Match your agency resources to national academic standards and require teachers to weave the attainment of the standards into the design of their units.

   Experiences:

All of the Consortium projects associated their resources with academic standards for learning and requested their teams' teachers to develop lessons that supported the national standards. Many of the groups found that the teachers were unaccustomed to using the national academic standards, but did have more familiarity with their own state or district standards. Many teachers were unsure how to design standards-based curriculum and some of them thought that standards were controversial. Some teams gave the educators print or CD-ROM copies of the national standards or directed them to Internet sites where the standards can be found. Professional development activities and materials were also provided on them on how to use standards appropriately when designing curriculum.

   Recommendations:

• Use the application process to begin to determine the teachers' familiarity with the national academic standards appropriate for your resources.
• Provide references to or copies of the relevant standards and assess the teachers' understanding of how to use them in the early stages of developing the project.
• Plan professional development activities that will continue to foster teacher growth through discussion, reflection, and feedback.

<< Communication    |   Timeline for the learning module >>