Social Forces and Issues Shaping Curriculum Planning
Preparation
Research the student population and neighborhood demographics of your immediate area such as your county or city and the demographics of your state. Look at the most recent election results, especially for school board and elected state officials, and see what their opinions are about education. Especially note if your area is either aligned with your larger state or differs from your larger state.
Student population description includes age, cultural diversity, family situation, academic achievement levels, and general attitudes toward school. Neighborhood refers to geographic setting, income levels, physical surroundings, and crime or safety challenges. Access demographic information from your district, city, county, or state websites and cite the URLs for this information in your paper.
Scenario
Assume you are leading a team of administrators, parents, students, and teachers to plan curricula that include the grade and subject you have been using to answer your discussion questions. Determine the top five social forces that you want to address. Describe three key issues of each social force, recommend a method to address the issues, and discuss the benefits expected. You can apply your paper to just the one grade and subject or broaden it to a grade range such as K–2, 3–5, middle school, et cetera. Otherwise, you can expand the grade range of your subjects such as elementary science or middle school ELA.
Instructions
Write a 6–8 page paper in which you:
- Describe the demographics of your school district and compare them to the demographics of the county or city in which it resides.
- Compare your local demographics to your state demographics, including recent election results, and note any major education issues that came up during the most recent election.
- Describe the top five social forces that you want to address through curriculum planning.
- Explain why you think these are the top five.
- Explain why you think curriculum planning will help address these social forces.
- Describe three key issues for each social force.
- Recommend a method to address the issue.
- Discuss the benefits expected.
This course requires the use of APA Writing Standards.
The specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is:
- Account for the social force issues in a school’s curriculum planning.