What influence does a school have on curriculum?

Question

What influence does a school have on curriculum?

Answer 1

From my experience, each district chooses it's own curriculum, based on state and federal requirements. Our previous district had chosen a math curriculum designed by college kids and published...not the typical, mediocre but 'developmental' and so popular.

Schools can appeal to the district for needs based curriculum, esp for children with special needs, and they have some influence. My child with autism needed a different math curriculum than the one mentioned above and so the school bought a different one.

The development of curriculum is something I know a little about as well, as my friend used to work with Saxon publishers. If you heard the stories, you'd be horrified. It's little more than a popularity contest, they gather up what lobbyists push for, guess what mainstream thinking is, and put it into a book and try to sell it with their own lobbyists to the schools. Pretty much every company follows the same pattern.

Answer 2

Considering you asked this in the homeschool section, my answer is each school (homeschool family, some states consider each family to be a private school) has complete authority in choosing the curriculum.

That's yet another beautiful thing about homeschooling: families are not forced to use a certain curriculum because a lobby group says so.

Unless, of course, that lobby group is a kitchen table full of the most precious kiddos in the world (your own)!

Answer 3

When I was a homeschool student I had a say in what curriculum my school used!  My parents would take me to homeschool book fairs so I could get a first hand look at what was available to me.  Sometimes I was out-voted in my selection, but for the most part it was a family affair to get new books.  I also used the library alot.  They have a pretty good selection there. ;)

Answer 4

Well, the area schools have zero influence on our curriculum...I, as a homeschool teacher, and my son, as a homeschool parent, have 100% influence on our curriculum.  We weed through tons of choices to find what will be the best fit for us.  If we can't find what will work, I research the information and produce a curriculum for my son myself.

Curriculum publishers, knowing that we won't pay for books and supplies that we won't use, listen to our needs and do their best to deliver.  Because our curriculum providers are marketing to individual families rather than school systems that will place an order for hundreds of books, they are more likely to meet our needs.

Answer 5

Homeschool fabricators have a lot of influence.  They generally commission their works and establish guidelines.

A lot of religious companies use Creationism in Science and even History as an adjunct.

Bricks schools don't have any say.  The system provides their books, the state dicates what must be covered.

Private schools have say.  If a private school decides, like in one I attended, to teach Spanish in 5th grade that do it.

A public School teacher has a say to a degree when no one is looking.

The True story of STAND AND DELIVER that teacher was supposed to teach computers but they had no computers, so he taught what he wanted and he eventually decided to teach Calculus.

I mean if you have no computers you can't teach computer, so you teach something else instead!

But this is rare and a teacher can get fired for doing it.

There is, however, a generally accepted circulum and ALL systems tend to follow it.

As an example 8th grade is Algebra 1 and 2 9th is Geomentry 1 and 2, 10 this Trig

9th is Biology

8th starts micro history with things like the Mercantile System, feudalism, etc.

12th is Civics, Economics, Statistics, Pre Calc, Math Chemistry or Physics.

These are basic GIVENS and most circulums be that Brick School, Private School, Penn Foster, ABeka follow these to a degree.

Answer 6

We choose our own curriculum as homeschoolers. I know certain things are taught at certain grades - but I don't necessarily do them at that time. My daughter is currently on the third grade level - which is generally when cursive is taught. I personally prefer she work more on her manuscript rather than rushing into cursive. Very few people actually even use a standardized cursive nowadays.

We can buy the same books our school district & state use - however I have found them to be far more costly then things that are specifically sold for homeschoolers.

Personally, if I was concerned about my child following a set curriculum based on a school - my child would probably be in that school. My child is an individual, not one of 30+ students in a classroom.

Answer 7

Very little if any.

The only thing schools can buy is what is being offered by the textbook companies.

Curriculum's, and the content of these textbooks are developed by the companies who publish them, based on what the national standards are supposed to be, and sometimes based on laws governing area's to be covered in these books.

Answer 8

Schools have very little influence on the creation of curriculum itself. Generally publishers now have to match state objectives to sell their texts. Often smaller states are ignored in favor of matching to the big states objectives (sometimes called frameworks).

Are you asking if they have influence on the adoption of curriculum specific to a school? If so, most public schools will have a list of state approved texts that they can select from. In some districts the school board has the final say for curriculum slection. In other districts it is the teacher.

Supplemental materials for the classroom are a different story. It is the teacher buying those herself from internet or school supply buisnesses. To sell those, the publisher must meet the needs of the teacher not the state. Many of these materials are written by teachers themselves.