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Harford school leaders recognize need for collaborative curriculum review process following controversy

After a late-night debate and vote following nearly a month of deliberation and community outrage, Harford Superintendent of Schools Sean Bulson said the system needs a more collaborative process for reviewing course curricula with school board members.

This acknowledgment came around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday after lengthy presentations and discussion led to the board’s approval of updated curricula for AP African American Studies, Women in Perspective and middle school Social Sciences that were introduced last month.

Roughly a week before the June vote on the curricula, board members were granted access to Canvas — a learning management software that granted them full access to the curricula.

Access has been a point of contention for board members with some believing it is a dereliction of duty for them to approve curricula without being able to fully access it. The concerns prompted the school system to grant them access to the course updates before the June board meeting, according to board President Aaron Poynton.

When education specialists went before the board in June, the curricula updates were closely scrutinized by some board members who found the courses to be divisive, negative and unbalanced based on outlines they found through Canvas.

AP African American Studies was voted down, 5-4, and could have been eliminated from schools entirely. Women in Perspective was tabled because the curriculum was not complete and Social Sciences was also voted down, 5-4 — putting the school system at risk of losing state funding for being out of compliance with state regulations.

The decisions sparked outrage with the Harford County Teachers Association and other education unions, who sent a joint letter to the board stating their “disappointment” in the votes.

After the June meeting, board members, curriculum writers and other school officials worked to address the nearly 77 issues outlined during the June meeting — half of which turned out to be concerns that had been raised in the past.

In his remarks Monday night, Bulson stated that board members were briefed on how to view the new curriculum in Canvas, which he called “challenging” to use, and that even with direction, board members managed to raise concerns over the old curricula.

“Forty concern items came in about wrong information,” Bulson said.

Poynton previously stated in an interview with The Aegis that the confusion stemmed from the “hasty rollout” of Canvas.

“Board members thought they were viewing a new curriculum, but it was in fact a hybrid of old and new curriculum, so some of the curriculum that I viewed [and] that I had issues with was actually in the old curriculum,” Poynton said. “No one had told me that and no one could have known that so I will chalk that up as a learning experience for the staff.”

In previous curriculum discussions, board members met one-on-one with writers of the documents to discuss the proposed updates, Bulson said. While that process could be cumbersome, he said, it was the most thorough way for board members to view the correct information with the necessary context.

“Our process for decades has been to do it with someone from the curriculum team to walk you through it, so you know what you’re looking at,” Bulson said. “It is not an effort to hide something, it’s not an effort to not be transparent — it is an effort to ensure we are looking at the right things and answering questions in context.”

During a presentation Monday night, Supervisor of Social Sciences Erin Lange was joined by curriculum writers, teachers and students to provide insight into how the courses are taught and received by students.

The AP African American Studies and sixth and seventh grade Social Sciences curricula were passed with minor changes ranging from added resources to additional assignments and perspectives to give the units balance.

The curriculum for Women in Perspective also was approved Monday night, granting it regular status as a Social Science course and not a Reading English Language Arts course.

Board member Terri Kocher raised concerns about viewing curricula updates before the board voted. Lange informed her that all of the proposed changes to the curricula will be implemented and that board members are not authorized to have a “live view” of the updates until after the curricula are finalized.

Due to confidential information housed in Canvas regarding student records and performance, “full access” — which would be needed to view live curriculum updates — is authorized only for curriculum writers.

Bulson assured board members Monday night that the proposed curricula changes and updates will be added to Canvas as they were presented.

The school system’s manager of communications stated that Bulson, Poynton and the executive director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, Heather Kutcher, met Thursday to continue conversations regarding the collaborative process.

“We do value the perspective the board has taken and the focus on the curriculum,” Bulson said. “We are trying to produce curriculum and trying to put it in a format that makes it possible for the board to see, but it’s not ideal right now and not something we have done before, but we will continue to learn.”