10High School Curricula

Focus Questions

  1. What are the major developmental concerns of high school–level students?
  2. What are some of the “internal problems” that confront today’s high schools?
  3. What were the reasons behind the development of the comprehensive high school in America?
  4. What recommendations have been made for restructuring high schools?
  5. What are some appropriate curricular goals for high school–level students?

Developmental Challenges of High School–Level Students

High school–level students are beginning to seek some assurance of eventual economic independence from parents and other adults. They sense their new intellectual powers and their need to develop additional cognitive skills. Their dominant motivation most often is to achieve social status within the adolescent community and to meet the expectations of their peers. Often, they feel the tension between two orientations—engaging in behavior approved by adults versus engaging in behavior approved by peers. In this chapter’sCase Study in Curriculum Implementationsection, Hugh Campbell, a high school principal, outlines how teachers at his school developed a curriculum to help students adjust to the transition between the middle school and high school (see “Going the Extra Mile to Smooth the Transition to High School”). According to Erik Erikson, students at this level seek a “sense of identity” and the development of values they can call their own. According to Bennett M. Berger, a well-known sociologist and author ofAn Essay on Culture:Symbolic Structure and Social Structure (1995), adolescence is one of the ways that culture violates nature by insisting that, for an increasing number of years, young persons postpone their claims to the privileges and responsibilities of common citizenship. At this point, you may wish to review the perspectives on human development that have been advanced by Lawrence Kohlberg, Carol Gilligan, and others by turning toChapter3.

The world of today’s high school–level students is dramatically different from the one their parents experienced. Technological changes, a multiplicity of social options and values, the pervasiveness of crime and violence, the media’s intrusiveness and influence, and the blurring of the lines separating adults and children have a tremendous impact on today’s youth. Among other challenges facing high school youth, in “Becoming Citizens of the World,” Vivien Stewartsuggests in this chapter that today’s high school students are not prepared to be citizens of a multiethnic, multicultural, and multilingual world.

Adults may have difficulty comprehending the realities that characterize the lives of many youth today—for example, results from the South Carolina Youth Risk Behavior Survey revealed that 47 percent of adolescent males and 13 percent of adolescent females carried weapons, and large numbers reported fighting; the strongest predictors of weapon carrying and fighting were alcohol and drug use and sexual intercourse (Valois and McKewon, 1998). In this chapter’sLeaders’ Voicesarticle, “A Tale of Two Curriculums,” Mira Reisberg describes an approach to curriculum development that helps students understand and transcend the harsh realities of their lives by creating “heartfelt connections among student’s lives, communities, creative intelligences, bodies, and spirits.”

Curriculum Leadership Strategy

Prior to developing curricula for high school students, conduct a series of focus group interviews with students to identify their psychosocial concerns—what are their goals, aspirations, and dreams? In what ways can high school curricula address these concerns?

The Quest for Self-Identity

As young people move through their high school years, they usually come to attach less importance to the reactions of their peers and more to their quest for a strong self-identity. They tend to move from relying on others to self-reliance; their own sense of what matters, rather than the reactions of peers, guides their actions. Eliot Wigginton, the originator of the Foxfire approach to the high school curriculum, says inSometimes a Shining Moment: The Foxfire Experiencethat the needs of high school students are best met by allowing them “to do things of importance—to do real work of real consequence in the real world” (1985, p. 236). To the extent that they have these experiences they are less likely to see the school curriculum as meaningless and to turn to self-destructive activities such as drug abuse, dropping out, school absenteeism, suicide, teenage pregnancy, vandalism, criminal activity, and cultism. In “A Tale of Two Curriculums” in this chapter, Mira Reisberg explains how she uses place-based pedagogy similar to Wigginton’s Foxfire approach to prepare pre-service teachers to enter the high-stakes testing environment of today’s schools.

Often, though, high school–level students gain their independence and sense of identity only after going through a period of conflict with parents, teachers, and other adults. In far too many instances, they express their defiance and rebellion by turning to the self-destructive activities mentioned above. The challenge for those who plan high school curricula, then, is to provide them with appropriate ways to express their emerging sense of independence or, asCarolyn Mamchur (1990) suggests, opportunities to use their “power” to decide what and how they learn. In “Possible Selves: Identity-Based Motivation and School Success” in this chapter, Daphna Oyserman suggests that schools can assist adolescents in successful exploration of various “school-focused possible selves.”

Challenges to the American High School

In addition to being buffeted by frequent waves of criticism and calls for reform from external sources, high schools in the United States have been coping with a myriad of internal problems during the last few decades. Many high schools are plagued by hostility, violence, despair, alienation, and drug abuse. Their expansive campuses, large enrollments, and bureaucratic organizational structures make matters worse; and students often express underlying negativity toward teachers, administrators, and staff. Some students find their school experiences unenjoyable, if not painful. Minority group students may feel that they receive differential treatment. Typically, students ask for more openness and mutual respect. Neither students themselves nor teachers see students as influential in setting school policies. Many students believe they are not learning as much as they should. The high school typically does not use the rich resources of the community.

