Curriculum 2.0

[Anonymous]

Is there any way to influence the adoption or application of this new curriculum or is it basically a done deal? Is there anything to be gained from raising questions about this approach or would it simply serve no purpose? Who would you even raise questions to in MCPS? It seems that the teachers have no say in what they teach. They are learning the curriculum and our teacher said she only know the lesson plan for one week ahead. I love our teacher and don't want to waste her time. I get the impression that our principal is primarily concerned with getting high test scores to beat out her competition from the other schools in the cluster.

The new curriculum was pitched to us as a response to parents concerns regarding the lack of science, art, music, social sciences, and physical activity. However, every example of their new integrated approach only gave diluted lip service to those areas. For example, a child making a map would be considered art and social sciences. I'm using this example because it is actually one of the better ones but making a map and not learning about the culture, history, or geographical influences is not really social sciences any more than cutting and gluing shapes is really art. The integration seems to be a way of avoiding cutting back test prep time by still not allowing for any quality classroom time focusing on these subjects or any budget expenditures for materials, specialized teachers, or teacher training.