Points of Clarification

Little Bits On Cambridge/Common Core etc.


The district is purchasing the IGCSE level for our schools. You purchase either IGCSE or "O' for all the subjects, not just individual ones. Cambridge and the District decided this would be the one that is tailor made for what we are trying to do in Science, English, Math, and Social Studies combined. As of right now, the state is reviewing or has ‘taken an interest’ in the adoption of the Cambridge curriculum, so that is where we are now.

For World History, it has been decided by Cambridge that the 2011-2012 curriculum (as well as 2012-2013) will be the same as this year’s curriculum. Ian has been teaching what we will teach next year.

COMMON CORE STANDARDS ALERT: The common core standards have been adopted by the State of Arizona for English and Math. ADE is currently working on adopting the science standards. As of right now, there are no plans in place for a review/adoption of the Social Studies common core standards. It does not mean it is not going to happen. However, it has not happened right now, and it might not happen in the foreseeable future.

I am not trying to be any kind of expert here, but whatever I know/hear I will try and share with you as soon as I can.

Cheers Mates

E.Randall

Which Cambridge Social Sciences Courses ?

Dear Colleagues ,

Here are a couple of questions related to figuring out which courses might be offered ...................

On Cambridge’s website it says that schools can offer “ any combination of subjects “ within a curriculum . There is also no reference to how many subjects , or what combination of subjects , must be successfully completed to earn a recognition of compeltion of a Cambridge curriculum program or the earning of any type of diploma . This brings up a few of questions for both the short and long term .

First , who determines ( a state / district / or school ) which , and how many , courses must be completed for recognition of completion of a Cambridge curriculum program and how it relates to a diploma ? Could a district / school determine that it wants to be a humanities school only and just require students to complete fine arts , English / literature / composition , and social sciences courses ? Or a science and technology school only requiring math , science , information technology , etc ?

Second , is it up to a state / district / school to determine the type of social science course(s) that will be taught ? For example , could they make the decision that only sociology was going to be taught ?

Third , with the only social science subjects in all the Cambridge curriculums being history , economics , sociology , psychology , and religious studies , can we assume that electives outside of advanced versions of these ( AP classes ) are gone ? If this is true , I guess in some ways this will make figuring out teaching allocations and scheduling easier .

Regards ,

Doug Rothschild

Which Cambridge Curriculum ?

Dear Colleagues ,

Here is the first of a couple of social science department specific questions to ponder about the upcoming move to the Cambridge system . If any of us go to meetings where these topics get addressed , please return to our blog and post comments about what you find out . So , here you go ...............

There are two Cambridge Secondary Level 2 curriculums for the 9 th and 10 th grade . The IGCSE and the “ O Level “ . Which of these will be implemented in the YUHSD ? While these curriculums generally offer the same categories of social science courses ( history , economics , geography , sociology , psychology , and religion ) , there are differences in course details . For example , the IGCSE history course ( the syllabus that we were looking a week ago ) starts with the early 1800 s . However , the “ O Level " syllabus is titled “ world affairs between 1917 and 1991 “ .

Regards ,

Doug Rothschild