Changes And Leadership In Crowley Independent School District

Changes and Leadership

In Crowley Independent School District, changing the curriculum is multifaceted. There is a Curriculum Management Plan that details the intentions and directions for the district in curriculum, instructional, and assessment areas meant to ensure curriculum quality control of design and delivery (Crowley ISD, 2021, p. 3). Changing curriculum is no small task and is taken seriously. Everyone is involved in the process because there are five curriculum levels which include national, state, district, school, and classroom (Glatthorn et al., 2017, p.44). It starts with leadership and works down to the teachers.

The Board of Trustees is responsible for establishing policies to support curriculum development and evaluation

5). They are also responsible for providing the funds for professional learning opportunities that focus on those and communicate this through policy and supportive administrative procedures (Crowley ISD, 2021, p. 5). From the Board of Trustees, the process moves to the superintendent to develop policies and procedures to guide the curriculum design, delivery, evaluation, decision-making process and support for the campus leadership team (Crowley ISD, 2021, p. 5). Once completed, the proposal is made to the Board of Trustees for adoption. Should the proposal receive approval, the district-level administrators will implement the policies and procedures while providing needed assistance and collecting data for reporting to staff and the board. The Department of Curriculum and Instruction assists campus teachers and staff with understanding the curriculum by developing, building, training, and making

This curriculum is new to the district, with a few classes piloting the curriculum last school year. Not taught in my previous district, but they have adopted it this year. After teaching this curriculum for just about eight months, it is effective. This statement is being made as throughout the eight months of teaching it in first grade and kindergarten, those who have been exposed to the curriculum in kindergarten outperformed those who had not been exposed to it when they were assessed in first grade. As the students in my classroom have not been assessed at the district level twice due to various reasons such as never being in school, prior to kindergarten and starting after the beginning of the year testing it is unclear how they have grown on that assessment but in class using the curriculum has given them a chance to do well on the end-of-year assessment. Note that my class was created as an overflow classroom for kindergarten students who arrived in the district later in the school year. Many enrolled in November, with the most recent group arriving in January. The reason these students have a chance to be successful in the upcoming assessment is because the curriculum revisits and builds on previous standards taught in depth. Because the students missed a large portion of the lessons, having those standards come back periodically