EPP+Proposal+Text

Teaching the Millennials*: 21st Century Skills Modification of the English Language Arts Curriculum

Abstract: The proposed project develops, implements and evaluates a curriculum modification plan at Middletown High School. In response to a district initiative to integrate “21st Century skills into appropriate areas of the curriculum,” the English Language Arts Department will pilot a 21st Century skills curriculum modification module at one grade level. The project will compare the curriculum modification implementation against the theoretical model of 21st Century skills integration derived from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. The project and subsequent evaluation will center on two primary questions: (1) How is the modified curriculum being implemented and (2) What is the fidelity of the implemented curriculum modification to the theoretical framework derived from the Partnership for 21st Century skills? As a member of the English department, the researcher will utilize a participatory action research design to sample the English department through classroom observations, document review, and interviews. The project and evaluation report will inform the revision of the English Language Arts curriculum document to meet district objectives for 21st Century Skills.


 * Millennials: The generation born roughly between the years 1980-2000.

Introduction Developing technologies and globalization continue to redefine the nature of communication. The American education system continually reevaluates its instructional practice to respond to emerging skills necessary for success in the next century. Current discourse centers on a term “21st Century Skills” that is most commonly operationalized by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2006). In response, many schools are developing strategic plans to address these skills. The Appoquinimink school district has begun Phase One of the district’s multi-year, international education plan. One of the elements of the strategic plan is to revise curriculum policy to include 21st Century skills. A complimentary objective calls for the infusion of 21st Century skills into appropriate areas of the curriculum. The English Language Arts department (ELAD) at Middletown High School (MHS) must respond to this development.

Background Middletown High School, the designated EPP site, functions as a part of the Appoquinimink School District, a suburban school district in southern New Castle County, Delaware. The district enrollment stands at more than 8,100 students, with almost 500 students enrolling per year (Appoquinimink School District, District Profile 2007). The district strategic plan is supported and advanced by an “International Education Task Force… working to define the critical skills students will need to be successful global citizens. These 21st Century skills include: essential thinking and reasoning, the ability to work collaboratively, learn new technologies, communicate electronically, and develop a positive work ethic” (Appoquinimink School District, District Profile 2007). The current strategic plan of the district includes 21st Century skills as part of a larger objective to promote high student achievement. District objectives will impact each building within the district differently. The chosen site for the project, Middletown High School, has been the only high school within the district. However, a new high school, Appoquinimink High School, will open in fall 2008. In preparation for the new high school, the English Department at Middletown High School is revising the curriculum document for secondary English Language Arts instruction. This document will impact both high schools when adopted. Classroom teachers at Middletown High School collaborate on the curriculum document, which will be submitted for approval in 2009. This project will develop a theoretical framework aligning the district definition of 21st Century skills, the skills set defined by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills organization, and the content skills delineated in the Delaware state curriculum. The target group for this project will be the high school English department at Middletown High School. The English department consists of a district curriculum supervisor, a district content specialist, a building content supervisor, and 17 classroom teachers. The classroom teacher count considers all levels of English instruction, including honors, college prep, inclusion, and small group (special education) teachers. While the pilot initiative will consider all department stakeholders in the development stage, the implementation stage will occur with only two classroom teachers during the 2008-2009 school year. The curriculum developed will serve secondary students in grades 9-12 at Middletown High School. The desired end result impacts around 1700 students, however the pilot stage of the initiative will address a subset of around 200 students.

Problem Statement District objectives drive building initiatives. Recently, a disconnect between district objectives and building implementation has emerged with the concurrent release of the district strategic plan for 21st Century skills and the rolling out of the new secondary English Language Arts curriculum document. The developing English Language Arts curriculum document does not currently address or incorporate 21st Century skills. The current MHS English Language Arts Curriculum has not yet responded to district objectives for 21st Century skills integration.

