The Staircase Curriculum: Whole-school Collaboration to Improve Literacy Achievement

The Staircase Curriculum: Whole-school Collaboration to Improve Literacy Achievement

Wiest, Stefani

CO – Collaboration Strategies, CA – Assessment Strategies

Au, K. H., & Raphael, T. E. (2011). The staircase curriculum: Whole-school collaboration to

         improve literacy achievement. New England Reading Association Journal, 46(2), 1-8.

Summary: This article focuses on an approach to whole-school improvement in literacy called the Standards Based Change (SBC) Process or staircase curriculum. The idea encourages teachers to visualize the curriculum as a staircase across grades and to collaborate at all grade levels. In this approach, not only do teachers collaborate with other teachers, but students collaborate with other students across grades. The article surmises that this approach enables teachers at each grade level to build on what students learned in the grades below, as well as to prepare students for what is to come in the grades above. In traditional curriculum models, teachers typically work only within their own grade, and there can be gaps and inconsistencies in the curriculum as students move to the next level of learning. These inconsistencies can often negatively affect the progress of students who have difficulty in literacy learning. With the staircase learning model there is an additional layer of teaching and assessment that prevent some students to fall through the cracks as they move through grade levels. Students will be better prepared when they advance to the next grade.  

Evaluation: Although this article focuses on student literacy, it could be applied to other common core standards. Students working with other students both younger and older creates an environment where struggling students receive extra help and higher achieving students are challenged. Because the staircase model continues through each grade there is an opportunity to create benchmarks within the school that also adhere to state common core standards. Collaboration within the school could translate into higher student scores on standardized tests. For schools that follow this model, the isolation created within classrooms will be obsolete.