Stakeholders and Curricular Decision Making

Parents, Schools, and Communities

Parents can be  valuable influences on the curriculum adopted at the local level. The Board of Education adopts the curriculum, but the parents are the taxpayers in the district, so they have a vested interest in the way their children are taught.  This input can be made through contacting individual teachers and/or the administration to shape their children’s educations.

Special Interest Groups

Special interest groups advocate for particular policies and focus in education. These groups can be comprised of people from a specific culture, ethnicity, or religious group and may lobby for changes in education through a political lens based on their political party affiliation.

State Legislatures

Public schools are funded by taxpayer dollars and governed by their respective states and departments of education. State legislators tend to focus on what best meets the needs of all students. State legislatures play a vital role in education because they set the state budget for education and pass laws pertaining to the educational system statewide. Some policies are influenced by state legislators and the state’s department of education.

Schools

The school’s influence revolves around both the philosophical picture of what schools should accomplish and the practical picture of what to do with the students today. Colleges often share their expectations for incoming students so that K-12 teachers can make the students college or career ready.

Textbooks and Testing Companies

The states that represent the greatest possible business for the publishers can have tremendous influence over the content of the books. California and Texas, for example, account for approximately 20 percent of the textbook market.

Standards: The Next Generation

The New York State Board of Regents revised the ELA and Mathematics Learning Standards in 2017. The ELA and Mathematics standards were revised to ensure that New York State has well-crafted standards for our students (NYSED, 2017). This is the most recent iteration of the information that any teacher and student in New York State will be held accountable for. Creation of good objectives that allow for achievement of both cognitive and affective goals will assist us in meeting these standards.

Read about the standards on the NYSED website.