Purpose of the Project This project will explore ways in which the ELAD at MHS might incorporate 21st Century skills into the secondary English Language Arts curriculum. This EPP will include action research and development, resulting in a curriculum modification proposal for the English Language Arts Department at Middletown High School. The curriculum initiative will address the 21st Century skills objectives set forth by the district strategic plan at the individual building level. This project will pilot components of the curriculum initiative and evaluate the implementation.

Organizational Improvement Goal The organizational improvement goal is to outline and increase the incorporation of 21st Century skills in the secondary English Language Arts curriculum. By aligning the building implemented curriculum with the district’s strategic plan objectives, this EPP will assist the building in addressing the first goal of the strategic plan to “include exposure to 21st Century skills.”

Key Questions and Tasks This project will focus on the following questions: Development Stage 1. What is the value of 21st Century skills in English Language Arts? What is the theoretical framework derived from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills for an ideal implementation of 21st Century skills in ELA? 2. What are the current and future implementation plans for 21st Century skills at MHS? What partnerships or collaborations will support integration of 21st Century skills? 3. How does the current English Language Arts curriculum address 21st Century skills? What modifications are necessary to integrate 21st Century skills? What resources are necessary to support curriculum modifications and implementation? 4. What are the levels of technology integration proficiency within the ELA department? What support must be provided to staff to support 21st Century skills initiatives?

Implementation Stage 5. How is the modified curriculum module being implemented? a. What barriers exist to implementation? b. What are teachers' perspectives on implementation? c. How do 21st century skills modifications match with ELA curriculum skills achievement?

Evaluation Stage 6. What is the fidelity of the implemented curriculum modifications to the theoretical framework derived from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills? Methodology The first sequence of key questions will drive the development of the theoretical framework and curriculum implemented and evaluated for the latter set of questions. The derived theoretical framework and curriculum will focus on one of the three components of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills framework: Learning and Innovation Skills. The organization site specifies three components of Learning and Innovation Skills: creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, and communication and collaboration. The development stage of the proposed project will reconcile the Partnership for 21st Century Skills framework with developing district policy for 21st Century skills created by the International Education Task Force. The Delaware State Content Standards for English Language Arts will be a guiding document in the process. This stage will also consider and plan for the support system recommended by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills organization: standards, assessment, curriculum and instruction, professional development, and learning environments (Partnership for 21st Century Skills). The second and third set of key questions will be explored through a participatory action research design. The curriculum modification developer will lead the project and participate in the implementation process as a classroom teacher. The data collection procedures will include a combination of methods: observations of real time behavior, interviews with participants, and document review of user documents and the theoretical framework. The mode of comparison for this evaluation will be the developed theoretical framework for the ideal integration of 21st Century skills in the classroom. Finally, the project will seek to determine the fidelity of the actual implementation with to the proposed framework. The methodology comprises a variety of data collection methods and activities to uncover all potential angles and obstacles of the implementation process. Each method and activity was selected to capture a facet of the implementation. The data collection selection process involves developing a rationale, choosing a sample, determining procedures, and then assessing the method and sample for strengths and weaknesses.

