Select Curriculum Evaluation Personnel
The first step is to select the personnel who will be responsible
for implementing the various components of the curriculum evaluation process.
These personnel include a responsible administrator, a consultant, task force
members, the physical education staff, and selected community stakeholders.
Usually school district administrators select the responsible administrator and
consultant, who in turn select task force, physical education staff, and
community stakeholder representatives. The qualifications, responsibilities, and
suggested compensation for these individuals is described below.
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Responsible administrator. The
responsible administrator should be a representative from the school district
administration who has direct responsibility for supervising the physical
education program. The person selected must have the responsibility and
authority to implement the curriculum evaluation, as well as access to
resources such as secretarial support. In addition, the responsible
administrator should have the respect of physical educators in the district.
Good public relations skills are essential. The responsible administrator’s
duties include: (a) calling and scheduling meetings; (b) completing the
School District Survey; (c) coauthoring
reports; (d) managing correspondence, financial data, and evaluation data; (e)
securing needed resources from the school district; and (f) serving as a
liaison from the curriculum evaluation personnel to the school district
administration. The school district should consider compensating the
responsible administrator with release time from typical job duties,
reimbursement of expenses incurred as part of the curriculum evaluation, and
secretarial support. In addition, the responsible administrator should be
recognized for her/his efforts by school district administrators.
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External consultant. The consultant
should be a person from outside the school district who has expertise in
curriculum and instruction in the field of physical education. Persons with
such expertise often are employed at a college/university or an intermediate
school district. The person selected as a consultant must have sufficient time
to commit to the project, good public relations skills, the ability to
collaborate with other team members, and the skills needed to guide team
members toward consensus. The consultant’s responsibilities include: (a)
helping to identify task force members, participants from the physical
education staff, and selected stakeholders; (b) identifying the resources
needed to complete the curriculum evaluation project; (c) developing a
timeline for the project; (d) conducting meetings; (e) completing the
Expert Curriculum Evaluation Survey; (f)
writing or coauthoring reports; and (g) conducting informal evaluations of the
progress toward completion of the curriculum evaluation. The consultant should
negotiate a fair financial payment for her/his services with the school
district. The school district should also be responsible for reimbursing
expenses incurred as part of the curriculum evaluation and providing
secretarial support to the project.
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Task force members. The task
force should be comprised of seven members, including the responsible
administrator, the school district’s special education director or designee,
two elementary school physical educators, two secondary school physical
educators, and one parent. (The consultant is not considered to be a task
force member.) In general, task force members should be selected on the basis
of their expertise, commitment to the curriculum evaluation project, and
respect from other members of the community. Other qualifications are listed
below.
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Task Force Member |
Qualifications |
| Responsible administrator |
The responsible administrator should be a
representative from the school district administration who has direct
responsibility for supervising the physical education program. |
| Special education director or designee |
This person should have knowledge of school
district policies and state and federal law related to the education of
students with a disability. |
| Physical education teachers, including two
elementary school teachers and two secondary school teachers |
The physical education teachers selected to
the task force should be representative of the district’s physical
education staff. Consideration should be given to years of teaching
experience, gender, experience teaching students with a disability, and
rapport with and respect of other members of the physical education staff. |
| Parent |
The parent should be active in the school
district and well respected in the community. The parent should have a
child who is a current student or recent alumnus of the district. The
responsible administrator and consultant should avoid selecting a parent
who has an obvious bias toward or against the physical education program. |
Task force responsibilities include:
(a) sharing personal expertise with other members of the task force; (b)
completing the Expert Curriculum Evaluation
Survey within the limits of individual expertise; (c) studying
curriculum documents and reports; (d) meeting to evaluate evidence about the
quality of the physical education curriculum; and (e) helping to communicate
and disseminate information from the task force to constituent groups. School
district staff and faculty members should be given either release time from
their usual duties or a stipend to pay for the extra work involved in the
curriculum evaluation. Food and drink should be provided at task force
meetings. Any expenses incurred by the task force members should be
reimbursed. The school district should recognize task force members for their
service.
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Physical education staff. All
members of the school district’s physical education staff should have the
opportunity to participate in the curriculum evaluation and should be
encouraged to do so. However, in the event that all of the physical education
teachers are not interested in contributing to this process, an effort should
be made to engage at least half of the physical education teachers from each
school building and to obtain a representative sample with respect to factors
such as gender, teaching experience, and teaching assignment (e.g., preschool,
elementary school, middle school, high school, adapted physical education).
The physical education faculty members who participate in the curriculum have
a very important job, but one that requires a limited time commitment.
Specifically, they will: (a) study reports from the consultant and the task
force; (b) complete the Physical Education
Curriculum Survey; and (c) participate in one meeting to determine a
consensus view about strengths and weaknesses of the district’s physical
education curriculum. Often more teachers will opt to participate in this
process if the meeting is held on a scheduled teacher in-service day. An
administrator should be present at the meeting to demonstrate support for the
project as well as interest in the views of the physical education faculty.
Although compensation may not be necessary, the school district should provide
thank-you notes and recognition for service, as well as food and drink at the
meeting.
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Community stakeholders.
Stakeholders are people who are active and visible in the school district and
who are respected in the community. A minimum of 35 community stakeholders
should be invited to participate in the curriculum evaluation process (the
number of stakeholder who accept the invitation may be less than 35). When
selecting community stakeholders, the responsible administrator and consultant
should try to avoid over-representation of people with specific interests in
the physical education program, such as members of parent booster clubs for
sports teams, etc. The responsibilities of the community stakeholders include:
(a) studying a report based upon results of the
Physical Education Curriculum Survey; (b) completing the
Stakeholder Survey; and (c) participating
in one meeting to determine a consensus view about strengths and weaknesses of
the district’s physical education curriculum. The school district should
provide thank-you notes and recognition for service, as well as food and drink
at the meeting.
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