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County Curriculum Consortiums:



          Supporting Instructional Leadership

          Through Collaborative Partnerships



          By Dr. Jeff White, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Prospect Park

          School District













































          Several years ago, when the          the then New Jersey Core Curriculum   schools, and districts. The benefits

          Assistant Superintendent             Content Standards.                   of such collaborative partnerships
                                                                                    are well established in the literature.
          of Schools, in my former             Fast forward to the present, and district-   According to Friend & Cook (2012),
                                               wide curriculum committees are still
          school district, selected            needed and essential to ensure cur-  educational collaboration is seen as
                                                                                    essential to educator effectiveness and
          me to be on a district-wide          riculum alignment with changing state   as a characteristic of successful school
                                               standards and national curriculum
          Social Studies Curriculum            models. While district-wide curriculum   districts, especially since much of it
                                                                                    concerns comparing and developing
          Committee, I was not too             committees are commonplace across    curriculum and assessments and has a
                                               the state of New Jersey, county cur-
                                               riculum consortiums are emerging     direct effect on student achievement.
          thrilled. I felt that this committee
          was just “more work” for an already   throughout the state as well and are   Tschannen-Moran, Uline, Hoy, and
          overburdened teacher. In hindsight, I   becoming just as vital and beneficial    Mackley (2000) similarly postulate that
          now understand why she placed me on   to school districts.                educational collaboration provides
          the committee to conduct vertical and   County curriculum consortiums increase   both teachers and administrators
          horizontal articulation with my content   opportunities for school and district   with the ability to engage in not only
          area colleagues in Grades K-12 and to   level leadership to form partnerships   their own constructive metacognitive
          ensure curriculum alignment based on   across grade levels, content areas,   process, but also increased intellectual
                                            Educational Viewpoints       -35-       Spring 2018
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