The Curriculum Bridge: From Standards to Actual Classroom Practice Book

	Preface
	About the Author
1	Why Standards and Tests Are on the Front Page	1
	At the Top of the Political Agenda: Education	2
	Why the Focus on Standards and Tests?	3
	The No Child Left Behind Legislation	4
	The Media Influence Opinions on Standards	9
	The Origins of the Current Wave of Public Concern	11
	Initial Responses of the Educational Community	13
	Government Calls for Reform	15
	Initial Responses to the Calls for Reform	16
	Standards in Other Countries	17
	A Summary: Systemic Change, Restructuring, and Reform	19
2	Who Chooses the Curriculum: Are Standards and Tests Necessary?	22
	Some Charismatic Differences of Opinion	23
	The Public Responds	25
	Teachers and Teacher Organizations Respond	27
	Teacher Educators and Researchers Respond	29
	Control of Curriculum	32
	Nongovernment Influences on Curriculum	36
	Getting Ready to Design Curriculum	48
3	What We Now Know About How Learning Happens	50
	Educational Philosophy: Piaget and Constructivism	53
	The Changing Nature of the Concept of Intelligence	59
	Cognition, Metacognition, and Goals: Connections to Practice	72
	Interest	73
	Real Experiences and Technology in the Instructional Process	74
4	Choosing Standards and "Designing Them Down"	81
	The Curriculum Committee Meets	82
	A Bit of History	84
	Defining Standards in New Terms	86
	Curriculum Enactment	89
5	Constructing Creative Classrooms	102
	Organizing the Environment	103
	The Actors	114
	The Script	119
6	How Are We Doing? Measuring Success	127
	Standards and Their Measures	128
	The Purposes of Measures or Assessments	129
	The Consequences of High-Stakes Assessments	132
	Improving HSSB Tests	134
	Where Should Meg, April, and Brad Begin?	136
	A History of Assessment Forms	138
	Challenge 1: Establishing Validity	141
	Challenge 2: Tasks or Performances Versus Concepts	141
	Challenge 3: Writing Rubrics	149
	Challenge 4: Disaggregating the Assessment Results	153
	Challenge 5: Levels of Performance, Grading	156
	Challenge 6: Sharing Results With Students, Parents, and the Community	157
7	Where Do We Go From Here?	162
	Where Will the Leadership for Needed Change Come From?	163
	Professional Development for Teachers	169
	Using Technology and Its Networks for Sharing Curriculum and Research	176
	Technology for Communicating With Our Public	176
	References	179
	Index	191