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The intended mathematics curriculum as represented in state-level curriculum standards : consensus or confusion?

This volume represents a detailed analysis of the grade placement of mathematics learning goals across all state-level curriculum standards published as of May 2005. The volume documents the varied grade-level mathematics curriculum expectations in the U.S. and highlights a general lack of consensus across states. As states continue to work to improve learning opportunities for all students this report can serve as a useful summary to inform future curriculum decisions. The report is also intended to stimulate discussion at the national level regarding roles and responsibilities of national agencies and professional organizations with regard to curriculum leadership. Serious and collaborative work that results from such discussions can contribute to a more coherent, focused mathematics curriculum for US students.

Online EBSCO Academic Comprehensive Collection

Teacher Adaptation of Document-Based History Curricula: Results of the Reading Like a Historian Curriculum-Use Survey

Although most teachers adapt curriculum, we know little about teachers’ rationales for modifying materials, how these rationales align with actual modifications, nor whether any patterns exist in the modifications that teachers make. This is especially the case in history/social studies, where research on curriculum is scant and research on teacher adaptation of curriculum is virtually non-existent. This paper addresses that gap. We report the results of a large-scale survey on curriculum use with over 1,900 history teachers. The online survey focused on how and why teachers use and adapt lesson materials from a free online history curriculum and prompted teachers to upload examples of curriculum materials they had modified. We found that individual differences among teachers correlated with particular types of modifications. Moreover, we found that teachers were motivated to modify materials to address their students’ needs, and that their modifications rarely affected the core structure—or theory of content—of the lessons. We argue that such alignment between teachers and curricular materials represents an example of curricular fit. We discuss what curricular design features may have contributed to the high level of curricular fit among users as well as the implications of this construct for curriculum implementation efforts across subject areas.

The natural world and science education in the United States

This book focuses on the representation of nature in science education in schools in the United States. Given the importance of our relationship with the nonhuman world for the fate of our planet, this work gives special attention to the representation, instruction, and understanding of the relationship between the social and the natural world. It also proposes an alternative, sustainability science-based conceptual framework for ecology and environmental science topics in science education, which is compatible with the current social-ecological understanding of life in the Anthropocene epoch.