Hopewell Valley Central High School chemistry teacher Nick Johnson and Timberlane Middle School Math teacher Jessica Nucera work over the summer on revising and rewriting curriculum for their respective subjects.
Some Hopewell Valley Regional School District teachers are spending part of their summer revising the curriculum to prepare students for standardized testing.
New state and national standards, called Common Core Standards, require modifications to curriculum. Common Core Standards, which have been adopted by more than 40 states, will be the foundation for the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers tests which are scheduled for 2014.
PARCC tests will replace NJASK tests.
In addition, district policy dictates that curriculum in every subject be revised periodically.
Roughly 40 teachers are writing curriculum, the blueprint of what will be taught in individual courses.
Hopewell Valley Central High School chemistry teacher Nick Johnson and Timberlane Middle School math teacher Jessica Nucera were among the teachers writing curriculum this summer. Johnson is reworking the Advanced Placement chemistry curriculum, which he has taught at CHS for three years, while Mrs. Nucera is writing curriculum for Math 6 and the new Honors Pre-Algebra course.
Johnson said the AP chemistry revision is prompted by the College Board, which administers the Advanced Placement test that students take at the end of the year for college credit. The College Board is revising the test to focus on fewer concepts but with more depth.
Nucera said Math 6 students will have new textbooks this year along, the curriculum is revised to reflect the book. The new honors Pre-Algebra curriculum for sixth graders is written to be more advanced than standard pre-algebra. She is working on the curriculum with fellow teacher Tammy Pegrem.
Office of Curriculum and Instruction Director Christine Laquidara said curriculum revision is key to keeping up with the new standards now being put in place across the country. The district is building a process in which curricula is created and housed electronically to make sharing and revising easier.
Laquidara said curriculum is not solely written for standardized testing.
“The idea is that the purpose of education is not just what students learn for an end-of-year course exam, but that they can use it beyond the classroom and over their lifetime,” Laquidara said in a statement.
