Kaplan curriculum

==Links==
* Dr. Spampinato, 
* Mark Roosevelt
==Insights==
The school board is buying a school curriculum from Kaplan to start in the fall of 2006-07 school year.
Kaplan K to 12 is creating curricula for the Pittsburgh Public Schools in grades 7 to 12. 
* The plan is for English grades 9 and 10, and math grades 9 and 10.
* Science, social studies and perhaps world language would be developed and implemented in future years.
The curriculum is to be written in the summer of 2006 and introduced to the teachers on August 23 and 24.
The "Year at a Glance" would be ready, but the details of the curriculum would be rolled out in 6 week increments with benchmark testing every 6 weeks. 
:* There would not be time for parents to see the curriculum before the implementation. 
The Kaplan curriculum will be written to the Pennsylvania State Standards and prepare students for the PSSA.
* ALL students in the district should have the best education possible according to their needs. 
==Worries==
While the Kaplan curriculum may raise the standard of achievement for some students, we are concerned that it may be too basic and actually lower the standard of achievement for others. The Kaplan objectives are too basic. 
:One school which is extremely high achieving does not use them at all in defiance of the district; the other uses them for two days out of the six week period allotted for each unit. The second of these schools is in Missouri, which is considered to have higher state standards than Pennsylvania.
:We have been told that "nothing is stopping" teachers from going beyond these standards. However, we have received no assurances that materials or direction would be provided to teachers whose students have a need to go beyond the standards.
Pennsylvania requires that "specially designed instruction" be provided to gifted students. At this point, we do not understand how this requirement is met by the implementation of a Kaplan curriculum across the board for all students.
===One proposal for CAS===
Some want to defer the implementation of the Kaplan curriculum in CAS for one year, while careful consideration and study can be given to this issue. There would also be time to involve teachers in training for the implementation of a curriculum that would be appropriate for the CAS students who are already scoring well on the PSSA tests. Teachers could also be available to share ideas and to have input into the process. A working task force or committee could be formed, there could be a visioning process, or there could be some other way to work on the issue with reflective consideration. This could be an opportunity to create a true learning community within our schools, consistent with the superintendent's vision.
It should be noted that we are only asking for the same consideration that grades K through 8 are receiving.