In addition, confirmation that high school curricula are not as rigorous as they ought to be comes from the students themselves. One survey of college students for their views on what should be included in the high school curriculum indicated that students wanted more reading, literature and vocabulary, speaking and writing skills, research papers, and computer courses (Sandel, 1991). Instead, Susan Black maintains that many high school students are “disengaged” because they experience only a narrow, skills-based curriculum while at school (see “Engaging the Disengaged Student: Research Shows Why Some Are Immersed in Learning While Others Are Indifferent” in this chapter). In addition, high school students need to learn “real-world skills,” as Patricia Joyce points out in “Learning the Real-World Skills of the 21st Century” in this chapter. Joyce describes the “transitions career education curriculum” that some high schools are using to prepare students to enter the workforce.

Development of the “Comprehensive” High School

To meet the needs of middle adolescents and to catch up with the Soviet Union in the production of engineers and scientists, former Harvard University President James B. Conant and others called for the development of the “comprehensive” high school during the 1950s and 1960s. The comprehensive high school would “provide learning opportunities for all … adolescents within a range from barely educable to the gifted and talented. Its purpose [would be] to enable each pupil (a) to develop to his [sic] greatest potential for his [sic] own success and happiness and (b) to make a maximum contribution to the American society of which he [sic] is a part” (Gilchrist, 1962, p. 32).

Conant recommended that “every pupil who can do so effectively and rewardingly should take a minimum of eighteen academic subjects” (1962, p. 29). This course of study, which Conant estimated 15 to 20 percent of students could complete “with profit,” would include four years of mathematics, four years of one foreign language, three years of science, four years of English, and three years of social studies.

Expectations for the comprehensive high school were high. As the superintendent of University City Public Schools in Missouri wrote in 1962: “America desperately needs the developed abilities of all its youth. Citizens and educators have, in thecomprehensive high school, an exciting and valuable tool to fulfill America’s needs for the future” (Gilchrist, 1962, p. 33).

The comprehensive high school, however, has proven inadequate for the program of education many middle adolescents need. Some observers believe that attempts to develop comprehensive high school curricula that address the needs of all middle adolescents have resulted in curricula that lack coherence. High schools tend to try to teach “too much” to students. As a result, high school curricula focus more oncovering contentthan ondeveloping understanding, as Fred M. Newmann points out in “Can Depth Replace Coverage in the High School Curriculum?” in this chapter.

The Great Debate On High School Reform

The 1980s saw a plethora of reform-oriented reports and books on American education, most of which focused on the high school and called for raising standards, promoting excellence, and rebuilding public confidence in the schools. The 1983 report by the National Commission on Excellence in Education,A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform, launched a great national debate on how to improve high schools in the United States. With alarm, the report claimed that the nation had “been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament” and cited the high rate of illiteracy among seventeen-year-olds and minority youth, a drop in SAT scores, and the need for college and business to offer remedial reading, writing, and computation. In response to the perceived ineffectiveness of America’s schools,A Nation at Riskrecommended raising standards (not clearly defined), requiring “Five New Basics” (four years of English, three years of mathematics, three years of science, three years of social studies, and one-half year of computer science) for graduation, assessing students’ learning more frequently, and lengthening the school day and the school year.

Another widely discussed report wasErnest Boyer’s (1983)High School: A Report on Secondary Education in Americasponsored by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.High Schoolrecommends first and foremost a “core of common learnings” and service-oriented activities for all, more flexibility in scheduling, a program of electives to develop individual interests, the mastery of language, and a single track for academic and vocational students.

Broad, sweeping reform of America’s high schools was also called for inHorace’s Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High SchoolbyTheodore Sizer (1984). Through his analysis of the professional dilemmas encountered by Horace Smith, a hypothetical high school English teacher, Sizer built a case for “revamping the structure” of the high school. He asserted that higher-order thinking skills should form the core of the high school curriculum and they should be learned through students’ confrontations with engaging, challenging problems. Sizer also believed that high schools should have fewer and clearer goals, and should require mastery of subject matter for graduation. Interdisciplinary nongraded curricula were essential, he believed, and instruction should be adapted to students’ diverse learning styles. To put his ideas into practice, Sizer began the Coalition of Essential Schools at Brown University. From a modest beginning with five schools in 1984, the coalition grew to more than one thousand schools and twenty-four regional support centers by the end of the century.

