Table of Contents

Foreword - Fenwick W. English
Preface
About the Author
About the Balanced Curriculum Web Site
Introduction
Section I. Curriculum Tools and Concepts: Textbooks, Standards, Alignment, and Standardized Testing
1. Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment, and Standards
2. Textbooks: What the Research Says
3. Understanding and Using National, State, and Local Frameworks and Standards
4. The Importance of Aligning Curriculum
5. The Conundrum of Standardized Testing
Section II. The Design of the Balanced Curriculum
6. Curriculum Structure and Criteria for a Useful and Useable Curriculum
7. The Balanced Curriculum Process
8. Setting Up the Curriculum Writing Process
9. Defining the Components of a Good Program
10. Reviewing Standards, Sequencing Courses, Describing Units, and Delineating Unit Timelines
11. Other Standards for Alignment and Balance
12. Generating and Validating Significant Tasks
13. Aligning the Balanced Curriculum With Standards and Assessments
14. Balancing the Aligned Curriculum
15. Constructing Content Assessments
16. Constructing Format Assessments
Section III. Staff Development for and Results of the Balanced Curriculum
17. Introducing the Balanced Curriculum Process in a District
18. Staff Development to Promote Curriculum Implementation
19. The Superintendent′s Role - Philomena T. Pezzano
20. The Results So Far: Fifteen Years of Data From Urban, Suburban, and Rural Schools
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

David A. Squires is currently an associate professor working with doctoral students in the Educational Leadership Program at Southern Connecticut State University, specializing in curriculum, school reform, and organizational development. Previous positions include with the Comer School Development Program at Yale University; as a central office administrator for over a decade in Red Bank, New Jersey, where student achievement improved from below to above grade level; as a research specialist at Research for Better Schools in Philadelphia; as a graduate research assistant in the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh, where he received his doctorate in curriculum and super­vision with minors in language arts education and administration; and as a high school English teacher in suburban Pittsburgh and inner-city Cleveland. He heads a con­sulting firm, ABC Education Consultants, LLC, that assists school districts in writing and implementing the Balanced Curriculum.

Reviews

"A coherent approach to curriculum, instruction, and assessment in the age of standards-driven education. It will be an excellent contribution."
*H. Lynn Erickson*

"I’m happy with the Balanced Curriculum process, my Board is happy, and my students are benefiting from it."
*Philomena T. Pezzano, District Superintendent*

"The book builds a bridge of confidence that will convince readers of both the ideas and of their own ability to succeed."
*David W. Champagne, Professor Emeritus*

"A wonderful and thorough explanation of the Balanced Curriculum."
*Michelle Barnea, Educational Consultant*

"The work that Dr. Squires has done in moving the curriculum development process onto the Web has removed some of the tedium involved in crafting curriculum, making it ‘user friendly’ and open to the kinds of ongoing changes that make the promise of continual renewal of curriculum a reality."
*From the Foreword by Fenwick W. English, R. Wendell Eaves Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership*