authors' pyramid of responsibility, Understanding Standards-Based Education identifies what everyone needs to know about standards-based education, what 'most' stakeholders need to know, and what only 'some' stakeholders need to know. The authors focuses on clarifying role responsibilities and then invites effective participation by all. Among the core stakeholder-participants in the authors' system of standards-based education and accountability are students, parents, and teachers (level 1); team leaders, department chairs, and facilitators of standards-based curriculum (level 2); and principals, superintendents, and school boards/oversight committees (level 3). This invaluable resource includes: - An overview of NCLB legislation highlighting current areas of concern for all three stakeholder levels - A data-driven plan of action and assessment for transforming the traditional educational curriculum into a standards-based curriculum - Clear step-by-step instructions in every chapter to ensure sustainability of the standards-based system - The book's instructional approach incorporates best practices from direct instruction (Madeline Hunter), brain-based learning, differentiated instruction, and other core teaching methods as well as formative and summative student assessment techniques. - Each chapter features ready-to-use templates, charts, rubrics, and checklists for stakeholders at each of the three levels of responsibility. Filled with the authors' wealth of hands-on experience, this teacher-friendly text is ideal for teachers, curriculum planners, and instructional leaders.
