Oliva 3 Summary

In Oliva 3, the chapter discussed generally who was in charge of curriculum building, implementation, and a discussion on the power struggles that influenced curriculum in general. It talked about how there are five levels of groups responsible for the planning; classroom, team/grade/department, individual school, school district, and state. Then further developed how it worked, and that a hierarchy isn't the best representation of who is in power because the groups all interacted with each other differently, and that is can be misleading to think that the classroom is lower than the State field. In the end it summarized it best; "Curriculum development is perceived as a multilevel, multisector process, and as a collaborative effort."
As for practical strategies or applications there wasn't a guide for these things here. This chapter was building on the idea that there is a system in place for curriculum planning that as teacher we should be aware of. As future educators we have to have a basic understanding of how it works. There are many different influences of school curriculum; from unions, and private sectors, to our legislations in the Federal government. Curriculum in our years will not only be influenced by State and Federal
One of the largest influences in modern planning and curriculum development revolve around NCLB, and the state standards and assessments placed upon public education. These standards are not untouched by private schools as private still align with state standards, if not go beyond what it required by law. In public education, Oliva states "Achievement tests profoundly affect what is being taught and how it is being taught." This isn't that big of a surprise when it's the way the federal government measures success, which leads to incentives and consequences on schools. Let's drop this topic for now however since it can get more complicated than a paragraph