I have read with great interest recent newspaper articles indicating that the Chicago Board of Education is thinking of establishing a standard curriculum for the Chicago Public Schools.
I not only enthusiastically support this idea but would like to add a personal note from my experiences working with Chicago schools as to why a standard curriculum is absolutely necessary. In a word: mobility.
For more than 20 years we have been involved with Chicago-area elementary schools through the Teaching Integrated Math and Science (TIMS) program developed in the math and physics departments at The University of Illinois at Chicago. In a special four-year study, we pre- and post-tested participating children in the quantitative hands-on concepts of TIMS.
There were 2,835 children in grades 1 through 4 in 11 schools. We fully expected to test 2,835 children over four years and work closely with the original 11 principals and 22 lead teachers. How naive.
Only three of the 11 principals remained in the schools after four years. Only one of the 11 schools retained both of its lead teachers and its principal. That is a batting average of .090, not very good in any league. And as for the original 2,835 children, we could account for only 837 who had taken four consecutive exams.
When we looked at type of school, we found that the percentage of students who remained at the same school after four years was 40 percent for predominantly white schools, 38 percent for predominantly black parochial schools in the city, 32 percent for predominantly Hispanic schools and only 9 percent for predominantly black public schools. Everybody moves! Everybody is mobile!
So we had two groups of children: those who continued with TIMS and those who did not. We were actually able to measure the difference in test scores between these two groups, and the results were amazing. The scores of the children who stayed in the program rose continuously over the four years, gaining as much as two to three years in achievement level in a single year. But for those who stopped at some point, their scores either stayed the same or fell–often by as much as two years in a single year!
Interestingly, when some of these children were back in the TIMS program, their scores started back up. What is true for TIMS must be true for educational programs in general. Mobility can lead to educational disaster.
So how do we guarantee that a child always follows an upward learning curve, that the child is always advancing intellectually, that he or she is always “in the program.” Easy. With a standard, citywide curriculum. This means the same lesson at the same time everywhere.
A child can’t “hide” from a lesson if that lesson will be waiting no matter what school the child attends. Gains that were made will continue because the educational environment will be continuous. Likewise with principals and teachers. A standard curriculum means that principals and teachers can master the basics and expect to be able to put them into practice wherever they go.
If we have the will and the common sense to bring it off, then we can move on to the next step–a nationwide curriculum. Chicago could lead the way. Let’s go for it.
