New curriculum for the 2024-2025 school year will implemented in the Communicative Arts, Business, and Information Technology departments, giving students more learning opportunities.
“We have a lot more options than we’ve had in the past, and the fact that we are aligning our courses to the state standards really is going to make our courses more valuable,” Comm. Arts Department Chair Stephenie Conley said.
Academic curriculum in general must be updated periodically, but especially when the state issues new standards. According to the University of Louisiana Monroe, change in the curriculum is needed throughout education.
“With business, it needs to change because times change, and you can’t run a business today like how they did hundreds of years ago,” junior Charli O’Quinn said.“It would be immoral, and would most likely fail.”
Change takes time. The curriculum writing process takes approximately three years – two for writing, one for implementation and revision.
“Our business and technology teachers from both East and West have been working on writing and reviewing curriculum content for the past two years,” Business Department Chair Dawn Danauskas said. “We will finish up most classes this summer and be implementing new course materials next year.“
Students and their families who need more information when looking at their courses can find descriptions for the new classes in the High School Course Registration guide for next school year. The guide is published on the district’s website by clicking on Departments, Curriculum, and then High School Registration Guide.
“When we have selected our new curriculum [for Business], students should be able to access course content through Schoology or from visiting our curriculum partner’s websites,” Danauskas said. “We will be able to explain this better when the final curriculum providers are selected.”
Writing the new curriculum has been a time consuming process, with teachers on the team out of their classrooms at least one day a month. Teachers said they are hopeful that the updated curriculum will be what students need.
“For Comm. Arts, and especially journalism, we are getting two complete pathways – one for Digital Design, and one for Broadcast Journalism,” Conley said. “Modern journalists need to be skilled in different media platforms, and these courses offer students that opportunity. Our new classes include Media Production, Digital Design, and Video Production, all of which align to the new NDE CTE standards.”
The new standards for the Nebraska Career and Technical Education courses in the Communication and Information Systems cluster can be found on the Nebraska Department of Education website, on the CTE State Model Programs of Study page. Courses in journalism, business, and information technology are included.
“It is so nice to be able to discuss business concepts that can relate to what students are seeing,” Danauskas said, “We want to provide our business and technology students with the most current and best practices that are used in the workplace today so they are well prepared beyond their high school years. “
In addition to the CTE courses, forensics, creative writing, and theater classes are also being updated. A goal of the curriculum rewrite is to provide a framework for both new and experienced teachers alike. The curriculum provides a path forward for learning that is easy to follow.
“I think if a sub comes in there is more of an official thing that they can look at. It would be easier for anyone to access that information,” Theater director Joseph Hamik said.