A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

APPLICATION NO    :    R215E40004 APPLICANT         :    Wisconsin Department of 		       Public Instruction                        125 South Webster Street                        Madison, Wisconsin  53707-7841 CONTACT PERSON 	  :    Ellen Last TELEPHONE      	  :    (608) 267-9265 AWARD TO DATE     :    $198,593 PROJECT PERIOD    :    10/01/94-09/30/97 

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction's Challenging Content Standards (CCS) Project will develop state content standards in English /language arts, foreign languages, history, geography, civics, and the arts. The standards effort will maintain the integrity and unique perspective of each discipline while considering conceptual connections across the disciplines. The standards will be used to revise state curriculum guides, to inform state assessment and other educational efforts, to influence the restructuring of teacher education, and to contribute to classroom inquiry models of professional development.

The three-year plan of operation centers on the activities of a Curriculum Council and four discipline-based Task Forces supported by Project staff. The Curriculum Council, made up of leaders from each discipline, will provide the unifying vision for the project. Task Forces will develop state content standards and incorporate them into revised state curriculum guides published in both print and CD-ROM formats. The Council and Task Forces will communicate their progress and receive feedback through national video teleconferences. In the second year, a national symposium at the Wingspread Conference Center will enable state and national leaders to share perspectives and progress on standards development and implementation.

Expected outcomes include:

1. Publication of guides to curriculum planning applicable both to the discrete priority disciplines and to integrated programs.
2. Guidelines for teacher education programs that emphasize improving the content base in the priority disciplines and developing skills for connecting the disciplines.
3. Networks to support professional development consistent with the standards and with the classroom inquiry model developed by Wisconsin's Connecting the Curriculum Project.

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[Connecting the Curriculum...]

[Curriculum Frameworks in Mathematics...]