Classroom Observations The primary purpose of the evaluation is to determine how the proposed curriculum modification is being implemented in the classroom. The most accurate way to collect data is to observe classroom instruction of teacher participants. Therefore, the main data collection method will include observations of classrooms engaged in implementation. Teacher participants, and the resulting classroom observations, will be selected through a convenience sampling method. The curriculum modification initiative will take place on one grade level within the secondary English Language Arts department. Since the curriculum developer, evaluator, and classroom participant will mutually exclusive, it will be necessary for other participants to be solicited from the same grade level. A uniform grade level sample will help ensure consistency for the curriculum implementation being evaluated. Content differs by grade level, so classroom instruction observations could be confounded if a variety of grade levels were considered in the evaluation. The sampling method’s weakness is also its strength. The weakness of the sampling method to only represent implementation on one grade level undermines generalizability, but this weakness presents itself as a strength when referencing the overall purpose of the curriculum modification initiative: to pilot the revision on one grade level to inform the overall document. Observations will be collected through evaluator’s notes. The evaluator will schedule both announced visits and plan unannounced classroom observations. Classroom artifacts will be collected when appropriate. The evaluator will also record classroom audio when appropriate. The evaluator will use an observation protocol and utilize both thick and thin observations. A template will be developed prior to implementation to ensure consistency of observations across days and times. The strengths and weaknesses of observations can have implications for the project and evaluation. As the most accurate telling of the implementation process, observations of classroom instruction are necessary to answer both the process and outcome question. The real time nature of observations makes the collection method the most authentic reflection of classroom practice available in the implementation environment. However, collection of observations can weaken reliability of results as data is based on the perception of the evaluator. This weakness can be addressed by incorporating an audio component and intermittently checking for inter-rater reliability with an outside evaluator. Recording and coding useful information can also be a difficult task, as meaningfulness might only come out in time and reflection. A developed observation protocol will focus the project and evaluation on the key questions of the project, making results more organized for coding and analysis.

Document Review The second data collection method will involve document review of curricular documents, classroom artifacts and narratives and record logs of classroom activity and resource use. For a full picture of implementation, data collection must go beyond what is seen by the evaluator on the observation days. The evaluator will gauge consistency, rigor, and nature of implementation by consulting documents that are created and maintained by teachers and support staff throughout the implementation. The sampling for document review will remain true to the sampling method employed in the classroom observations. It is important to note that the technology staff will not be sampled, as there is only one technology support specialist within the building. District record logs will be periodically referenced to consider any technology support that is requested at the district level. The district also has only one technology specialist. Participant narratives and record logs will be collected at announced times, and will be reviewed at unannounced times. The evaluator will photo copy record logs throughout the process to maintain the authenticity of the implementation process. Narratives and record logs will be cumulative reports of the implementation process as described by the teacher participant, and as supported by the technology staff. The narratives and record logs will provide a valuable perspective on classroom implementation by detailing resource use, teacher perspectives (narratives), and support requested and given. The logs will give the data over time that cannot be measured in a solitary classroom observation. Also, if patterns emerge within the narratives and logs that are supported by classroom observations, it increases the reliability of the observation notes. The resource logs will also provide insight to classroom artifacts and narratives produced without direct classroom observation by the evaluator. However, the record logs do present weaknesses as a data collection method. Much of the data will be self-reported by participants, which could result in falsified or misinterpreted data. Also, record keeping could lack inter-rater reliability between teachers; therefore, it could present an obstacle to analyzing the overall initiative if incongruence commonly occurs. Interviews Interviews will be the final central method of data collection employed in the project and evaluation. Interviews provide the direct participant voice and feedback in real time that is otherwise lacking from the classroom observations and record logs. The interviews allow for the evaluator to explore the evaluation questions and inform analysis of data from the other methods. The interviews assist in interpretation of observation and document review to yield an accurate descriptive account of the implementation necessary to properly compare the initiative to the theoretical ideal. Sampling for the interviews will include all teacher participants in the initiative. The sampling method will follow the same rationale as the classroom observations, since the interviews will be an extension, supplement, explanation or clarification of these observations. Therefore, the interviews will utilize a convenience sample based on teacher’s schedules (grade level instruction considered). Structured and unstructured interviews will be conducted with participants. Structured interviews will be scheduled throughout the implementation process at designated checkpoints to receive specific formative feedback on the initiative. Unstructured or informal interviews will occur as the need emerges throughout the process. The unstructured nature will be necessary to portray the more spontaneous elements of the implementation that are necessary to ensure a realistic description of the project. The use of interviews presents strengths and weaknesses when analyzing the process and outcome of the initiatives. The use of structured interviews will provide a certain degree of common discourse by discussing the sequential development of the initiative at defined times. However, the structured interviews could be planned at times that become ineffective or impractical as the dynamic implementation evolves. It will be necessary to remind the participants that the structured interview schedule is set, but allow for the evaluator to revise questions for relevancy in the current instance to preserve meaningfulness and usefulness of planned interviews. The unstructured interviews may provide a more authentic type of feedback than the structured interview. However, there is a threat that the participants will use unstructured interviews to vent about obstacles or disappointments. It is important to note that the strength of the unstructured interview depends on the moderation that will direct the questioning so that it is an effective use of time. However, overuse of underdeveloped unstructured interviews could yield low quality results or breed participant resentment. It is important in both cases of interviews to communicate effectively with the participants. They must be aware of the expectations, and the evaluator must respect participant’s time and effort during the process. Failure of either stakeholder to participate in the interview process effectively could impact the quality of data collected and the interpretations of the entire evaluation.

