Reflection on Curriculum in the Twenty First Century : Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Brazil have much to offer a school district struggling to promote performance based assessment and curricula.

         As I have been learning about curriculum in the twenty first century, I have been doing some comparative and contrastive analysis regarding the present scenario in my district. My analysis is in practice as my school district is in the midst of adopting an entirely performance based assessment and standards aligned curriculum. This is quite a change for most, and it is affecting how we structure our entire day from the Pledge of Allegiance forward. There are varying degrees of implementation by our teaching staff.   It is tremendously helpful for me to be learning about curriculum development right now, and I am conducting my own informal analysis of the process in my district. Based on my introduction to curriculum in the 21st century thus far, Heidi Hayes Jacobs stands out for me as a model for improved implementation in our district. The other standout for me is the country of Brazil, which I believe provides an excellent educational model for the type of integrated learning and program structure that we need most desperately and immediately in my district.
        In terms of the scenario in my district, quite frankly it is a complete mess, and we would do well to listen to Heidi Hayes Jacobs when she promotes that curriculum development should begin with assessment, or at the very least, chose one area to focus upon instead of changing everything about a school program all at once. My district is trying to change to a standards performance based curriculum. As Maine teachers we are all required to align our curriculum to state standards, and so we teachers in my district are all following suit. However, along with aligning to state standards our school has adopted a program called RISC, and we are now being required to change everything about our daily school life, including grading, standard operating procedures, as well as our classroom management techniques. I’m surprised they haven’t asked us to recite the school mission statement after the Pledge of Allegiance! Just too much all at once!
         So, as Hayes Jacobs advises, we would greatly benefit from our attempts for implementation of standards aligned, performance based learning if we considered focusing on one area at a time, and to perhaps begin with assessments as this will in turn affect many other elements in curricula.
         The other program of learning that I look upon with interest and desire for replication is that of the educational system in Brazil. Particularly, Brazil’s adoption of a chosen “theme” for each district with which each teacher will align her curriculum. The themes are defined for each district and are generally related to the local socio- economic or environmental concerns for that region. I like how each teacher has a voice for their own unique perspective as well as being part of a unified vision. I think that my district would also benefit from this approach. We are in desperate need for something that will unite us in our transition process. We are experiencing a dangerous state of disconnect with respect to the transition issues from every level including high school to university, varying degrees of staff implementation levels, as well as a major disconnect amongst the policy makers and stake holders.