Cross Case Features: Context

Wadsworth Middle School: Admin Support Context

Seminar Leader Rebecca Armstrong’s former position as curriculum director of the Wadsworth School District was instrumental in bringing a group of teachers together to revamp the curriculum with a new semester-long emphasis on Asia at the seventh-grade level. When the seventh-grade Humanities team introduced the NCTA-inspired Asian curriculum at Wadsworth Middle School about four years ago, they replaced a curriculum that had included a limited amount of Asian studies. As a result of the pre-existing attention to Asian studies, the NCTA-inspired Asian curriculum did not displace any other topical area. The Wadsworth Middle School principal has been very supportive of the seventh-grade Humanities team’s curriculum design work and their team approach.

The district curriculum coordinator sees the state learning requirements as the primary driver for including Asian studies in the seventh-grade curriculum. Compared to all the curricula in social studies in the district, she says that Asian studies is the most thoroughly developed. The curriculum director notes some concerns expressed by parents at Wadsworth about the amount of work required of students in Asian studies. Taking into consideration the demands of their other subjects, these parents feel that the curriculum poses too great a challenge for students.