Providing an Equitable Education Through Curriculum Transformation

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to identify criteria within curricula that contribute to providing equitable education and to analyze and evaluate one curriculum based on these criteria. I first describe school-based factors that contribute to the achievement gap, in order to demonstrate the need for curricular change. Then I describe the criteria used to create the curriculum evaluation tool, which addresses four categories: learners and learning, the learning environment, curriculum materials and instructional strategies, and assessment. Finally, I use the evaluation tool to analyze and evaluate a sixth grade language arts curriculum to determine the degree to which the curriculum provides an equitable education.