Pros
• Need to know what needs to be
taught – guidelines
• Practical – provides a framework from
which teachers can work
• Agreement on broad common
principles
• Provides for equality of educational
opportunity assess to knowledge for all
students
• Goal is to ensure vocational and
economic success for individual and
nation
• Easier to transfer between schools
• Less expensive
• Fill political agendas
• Less teacher education with the
teacher as a facilitator
• Curriculum focus on basic skills
• Teach to the test
• Focuses on observable behaviors,
artifacts, and objective results
• Easy to assess
• Claims to be the whole curriculum –
research based
Cons
• Not every school is the same
• Student achievement based solely on
external tests
• Focus on product instead of process (lack
of critical thinking, problem solving)
• Focus on societal needs as compared to
individual
• Focus on goal or objective without critical
conversation as to a relevant authentic
purpose
• Less professional freedom and judgment,
teacher autonomy, teacher as a
technocrat
• More competitive on an individual basis –
no collaborative effort
• Values are excluded subject orientation
• Doesn’t realize the complexity of
curriculum development
• Lose teachable moments
• Lack of democratic value without a
democratic process
• Standards are written and enforced by
non-educators
• Lose student teacher interaction
• Focuses on observable behaviors, artifacts,
and objective results
• Leads to testing lower level knowledge,
comprehension, and memory emphasis
• Lack of creativity
• Lose student autonomy
• Imposed ideologies
• False sense of democracy
• Lose community support
• Narrow scope
• Ignores the process of curriculum
development
• Usually has a subject matter focus rather
than personalize for each student
Strategies
CHARTER SCHOOLS
• Charter schools are an alternative form of
government-run school. They can be
established by parents, local governments,
or private organizations such as businesses
and nonprofits. Anyone who wishes to start
a charter school must apply to an
authorized chartering entity for a charter—
a document that authorizes a school to
operate under a specific contract for a
certain period of time and establishes the
school’s responsibilities and purpose.
• After receiving approval, charter schools
are freed from many government
regulations and may adopt their own
curriculum, operating processes, and
pedagogy.
INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS
• Independent schools, which are
established by associations, parents or
individuals, operate independent of direct
government control. Independent school
administrators manage their schools
according to a diverse array of
pedagogical, philosophical, and religious
persuasions. They may create curricula,
hire teachers, and operate in manners
consistent with their core values
HOME SCHOOLS
• In home schools, parents themselves keep
full authority over their children’s
education. Parents may choose to
develop their own curriculum, purchase a
pre-designed program, or send their
children to a variety of classes at
government-run schools, independent
schools, community colleges, and a
variety of cooperative learning programs.