Sage Advice: Deciding What Students Learn

Only one thing matters. The needs of our students.

Bill Burdick

Language arts teacher

Perseus House Charter School

Erie, Pennsylvania

The talents and abilities the future will demand of our students, as determined by ongoing feedback from alumni and the larger community.

Bill Betzen

Computer-applications teacher

Raul Quintanilla Middle School

Dallas, Texas

The requirements of responsible citizenship! Public schools were designed to prepare the future citizens of our country, and the world. It is easy to lose sight of that in the midst of the clamor over standards, funding, and accountability. It is crucial that educators constantly examine the demands of responsible citizenship, and adjust their curricula to meet those demands.

Scott A. Laliberte

Assistant principal

Gilford Elementary School

Gilford, New Hampshire

The factors that drive my curriculum are all data driven: first, the assessment of the skills the students arrive with to my class, then meeting them where they are, with priority given to skills that will be tested in March on the state comprehensive assessment.

Debbie Perry

Math teacher

Stranahan High School

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

The driving force behind curriculum is determining students' needs using the African principle of sankofa, looking behind to clearly envision the future. Advancements in curricular design are spurred on by assessing our changing world. Young people are inheriting one that is smaller and glutted with information. To go beyond simply regurgitating facts is key to empowering youths. By taking those facts and processing them, they can begin asking why, how, and so what? Those are the questions that change passive consumers into critical evaluators.

Beverley Mowatt-Plaskett

Director of math and technology curriculum

Windward School

White Plains, New York

Too many times, we're wrapped up in what makes our lives and jobs easier rather than how we can make the kids love learning -- particularly our subject -- and help them achieve and excel in both school and life. The effect on students should be the number-one gauge when any decision is made regarding schools.

Brian Drumbore

Band director

Mount Pleasant High School

Wilmington, Delaware

We should consider first what is developmentally appropriate for each grade level, then what ways are developmentally appropriate to teach that developmentally appropriate curriculum. Too many "developmentally appropriate's" in this short response? Not nearly enough!

Linda Mackenzie

Full-day kindergarten teacher

Blakely Elementary School

Bainbridge Island, Washington

The prime factor to be considered is the relevance of the material to the lives of our learners. Unless there is a way learners can recognize an actual connection between the material and their real life, they will have no interest in the material. Once something is relevant, then we need to attend to the comprehensibility for all. Of course, we need to tie this material to the accountability measures, but learning simply for the sake of learning is always valuable.

Susan Just

Teacher

San Antonio, Texas

Social behavior and geological issues should be at the forefront of student learning. Children should be taught to question information and validate "facts" posed to them via their textbooks, the Internet, the news media, and the advertising community. Also, our children should acquire the ability to identify systems and how they behave -- cause-and-effect relationships. Proficiency in this skill will enable our children to excel in sciences of all types.

Kay Lera

Instructional-technology specialist

Waynesboro Public Schools

Waynesboro, Virginia