SCHOOLS

Public invited to weigh in on new Salem-Keizer middle school curriculum

Salem middle schoolers haven’t had language arts textbooks since at least the Clinton administration – but that’s expected to change next fall.

District leaders are close to selecting new curricula for middle school language arts and social studies, and members of the public can view the materials at two public events in May.

The events are scheduled for Thursday, May 4, in the Judson Middle School library from 5:30-7 p.m., and Thursday, May 11, in the Walker Middle School library from 5:30-7 p.m.

Both events are open houses with no formal presentation. Anyone can come during the window, view the materials and provide written comments, which will be shared with a district committee tasked with recommending a final curriculum to the Salem-Keizer School Board for adoption.

Without a standard curriculum across the district, middle school teachers devise their own lesson plans and materials designed to teach students a common set of academic standards – things like analyzing how a poem’s structure contributes to its meaning, or describing the spread of monotheistic religions across the world.

That can be challenging for newer teachers, who must develop lessons from scratch and determine how best to adapt them to meet the needs of different students. 

“It takes a big heavy lift off the teacher from all the creation and coming up with it themselves,” said Kari Caulder, a district program associate for language arts who’s involved in the curriculum adoption.

The new curricula will mean classrooms across the district have a standard set of textbooks to draw from, with suggested lesson plans included. Teachers will also have suggestions for modifying lessons to challenge gifted students or support students who are learning English or behind grade level.

“We’re ensuring that every student across the district has access to standards-based, high-quality materials,” said Gwen Bruey-Finck, the district’s director of secondary curriculum and instruction.

Budget challenges have delayed adopting curriculum in district middle schools for years, though there’s been a recent push at the district to adopt standard curriculum for each grade level.

The district last adopted language arts textbooks before 2000, Bruey-Finck said. For social studies, district leaders adopted a new curriculum in 2011, but the district never purchased the materials for every school because the Great Recession meant an era of budget cuts and reductions in school employees.

Last year, the school board approved a budget with more money earmarked for new curriculum. Bruey-Finck said. She expects the language arts and social studies curricula to cost about $2 million each to outfit all district classrooms.

The adoptions come amid a growing push from elected Republicans in Oregon and across the U.S. to make school curriculum and lessons available to parents and enable parents to opt children out of lessons they find objectionable.

Bruey-Finck said she doesn’t expect any of the proposed materials to be controversial with parents. 

She expects parents will find the materials are “really similar to what they experienced when they grew up,” she said, adding that all textbooks under consideration were developed by major publishers with a national audience in mind.

“They are very innocuous in terms of the text and the content that they choose while still trying to make sure they have diverse authorship,” she said.

For language arts, some teachers have been piloting materials from two textbooks under consideration this year. Those are Into Literature, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Study Sync, published by McGraw-Hill.

Caulder said she appreciates that the proposed language arts texts combine classical and contemporary authors.

One eighth grade unit on suspense, for example, includes the work of Edgar Allen Poe alongside Neil Gaiman.

“It’s nice for our students to be able to see that they could become a writer someday,” Caulder said.

The proposed social studies curriculum includes different materials by grade. Sixth graders focus on the western hemisphere, seventh graders on the eastern hemisphere and eighth graders on U.S. history up to the end of Reconstruction, as well as civics.

The proposed books feature primary source documents from opposing viewpoints, so students hear directly from Indigenous people colonized by Europeans, as well as colonizers.

“They’re learning it through different lenses and coming to their own conclusions,” said Urmila Baruah, social studies program associate for the district.

After reviewing feedback from the public and teachers and students piloting the materials, district teachers who teach the relevant subjects will have a chance to vote on a new curriculum. That vote will take place in June at the end of the school year.

Their recommendation goes to a curriculum adoption committee which includes teachers, community members and at least one school board member. 

Bruey-Finck will make a final recommendation to the school board, who then votes on adopting the new curriculum. Bruey-Finck said she expects the board vote to happen in early summer.

Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.

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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.