Part IV Chapter 1:
Background

Bloomington High School offers a comprehensive curriculum aligned with the Illinois State Standards.   The curriculum has been designed to create student opportunities in a broad range of academic areas.  Classes are offered in each of the fundamental learning areas of English, Math, Science, Social Science and Health/PE that build on prerequisite knowledge and form a foundation for student success.  In addition, electives are offered in Foreign Language; Business and Applied Technology; Family and Consumer Science; and Fine Arts. 

The following research-based guidelines are used in developing high-quality curriculum:

• The structure of the curriculum is such that it allows students and teachers to study in greater depth some of the most important topics and skills. Focusing in depth on a smaller number of skills and concepts will lead to greater understanding and retention and will support efforts to teach problem-solving and critical thinking.
   

• The structure of the curriculum is such that it calls on students to use various learning strategies to solve problems.  This also calls on teachers to use various teaching strategies to provide a variety of learning opportunities for students.
   

• The structure and delivery of the curriculum is such that all students have the opportunity to acquire both the essential skills and knowledge of the subjects. There is a difference between inert and generative knowledge.  For example, if they learn where the capital of Illinois is that is inert knowledge.  If they learn where the capital is a use that knowledge to write a letter to the governor about state funding for schools, that is generative knowledge.
   

• The structure of the curriculum is such that it responds to students’ individual differences. The curriculum should be varied in modes of representation. (auditory, visual, kinesthetic, etc…)
   

• The curriculum is organized to provide multi-year sequential study, not just “stand-alone” courses.
   

• Both the academic and the practical are emphasized in the curriculum  This linking of academic and applied knowledge offers students “experience: the application of understanding.”

The curriculum is only a means to an end: high-quality learning for all students.

The curriculum for Bloomington High School is developed at the local school level in consultation with district-based curricular task forces.  This ensures vertical articulation of curriculum.  The curriculum is identified in a series of documents called the Essential Learner Outcomes (ELO) with a Course Outline and Course Syllabus for each course within each department.   These are locally written and link to the required Illinois Learning Standards.  The curriculum is formally reviewed on a cycle.  The textbook adoption cycle, described below, provides a regular means to review and revise (if necessary) our goals, targets, and assessments. 

At the high school level, the development and maintenance of the essential learner outcomes  (ELO’s) and assessments is done at the departmental level.  Each course is reviewed in a five-year rotation that ties into the textbook adoption process.  The year before a course is up for adoption, the department will review it’s ELO’s and Illinois Learning Standards to revise or confirm the ELO’s.  The revised curriculum is then submitted to the Associate Principal, then to the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum before the textbook selection process is presented to the Board of Education for approval. 

See additional information about specific courses offered in each department, prerequisites, sequencing, and grading in the Course Description Guide. (http://www.bhs87.org/curriculum.htm)

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Last Updated on August 06, 2004

Bloomington High School, Bloomington, Illinois  61701