Mat-Su Schools rework districtwide curriculum

MAT-SU -- More than 60 Mat-Su Borough School District teachers and educators spent several days over the past two weeks reviewing math problems and historical eras that Valley students should be learning in school. They also worked to iron out a time line for when certain subjects should be taught.

The process, which is taking place at the district offices in Palmer, is part of the district's goal to align nine content areas so they fit statewide standards. In March, the state issued mandatory standards for reading, writing and math, explaining precisely what students would be tested on in grades 3-10.

In addition to reading, writing and math, the Mat-Su district is also currently determining the scope and order of other subjects like science, history and health. State and federal governments do not test these subjects, allowing individual districts a measure of freedom in developing their own content and curricula in these areas.

While Mat-Su schools have long taught these subjects, they just recently began updating and changing them to better flow from grade to grade.

So far the process has taken more than a year, as teams of curriculum writers, teachers and educators continue hammering out the district's educational goals.

Connie Lutz, curriculum and assessment director for Mat-Su Schools, said the district has worked hard to finish the curriculum alignment, but much work remains ahead.

Lutz said the state recently changed its testing companies and grade-level performance expectations, which meant that the Mat-Su Borough School District had to realign its curriculum.

"The scope and sequence of Mat-Su Borough curriculum hadn't been looked at since the late 1990s and it was not in line with state expectations," Lutz said. "It wasn't that Mat-Su schools had low expectations. If anything, ours is more extensive than the state's."

Lutz was hired last year to direct the curriculum council and oversee curriculum-writing teams. The writing teams, consisting of teachers, principals and psychologists, took the existing Mat-Su district curriculum and began aligning it, grade by grade, to fit statewide standards. In some cases, Lutz said Mat-Su schools were teaching things in the third grade that the state was testing in the fourth grade, and vice versa.

"We weren't teaching things that were being tested for that year," Lutz said.

The writing teams consisted of representatives from schools all over the district as well as the various grade levels and subject areas.

Once the teams finished writing the academic content, the product was turned over to local educators to review, add to the content and, in some cases, suggest removing certain portions altogether.

"Those nine writing groups worked in isolation from one another," Lutz said. "Now we need to see if there are things that can be moved up or down the grade levels in subjects other than reading, writing and math."

Reading, writing and math must be fixed to the state expectations because the state tests them each year. All other subjects can be moved around or combined.

Lutz said teachers will finish making recommendations by Friday, Nov. 12.

Next, principals will look at the curriculum and then the writing teams will come back together to make final revisions.

Once everyone has weighed in, the curriculum council will make a final recommendation to Mat-Su Borough School Board members in May or June 2005. At that point, the board will either accept or reject the newly aligned curriculum.

Lutz said she believes the updated curriculum will enhance Valley schools by enabling teachers at each grade level to cover the same subject matter, regardless of where they teach.

According to Lutz, this standardized approach will ensure students are progressing in their academic skills and knowledge, are able to pass the High School Graduation Qualifying Exam and can then graduate with a meaningful education.

Contact Joel Davidson at joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.