Curriculum Quality Standards for School-to-Work: A Guidebook
While other fields at the secondary level have rapidly embraced national curriculum standards and goals, school-to-work programs continue to vary widely in content, scope, and methodology across the nation. At present, the notion of establishing “national standards” in this content area has focused largely on developing industry skill standards.
Yet, in today’s changing world of work, critical evaluation of curriculum is a helpful step toward realizing national goals for education (such as those outlined in Goals 2000) and in fulfilling the vision of new and emerging vocationalism (e.g., Tech Prep, youth apprenticeship, and career academies). Standards for curriculum and instructional products, encompassing appropriate student outcomes and highly effective instruction, would establish important benchmarks for products used by schools and postsecondary institutions in implementing school-to-work initiatives.
The NCPQ
The National Consortium for Product Quality (NCPQ) is a project
funded by the National Center for Research in Vocational
Education and directed by the Center on Education and Work,
University of Wisconsin-Madison. The NCPQ has been established to
accomplish a twofold mission: (1) to develop, research, and
implement school-to-work instructional material standards and (2)
to develop a national review process by which voluntarily
submitted materials can be reviewed, evaluated, and nationally
disseminated.
Using information from curriculum practitioners nationwide, the
NCPQ Curriculum Quality Standards for School to Work guidebook
before you is designed to assist practitioners in examining
curriculum products, adapting materials, or creating original
curriculum. Through research and technical assistance, the NCPQ
strives to improve curriculum design and practice. By discussing
the focus areas of the Standards, and by documenting good
examples that are currently in practice, we hope to provide a
richer foundation for your efforts to integrate curriculum
design, content, and use. Successful implementation, and
subsequent meaningfulness to the learner, are essential
components in the process of curriculum development and
evaluation. Bearing this fact in mind, we intend this guidebook
to present a connected or integrated approach regarding
curriculum development and curriculum evaluation.
NCPQ Services
The NCPQ provides research-based evaluation and technical
assistance for local, state, and national developers of
curriculum and instructional materials. Its members assist in
curriculum networking, identifying curriculum search sources, and
reviewing submitted curriculum or printed instructional material.
The NCPQ Standards and Indicators provide developers with an
essential tool for evaluating both new and existing materials for
content, instructional strategies, assessment, and equity and
diversity considerations. When curriculum developers submit
materials to the NCPQ for formal review, they are assured of a
high-quality third-party review and evaluation of materials. The
submitted materials may also have the opportunity to progress to
a national review, receive awards, and gain valuable exposure via
inservice, curriculum networks and organizations, and NCPQ
Product Profiles and newsletters.
The NCPQ was formed to serve the education field by advancing
curriculum design and practice through meaningful research and
technical assistance. National use of the NCPQ Standards, and the
opportunity to apply these standards to a host of instructional
materials, will help create a positive interface of curriculum
design, content, and program use. In the end, that successful
interface is critically important to the ultimate beneficiaries
of our work: our students.
Dougherty, B., & Ellibee, M. (1997, February). Curriculum quality standards for School-to-Work: A guidebook. Berkeley, CA: National Center for Research in Vocational Education.