Data Analysis and Procedures Analyzing the collected data will take a two-prong approach. However, both collection procedures will be anchored in qualitative methods. The process question will include “descriptions of the program in operation” (Weiss, 1997, p. 272) ranging from classroom observations and review of teacher documentation of the initiative. The analysis strategy in constructing meaning for the data will rely on a descriptive approach that seeks to understand the nature of the implementation and its implications. The description will then be referenced as necessary when analyzing data for the outcome question. The outcome question will be based on a comparative approach to data analysis. The collected data will be primarily qualitative, and it will be coded to reveal patterns and key themes in the curriculum modification implementation. The data analysis for the outcome question draws directly from Weiss, “the descriptive data about the program… are compared to the blueprints of the program designers. The answers can indicate the way in which the program diverged and perhaps why is diverged from the original plan” (Weiss, 1997, p. 274). As seen in the activity timeline, researched best practices and emerging theory will inform the development of an ideal implementation framework. The curriculum modification initiative will attempt to integrate this structure with the traditional curriculum document. The project and evaluation will seek to determine the fidelity of the embedded modification to the independent theoretical framework derived from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

Evaluation Overview and Procedures Throughout the project, the researcher will evaluate the curriculum implementation process and the outcomes of the pilot initiative to inform curriculum revision. The development of evaluation questions and selection of methodology follows the purpose of the evaluation.

Process Question: • How is the modified curriculum module being implemented? 1. What barriers exist to implementation? 2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the modified curriculum according to teacher’s perspectives?

Outcome Question: • What is the fidelity of the implemented curriculum modifications to the theoretical 21st Century framework?

The strengths of the evaluation questions include the attention to process and outcomes when assessing the initiative. Also, another strength of the questions is the clearly outlined method of data collection based on the design matrix. The attention to utilize a mixed methods approach allows for greater differentiation in data collection methods to anticipate possible information or occurrences emerging throughout the implementation process. However, the project cannot possibly anticipate all challenges that can emerge in a public school environment. The dynamic nature of human beings and human relationships fuel a sometimes sensitive environment that will have to be navigated by the researcher, who is also a participant. It is crucial to maintain objectivity as a researcher despite participation within the project. A weakness of the proposed project design could be the theoretical framework that is used as a basis for comparison. In essence, the theoretical framework will stand as a static shadow of the field during its development. It will not live and breathe with emerging discoveries and theory. This weakness could impact the evaluation’s ability to provide an answer to the question, as the flowing living curriculum will be compared to a still sedative theoretical framework. While the researcher will be able to answer key questions, it may not be in the way that is expected at the onset of the project. However, the discrepancies that surface during the project development and implementation will serve the overall purpose, informing the review and revision of the ultimate curriculum document, in the end.

