College & Workforce Readiness

Reading Roundup: Flipping the Order of Science Courses

By Catherine Gewertz — December 30, 2010 1 min read
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We leave you until the New Year with some interesting tidbits to read in the curriculum world.

• Once again, teachers are experimenting with putting physics before chemistry and biology. (This idea has been around a while, and started to get a bit of traction, though it has created a backlash in some spots where it’s been tried.)

• Special education works to figure out how to meld the idea of individualized education plans with the expectations articulated for all students in the new common standards.

• The research world continues to try to get its arms around the noncognitive factors that contribute to high school and college success.

• A troublesome glitch in the common application to colleges throws a monkey wrench into an already stressful season for high school seniors.

• A teacher asks some interesting questions about whether “AP For All” is a sound strategy.

• A teacher-turned-blogger provokes some reflection about the findings of the big Gates Foundation study on teaching.

Thank you for reading and commenting on Curriculum Matters in 2010. Please stay with us as we dig into another year of intriguing issues in 2011.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Curriculum Matters blog.