(This week’s civic education and engagement column from Danville’s The Republican newspaper.)
One of our readers has noticed some candidates for school board seats promise to eliminate what they presume is objectionable content in classrooms, textbooks, and other educational materials. She wondered just how much influence school boards really have on what and how curriculum is delivered in local classrooms.
Should those candidates earn the voters’ favor, they’ll discover they have surprisingly little direct effect on what students learn. And if they take the time to review the curriculum and curricular materials themselves, they may also discover a sizable gap between some of the claims made about what’s happening in classrooms and what actually takes place there.
While Indiana law gives local districts responsibility for adopting curriculum and curricular materials, that doesn’t mean board members personally review every book, worksheet, or digital resource. There’s already a complex system in place to determine what belongs in Hoosier classrooms. The Indiana Department of Education reviews materials in several subject areas and publishes High-Quality Curricular Materials advisory lists. State law also places specific requirements on some subjects, particularly reading. Ultimately, however, curriculum adoption is handled locally, with districts responsible for making sure their materials meet state requirements and academic standards.
How do districts decide which books and materials to use? Every district is expected to have a comprehensive, public process. I’ll share Plainfield’s, because I’m most familiar with it. Their last textbook adoption was for English/Language Arts materials for kindergarten through fifth grade. That includes anything used to teach reading, writing, spelling, grammar, literature, and more – textbooks, classroom libraries, workbooks, and digital components. (People often wonder why districts continue to purchase textbooks when there are digital equivalents. Simple: the publishers won’t give you access to the digital stuff if you don’t buy their books.)
The packages of textbooks and other materials for each subject and grade level were reviewed by a committee of 52 people, including a board member, administrators, teachers, and parents from all five elementary schools. The district placed sample sets of the materials being considered in all five schools and the central office so the public could review them over a 30-day period. School board members were also encouraged to view the materials during this time.
A few years before I was elected, the principal asked me to be one of those parents on the textbook review committee. I eagerly agreed. I wish I hadn’t. Each grade level had dozens and dozens of books that needed to be reviewed. After spending hours trying to stay awake while reading content written for 7-year-olds, I decided to limit my review to a sampling of each set. The teachers on the committee had a much better understanding of which materials would best connect with the kids.
Questions also arise about how much freedom teachers have to choose curriculum for their classrooms. When it comes to deciding what students are expected to learn, the reality is very little. Indiana’s Academic Standards spell out what must be taught at every grade level and in every subject. There are more things to be taught than time in which to teach them. There’s no “spare” time for teachers to deliver a favorite lesson – unless it covers something in the standards.
What the standards don’t do is tell educators how to teach those standards. That’s where their training and experience comes in. Standards are long, boring lists of expected knowledge. It’s up to teachers to bring that knowledge to life in a way students find engaging and understandable.
So yes, school boards have an important role in curriculum. They formally approve what their districts adopt and are ultimately accountable for those decisions. But they don’t sit around the board table deciding what Mrs. Smith will teach third-graders Tuesday morning. By the time something reaches the board for approval, a great deal of the decision-making has already taken place through state requirements, professional review, and the district’s curriculum-adoption process.