Succeeding With Standards: Linking Curriculum, Assessment, and Action Planning

In many schools and districts, the local curriculum is a hodgepodge of individual initiatives knit together by collective good intentions. Succeeding with Standards: Linking Curriculum, Assessment, and Action Planning describes a practical, school-tested solution to the challenge of creating a curriculum. Building on their work in How to Use Standards in the Classroom, Judy F. Carr and Douglas E. Harris describe a comprehensive process by which schools and districts can turn piecemeal initiatives into a coherent plan.

Carr and Harris draw on extensive experience with schools across the United States, and groundbreaking work in Vermont, to depict the standards-linking process. They describe how to

* Create a curriculum and assessment plan

* Define effective practice

* Create a comprehensive assessment system

* Map out a path to success through action planning

They also consider how to approach reporting results and professional development in a standards-based environment. Improved student performance is the centerpiece of all these standards-linking processes. Carr and Harris emphasize this point, clearly keeping Standards Linking in the context of bettering academic performance for all children. Plentiful figures and examples highlight Carr and Harris's insights and advice. An extensive glossary and helpful list of selected resources round out the volume.

Judy F. Carr teaches half-time in the Educational Leadership Program at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. She is also codirector of the Center for Curriculum Renewal, a consultant, facilitator, professional development specialist, workshop presenter, and program evaluator with educators and policy makers in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean. She is coauthor or coeditor of the following books: A Pig Don t Get Fatter the More You Weigh It: Balancing Classroom Assessment; Creating Dynamic Schools Through Mentoring, Coaching, and Collaboration; Succeeding with Standards: Linking Curriculum, Assessment, and Action Planning; How to Use Standards in the Classroom; Integrated Studies in the Middle Grades: Dancing Through Walls; and Living and Learning in the Middle Grades: The Dance Continues: A Festschrift for Chris Stevenson. Carr has expertise in K-12 curriculum, instruction, and assessment; standards-based education reform; design of professional development materials and processes; systems change implementation with leadership teams in school districts and state agencies; and middle grades education. She has been a middle school teacher and a K-12 curriculum director. She was the recipient of the second annual Vermont ASCD Curriculum Leadership Award.