InHorace’s School: Redesigning theAmerican High School (1992), Sizer further described the coalition’s approach to restructuring high schools. A basic premise of the coalition is that top-down, standardized solutions to school problems don’t work and that teachers must play a key role in changing schools. Since no two coalition schools are alike, each is encouraged to develop an approach to restructuring that meets the needs of faculty, students, and community. However, the restructuring efforts of coalition schools are guided by ten common principles, two of which specifically address the content of the educational program:

1.The school should focus on helping young people develop the habit of using their minds well. Schools should not attempt to be comprehensive if such a claim is made at the expense of the school’s central intellectual purpose. Schools should be learner centered, addressing students’ social and emotional development, as well as their academic progress.

2.The school’s academic goal should be simple: that each student master a limited number of essential skills and areas of knowledge. The aphorism “Less Is More” should dominate. Curricular decisions should be guided by student interest, developmentally appropriate practice, and the aim of thorough student mastery and achievement. Students of all ages should have many opportunities to discover and construct meaning from their own experiences. (Coalition of Essential Schools, 1998)

InHorace’s Hope: What Works for the American High School (1996), Sizer describes the lessons he learned from a decade of efforts to reform America’s high schools.

Goals for the Education of High School Students

What goals should be included in educational programs for high school–level students? As we have emphasized throughout this book, curriculum goals should be derived, in large measure, from the three curriculum bases—social forces, theories of human development, and the nature of learning and learning styles. With this perspective in mind, the goals would surely include the following:

  1. Encouraging the development and practice of critical thinking, what the Coalition of Essential Schools has described as “the habit of using [one’s] mind well”
  2. Helping learners begin the process of career development, whether through vocational guidance, vocational education, or additional academic development
  3. Providing learners with experiences that enhance their citizenship skills, sense of responsibility, and understanding of and concern for the world about them
  4. Helping students to become self-directed, lifelong learners
  5. Assisting learners to become self-actualized and secure in their identities
  6. Assisting learners in making the transition to the world of work, to participation in their communities, and to the world of the future

Currently, virtually every state has responded to the recurring calls to reform high schools in America. Teachers are playing a greater role in restructuring and curriculum change. For example, many schools participate in collaborative school reform networks, and through these networks, teachers receive training and resources forfacilitating change in their schools. As the articles in this chapter confirm, more and more educational programs for high school students are being developed in light of the recommendation from the Coalition of Essential Schools that “decisions about the details of the course of study, the use of students’ and teachers’ time and the choice of teaching materials and specific pedagogies must be unreservedly placed in the hands of the principal and staff” (Coalition of Essential Schools, 1998).

Curriculum Leadership Strategy

Explore the possibility of developing a reform-oriented network or coalition of high schools in your area. Create a team of teacher leaders from network schools to focus on curriculum issues that are common to the schools. The team may decide to develop a series of curriculum workshops to be held, on a rotating basis, at each school that has joined the network.

References

  • Berger, Bennett M.An Essay on Culture: Symbolic Structure and Social Structure. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
  • Boyer, Ernest.High School: A Report on Secondary Education in America. New York: Harper and Row, 1983.
  • Coalition of Essential Schools. “Ten Common Principles.” Oakland, CA: Coalition of Essential Schools, 1998.
  • Conant, James B. “The Comprehensive High School.”NEA JournalLI, no. 5 (May 1962): 29–30.
  • Gilchrist, Robert S. “What Is a Comprehensive High School?”NEA JournalLI, no. 8 (November 1962): 32–33.
  • Mamchur, Carolyn. “But … the Curriculum.”Phi Delta Kappan71, no. 5 (April 1990): 634–637.
  • Sandel, Lenore. “What High School Students Need to Know in Preparation for Success in College.”The High School Journal74, no. 3 (February/March 1991): 160–163.
  • Sizer, Theodore R.Horace’s Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984.
  • .Horace’s School: Redesigning the American High School. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992.
  • .Horace’s Hope: What Works for the American High School. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
  • Valois, Robert F., and Robert E. McKewon. “Frequency and Correlates of Fighting and Carrying Weapons Among Public School Adolescents.”American Journal of Health Behavior22, no. 1 (January–February 1998): 8–17.
  • Wigginton, Eliot.Sometimes a Shining Moment: The Foxfire Experience. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, Doubleday, 1985.

Becoming Citizens of the World

VIVIEN STEWART

Abstract

In this article, Stewart discusses what she sees as the preparedness of U.S. high school graduates to be citizens of a multiethnic, multicultural, multilingual world and presents four trends that have contributed to the globalized society: economics and the opening of Asia; changes brought about by science and technology; international health and security matters; and changing demographics due to international migrations. Stewart believes that U.S. schools are not preparing students adequately for the challenges posed by these changes. Changes such as promotion of international knowledge, teacher training in international matters, world language teaching from elementary school through graduation, and innovative use of technology are recommended.