Dissemination Plan The results from the project and evaluation will inform the review and revision of the secondary English Language Arts curriculum document. The modification purpose will focus on integration of “appropriate 21st Century skills” into the current document. The project and evaluation report will be made available to administration and teachers, while parents and students will be informed as the need arises. The level of need for parents and students will involve consideration by teachers and administration prior to dissemination. Independent dissemination will be at the discretion of the evaluator, as one of the main components, the theoretical framework derived from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, will be independent work based on content concepts and 21st Century skills best practices. The curriculum revision will follow this model, therefore the framework and developed materials should be considered separate from the modification that follows the model. The theoretical framework and resources will remain the property of the creator, while the curriculum modifications informed by the work will be considered a part of the curriculum document. It is important to note the separation between the theoretical framework and associated materials and the document revision that results from its application.

Charted Dissemination Plan for Evaluation Report

Stakeholder

Implementation Involvement

Initiative Impact Dissemination Plan

Administration Administration will serve as liaisons between district and the building. Administration will ultimately have the responsibility of overseeing the implementation in regards to responding to emerging problems per the chain of command outlined within the building.

Administration will be informed with monthly reports of the initiative. Administrators will receive a copy of the final evaluation report.

Teachers

Some teachers will be engaged in the implementation. Curriculum modification initiative will impact teacher classroom practice. Teachers will be informed with monthly reports of the initiative. The final evaluation report will be made available upon request.

Parents Parents will have students enrolled in classes implementing the initiative. Parents will need to support independent practice or experiences created by the initiative on a variety of levels (hardware, software, access, trouble shooting).

Parents will not receive a report from the evaluation. Feedback on initiative may be solicited if time permits. However, parents will be informed of the implementation initiative throughout the process through the use of a classroom newsletter or email listserv.

Students Students will be scheduled into classes implementing the initiative.

Classroom instruction will be modified to consider the initiative. Expectations for the course may change in some regards, and student participation will drive much of the initiative. Formative and summative feedback from students may also be considered.

Students will not receive a report of the evaluation. Students as participants may be informed of results of the evaluation if time permits at the end (depending on school calendar, feasibility to distribute, and relevance of time reporting to students).

Evaluator Evaluator will be a participating teacher in the curriculum implementation process.

Evaluator’s primary occupation, classroom instruction, will be driven by this initiative. Evaluator retains dissemination rights to theoretical framework and generalized results. Evaluator may publish with limited confidentiality given to participants.

Plan for Organization of EPP Report Development of Framework and Curriculum Modification Planning The project will begin with the development of the theoretical framework based on the literature review and researched best practices for technology integration in the English classroom and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Once the framework has been established, the researcher will mine data on technology use and proficiency through the Levels of Technology Integration (LOTI) survey completed by the English Department at the conclusion of the 2007-2008 school year. The researcher will then meet with the English department chair and grade level team leaders to begin the curriculum review process. The researcher will propose 21st Century skill modifications based on the feedback from stakeholders and the theoretical framework. Once decisions have been made on curriculum direction, the researcher will create the guiding documents and supporting materials for the pilot module. The literature review and framework will constitute the first chapter of the Executive Position Paper, while the curriculum modification process will stand as the second chapter.

Implementation Process Product development will be followed by an implementation phase. A two member team at one grade level at Middletown High School will implement the pilot module. The implementation process will be documented and described in the third chapter of the Executive Position Paper. Plans for data collection and analysis have been detailed in the methodology.

Implementation Evaluation The success of the initiative will be measured through a process and outcome evaluations. The object of the project will be the fidelity of the implemented curriculum to the theoretical framework proposed at the onset of the project. The evaluation process and report will frame the fourth chapter of the EPP.

Organizational Implications and Recommendations for Future Implementation The fifth and final chapter of the EPP will include the results of the project. The organizational improvement goal and theoretical framework will be the primary references in the discussion. This project will also yield information about the organizational aspects of its key topics: technology, 21st Century skills, and curriculum modification. Based on the success of the initiative and the findings reported, recommendations will be made for the modification of the English Language Arts curriculum document to include 21st Century skills at all grade levels within in the building.